Tag: technology

SAAD

I created this project, in collaboration with PhD Hadi Mehrpouya, as the final piece of my master thesis.

Please have a look at our WEBSITE to have more informations about the project.
 
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Abstract
Everyday we get bombarded with data and information from all over the world. Often we feel helpless about our abilities to do things while being trapped in the dilemma of knowing the consequences of our consumptions and choices. Playing on these feelings, SAAD, from Afrikaans meaning Seed, is visualising human deaths as a direct and indirect result of the mining industry and conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), used to build smart-phones and computers. The project is constructed on different layers which all recall the idea of being on the edge, the border between life and death, and emphasise the complexity of nothing being either totally positive or negative. SAAD is composed of two complementary installations: a seed dispenser and a plant, visualising deaths due to the mining industry in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It aims to push the reflexion of the responsibility Western consumer users of smartphones and computers have towards these workers. It plays on the feeling of being helpless towards the different issues our societies are facing. The project is constructed on different layers which all recall the idea of being on the edge, the border between life and death, and emphasise the complexity of nothing being either totally positive or negative. It aims to symbolise the complexity of today’s world and the difficulty to position the self and the ethic in it. We choose to focus on the partial perspective we have of our electronic devices nowadays, as it is something most Europeans possessed and use everyday without questioning the impact it can have on other human beings and the natural environment.
 

Dissertation

It has been more than a month that I finished my dissertation. But better later than never…

Here is the abstract and you can click on the cover bellow to access it.

Screen Shot 2015-09-11 at 15.18.23By obfuscating what western human being take for granted, such as the knowledge offered to us by maps, clocks, or more recently electronic de- vices, my research aims to reveal how technology fails to give us the ‘god’s eye view’ that it promises. This dissertation presents three of my projects: MyMap, Circadian Clock and SAAD, which encourage people to reflect on how we might overcome the challenges that modern technology puts in front of us, in order to reconnect with others and nature.
This dissertation explores the concept of borders; physical, symbolic, invis- ible or psychological, which I would argue are partly responsible for ‘dim- ming’ our perspective of the world. The research and projects, allowed me to develop the concept of ‘Design Geography’, which I define as the prac- tice to mediate the value of human interaction with others and the natural environment, using design processes.

 

Looking @ ‘to be disconnected’

On my last post about the different topic I was looking I developed the one on borders.

Since few days I was looking at ‘to be disconnected’ in relation with happiness (the border theme also have a connection with happiness in the way I see it). I looked at the fact that when you work you are expected to answer an email promptly, or the time spending on social media in comparaison with ‘human’ (see this post).

On this topic I am interested in making the ‘invisible’, ‘visible’ (same ideas with the borders, I guess happiness and make the invisible visible are the commun aspect in both cases). Visualise all the data surrounding us all the time.

I am asquint the question: is there a correlation with being more connected? If you are in an environment with less radiation would you spend less time on your mobile?

For that I would like to measure:

• the level of radiation corresponding with location and to see if the person is more connected when there is more waves around (link GPS tracking and, data transfert and level of radiation).

• how much data transferred on a location (link GPS tracking and data transfert) and superpose with the map of coverage

• the number of word exchange with a real person in comparaison with number of word with social media (or time speeding corresponding verbally and on social media)

I guess it is maybe less interesting than the ‘border’ theme, as a lot of people are looking at the subject currently with these app helping to disconnect: Freedom, I Off You, Antisocial, Forest or the wall paper which block radiations, and the WiFi cold spot.

I read that problems linked up with hyper connectivity are more a society issues (we use technology to respond to what is expected from us… ) and not a technical issue. Create more technology to not use technology seems not the right things to do, it is “the cat biting its own tail”.

I don’t think I can come with anything to change today society, because it means to solve a question of hierarchy (have the power, to be disconnected against society expect me to be connected all the time), also job organisation and planification, and  finally todays life style (teenagers hyper connected…).

ARTICLES

How Technology Can Help Work/Life Balance

La surconnexion est une question sociale, il est temps de s’en préoccuper