MDes - Yining Zhou

Duration: 3 weeks  
Research Team: Yining Zhou, Qianxuan Chen
Tools: Figma, Notion

In Chinese writing, “Chinese Radicals (部首)” often relate to the meaning of the word. Words with the “女 (female)” radical often relate to the female gender. However, many words with the “female” radical carry derogatory meanings, are about physical appearance, or are even specifically used to belittle women. Therefore, in this Inquiry design project, I was inspired by Nüshu (女书) – the world’s only script designed and used exclusively by women – and designed a plug-in, hoping to help women reclaim the definition of female-related words in Chinese characters.

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Ideation

Nüshu (女书)

Nüshu (女书) means “women’s writing” in Chinese. “Out of the thousands of scripts that are gender-specific to men, here we have one that we know is gender-specific to women,” says Silber, who has been researching Nüshu since 1985. Unlike Chinese characters that work on an ideographic system, Nüshu are syllabic characters, and they transcribe the local dialect spoken in Jiangyong city and its surrounding villages.

Historically speaking, writing has always been a privilege for men in China, and women have been largely deprived of the opportunity to become literate. Even in the era where women could write and receive education, this education was mainly limited to urban elites. Although we do not know the exact origin of Nüshu, it was taught and learned among women. In such a sex-segregated society, Nüshu gives us a chance to glimpse intimate texts between rural women. The writing system allowed these women to keep autobiographies, write poetry and stories, and communicate with “sworn sisters,” bonds between women who were not biologically related.

For me, the most inspiring thing is how women jump out of the male narrative and shape their own texts and narrative methods.

Chinese Character / Hanzi (汉字)

In Chinese character writing, some characters are Compound ideographs. These characters are composed of two or more ideographic characters, representing a new, comprehensive meaning.

In the composition, the part on the left is usually referred to as “Chinese Radicals”, which often relate to the meaning of the word.

Chinese characters are a very important carrier of Chinese culture. We can see that this is a text gender-specific to men. In characters that include female Chinese radicals, there are many derogatory words, even specific ones for humiliating women. At the same time, many characters that include female chinese radicals express demands for female appearances.

• 嫌(suspicion), 奸(adultery), 妒(jealousy), reflect the traditional Chinese concept that men are superior to women.
  
• 嫩(young), 娇(delicate), 媚(bewitch) represent the expected social aesthetics of women.

In a situation where a male-centered language is used, how should women express themselves? Are they forced to use words that are embarrassing to themselves? How to face the situation where there is no accurate language to express?

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Solution

Signifier and Signified

The signifier is the physical appearance of the sign, such as a word, image or sound. While the signified is the concept or meaning associated with the signifier.

Text/character can be regarded as symbols. That is to say, the meaning of text can flow and change. In fact, the change of the meaning represented by text/character is always happening. After entering the internet era, the memes and new urban meanings represented by a word are endless. However, not all changes in words are positive. Here are two characters in Chinese whose meanings have changed.

So, I collected some data on existing words and phrases related to women. I recorded their current explanations as well as whether their meanings are positive, neutral, or negative. At the same time, if these words/phrases have been redefined, I also recorded the new meanings.

Plug-in Prototyping

I am inspired by the Nüshu script system and hope that women can create a language that belongs to them and better expresses their situation. I hope that women can step out of the male narrative of Chinese written words and have the opportunity to redefine those negative words and phrases related to women. Therefore, I want to design a dictionary plug-in that can add or change definition, to help women reclaim the right to define words about women in Chinese characters.

When the user launches this “女字 (Feminine Text)” plug-in, it will detect all the text related to female on the screen and highlight it. Positive and neutral text will be highlighted in pink, while negative text will be highlighted in blue for distinction.

When clicking on the words which have positive or neutral neaming, the plug-in will directly display the meaning and phrases of the words.

When the negative character is clicked, the plug-in will display the meaning and phrases of the text and activate the “Re-defined meaning” button. This word may not yet have a re-defined meaning. Users can use the “Add new definition” button to add a more positive meaning to this word related to women.

If a word with a negative connotation has been re-defined. Users can choose this new interpretation and use “Confirm re-definition” to confirm. After this, the basic meaning of this word will be updated to the new interpretation they chose.

The previous interpretations will still be retained but they will be crossed out. This is to raise users’s awareness to the inequality of rights in languages. At the same time, this plug-in will let you know how many other people have redefined this character just like you.

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Reflection & Discussion

In this project, I used a plug-in form hoping that the re-definable dictionary “女字 (Feminine Text)” can be more naturally integrated into our lives and daily used web pages. However, I also received some worthwhile considerations about what medium this plug-in should be based on. For example, will websites still be our main platform for browsing content in the future? How should we use this plug-in in the era of the rise of video and AI?

In the design, I provided users with the right to re-define the meaning of words. In the future, I hope to conduct more specific research and exploration. Is “女字 (Feminine Text)” more suitable for a decentralized system, allowing users to each have their own dictionary? Or should there be some organization and management to help people express themselves more accurately during communication?

At the same time, I hope to provide a community for users of “女字 (Feminine Text)” to communicate definitions. Use the power of women as a whole to empower themselves.

Duration: 2 weeks 
Tools: Adobe Premiere Pro, Arduino, Flex sensor, Soil Moisture Sensor, Temperature and humidity sensor

In the process of the first project, both IKEA’s “Bully Plant” and the “botanical diary” that I developed from it explored the bidirectional relationship between humans and plants. Therefore, in this Discourse project, I want to continue to extend the exploration of this topic. I use sensors and technology as the derived senses for people to perceive the world, trying to explore the relationship between humans and plants. Can we break away from anthropocentrism and try to use derived senses to understand the world we live in from another perspective.

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Inspiration

When scholars mention the agricultural revolution, they always describe it as a great leap forward for humanity, but in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari has a completely different view of the agricultural revolution. Yuval Noah Harari believes that when humans transitioned from foraging to farming, they had to work harder, but their food became more monotonous. He raises the point to provoke thought, humans think they have domesticated plants, but it is actually the plants that have domesticated Homo sapiens. Wheat forces people to domesticate, living in crowded dwellings that spread disease, and guarding and caring for crops.

Reading

[A]pparatuses are the material conditions of possibility and impossibility of mattering; they enact what matters and what is excluded from mattering.

Karen Barad
Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter

“Aapparatuses” are boundary-drawing practices. Apparatuses create certain relations and distributions of power, as well as “practices of knowing in being”, in other words, “situated knowledges”.

Vision is always a question of the power to see — physically as well as metaphorically — but it is also a question of the power to occupy the privileged position of the seer.

Donna Haraway
Situated Knowledge: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective

Donna Haraway talked about the technological progress at the moment determines the constriction of our vision of the world.
For example, before the invention of the microscope, knowledge about cell movements in biological beings is not existing. The knowledge is dynamic evolving with the developments of apparatus, opening up our vision. Haraway believes that technological progress can shape and limit our worldview, and emphasizes the importance of recognizing our own views and biases when encountering knowledge. Situational knowledge encourages us to acknowledge the specificity and contextuality of our knowledge and understanding. It encourages people to consider different perspectives and experiences to form a more comprehensive understanding of the world.

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Research

Plants

We have limited vision and hearing to observe and understand the surrounding, we perceive plants as stationary organisms. But is this really the case? In research, people have gradually discovered that plants have their own secret lives, they just needs to be detected with the help of some technology.

For example, Australian biologist Monica Gagliano has conducted research on plant bioacoustics. Plants can respond to sound and emit acoustic emissions. In the paper Towards understanding plant bioacoustics, she claims “the behavioural response of young roots to a continuous 220 Hz sound [and their] root tip clearly bends towards the sound source”. At the same time, although the reason is still unknown, young roots of corn generate structured, spike-like, acoustic emissions.

Some plants, even without a brain, have the ability to count. For example, the Venus flytrap only clamps its leaves after triggering its hairs twice within about 20 seconds. In The Venus Flytrap Dionaea muscipula Counts Prey-Induced Action Potentials to Induce Sodium Uptake, Jennifer Böhm and her team believe that some carnivorous plants are “equipped with sophisticated mechano-sensory structures and touch signaling mechanisms”.

More-than-human Design

People are accustomed to seeing themselves as models of high intelligence, and only creatures that are more similar to humans seem to possess wisdom. But we should be clear that homo sapiens are just one of many species. If there are other forms of life, then how should we define intelligence, consciousness, and mental ability?

An Italian plant physiologist Stefano Mancuso explains that plants can “see, hear, taste, smell, and feel” in their own unique way. In addition to these five senses, plants also have at least 15 other senses. On a sensory level, lots of evidence suggest that plants are more sensitive than animals. These senses allow plants to perceive and interact with the environment in overlooked ways. Can we then say, plants may have levels of intelligence and consciousness that we are just beginning to understand?

In order to extend human’s limited perceptual abilities, I plan to use sensors as “apparatus” to help us establish a connection with plants. I referred to Jennifer Gabrys’s Program Earth: Environmental Sensing Technology and the Making of a Computational Planet. In the end, I used three different sensors – Flex sensor, Soil Moisture Sensor, Temperature and humidity sensor – to try to convert part of the world perceived by plants into auditory and visual perceptions that humans can perceive.

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Process

Flex Sensor

I use a flex sensor to detect the flow/ wind of the air. And I transform the data I collected into a picture of trees swaying.

Soil Moisture Sensor

I use a soil moisture sensor to detect the moisture in the soil. And I convert the data I collected into a picture of the water level rising and falling.

Temperature and Humidity Sensor

I use the temperature and humidity sensor to detect temperature and humidity. And I convert the data I collected into a chord performance.

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Final Video

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Reflection & Discussion

This project extends my exploration of the relationship between humans and plants from my first project. In the first project, I used plants as a medium for recording human emotions. Therefore, I hope to explore more-than-human design in this project, whether we can design for plants. I used sensors to collect some data that we can’t capture, but are easier for plants to perceive. However, in order to make it easier for people to understand, the data has been converted into visual images and auditory music. I hope to use such a form of anthropomorphism to present the data I collected as a milestone, and by transferring empathy, we can begin to enter the life of plants. Later, I might want to transform such data into some wearable devices, directly linking with plants. At the same time, I delve deeper into the form of data transformation.

Team: Yining Zhou(Jojo), Yingci Zhong (Rebecca)
Duration: 2 weeks
Tools: Figma, Adobe Indesign, Procreate, Paper cutter 

In this service design project, we wanted to provide Emily Carr’s students with a service that would help them explore the local area. MicroGuiadance is an adventure package that includes a stack of micro-adventure mission cards to explore the city and a handbook to keep track of the experience. Through the micro-adventure mission card, we wanted readers to be able to explore the local area in a short amount of time, in a simple format, and at a low cost. At the same time, the City Passport – collection journal – in MicroGuiadance can be used to record the discoveries and feelings.

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Ideation

As a newcomer to the city, do you feel unsure of what to do and where to go? As someone who has lived here for a long time, feeling the monotony of daily life?

During a conversation chats with my teammate, we realized that Rebecca, as an international student new to Vancouver, was interested in finding fun and entertaining activities and places to visit. I, on the other hand, as someone who has been living here for a while, I’ve grown accustomed to many activities and am now seeking something new. When we talked about some of the famous local attractions such as Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, Grouse Mountain, we found out that it is expensive and time-consuming for students to visit. This made us realize that it’s not that people lack the desire to explore, but rather that various limitations make it challenging to embark on an adventure.

From this, we aimed to design a service that would be suitable for student groups to explore life and local activities. We decided to develop a “micro-adventure” approach that is random, low-cost, and can be experienced at any time.

We define “micro-adventure” more specifically as：

Micro = Short + Simple + Local + Cheap + Easy to ignore + New perspective

Adventures = Fun + Exciting + Challenging + Safety + Reassurance + Refreshing + Rewarding

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Solution

We strive to help participants enjoy life itself, and steering clear from the overwhelming recommendations on the internet. To achieve this, we selected publication as our medium and created MicroGuidance – a set of exploration cards coupled with a City Passport. Through this adventure package, our aim is to provide fun, rewarding, and challenging activities that can be enjoyed in a short time, in a simple manner, and at local venues.

Content design

Cards

We’ve organized the cards into four themes – Lifestyle, Nature, Animals, and Sights. These themes correspond everyday things we often encounter. We aimed to maintain diversity in the exploration of life, allowing users to select a theme that captures their interest at any given moment, keeping their experience fresh.

Micro-adventure cards can bring a fresh, unique perspective to everyday things. They could serve as a real-life photo filter, a sketch recording card, or a minor experimental prop. Users can follow the instructions and descriptions on these cards to embark on unique adventures. These adventures don’t need a specific result, users are encouraged to experience and interpret them based on their interests and understanding. The goal of this card series is to stimulate a change in perspective and uncover those often overlooked sparks of interest in our daily life.

City Passport

We aim to help users preserve the experiences and memories from their micro-adventures. Recognizing that cards can be challenging to collect and store, we’ve introduced a “City Passport” booklet. This handbook correlates with our micro-adventure cards. Users can document each new place they explore by recording the corresponding card in the handbook. They can attach used cards to the City Passport, note the date, and jot down any intriguing experiences. This blend of a journal and card format aims to imbue each discovery and adventure with a sense of temporal significance.

Some cards feature a cut-out design, and we’ve incorporated task-related illustrations into the City Passport. This not only adds an element of fun to note-taking but also enhances the overall visual appeal, making the set more attractive.

Physical Prototype

Finally, we print the micro-adventure cards and engrave the patterns to match the missions. This process is used to create cut-out silhouettes or attach specific materials that correspond to the adventures detailed on the cards. Concurrently, we also print and bind the City Passport.

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MicroGuiadance Activity

During the lecture, we invited our classmates to participate in a micro-adventure activity. We asked them to select cards that piqued their interest, then spend approximately 15 minutes around the school completing the tasks outlined on these micro-adventure cards.

Afterward, our classmates shared their findings.

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Reflection & Discussion

For this project, we opted for physical cards and booklets to keep the focus on observing our surroundings. Therefore, we avoided digital products in case there was too much distraction. So when it came to designing for print out publication, we had quite a few challenges, including the layout of the booklet and the color scheme. We chose gradient colors, but this color raise challenges to print.

Although we chose the physical product’s, we still needed to use our cell phones when taking pictures. During lecture, the classmates really liked the physical format and also thought that using a cell phone would not detract from the adventure experience. However, our classmates mentioned that they wanted to share the photos they took or the collages they made. Therefore, we discussed the possibility of a sharing platform where users could share their findings by hashtags. The same micro-adventure cards can however develop unique experiences based on individual discoveries. In sharing platforms, people can recognize countless new details of their lives through the eyes of others. On the other hand, more research is needed to balance the combination of the physical and the electronic in order to prevent the electronics from attracting too much attention from the users.

In the future, we envision MicroGuidance as a seasonal product, much like a magazine. With updates to reflect different seasons and features, we hope to encourage the ongoing habits of exploration, recording, and collecting.