Thesis 1, 2022 Fall — #1. Image Cluster
This is documentation of Suri’s thesis in the MFA Interaction Design course at School of Visual Arts, New York
Date
Sep 12, 2022
Topic exploration
I am going to explore the initial topic of my thesis. I started laying out some common issues I have been intrigued by.
After spending some time doing desk research on these areas, I came up with a list of issues and interests considered for thesis topics. And I looked through what examples are out there that show progress and the limitations of current solutions.
1. Sustainable lifestyle and action for climate change
Why?
I have seen a lot of climate disasters these days and they actually really affect our lives nowadays. Many people die and scientists have tried to make their voices heard, mentioning the earth is no longer safe.
In addition to this, I have seen a lot of companies dealing with sustainability or solutions for climate change have gotten investment a lot. Thus, I think of the way how to change people’s everyday behavior in an environmentally positive way and if that can give us incentive and meaningful experience as well, making the behavior worth keeping doing on a regular basis.
Possible ideas?
- How can we fight climate change within capitalism
- How can we monetize our everyday behavior for the environment so we can affect a positive impact on climate change
- Are there any areas designers can engage in creating the way to technology and nature co-exist
Research insight
- The millennial and Z generation are more conscious of climate change. Investment in climate tech becomes promising.
- Climate tech is a promising area.
- Designers have been engaged in Biology + Technology
- Some companies deal with carbon credit / Eco coin / Forest data. They build climate impact into every customer experience including fintech, crypto, travel, and e-commerce.
- Resilient platforms, collaborate with innovative partners and foster ecosystems that help companies take practical climate mitigation action through trusted carbon credits. Additionally,
- Resilient systems to serve the various needs of buyers and sellers in the carbon market.
Companies
- Ecosia (Green search engine)
- Climateimpactx
- Patch
- Gaia AI
Organization
Technology for climate change
2. Inspiration collection
Why?
I have been collecting a lot of resources for my career, interest, self-reflection, networking, etc from different channels. And it consists of very different types of formats including videos, images, links, and books. Most of the content platforms have great resources and bookmark functions but they don’t consider how to sort this massive information and how to make users have easy access to these if they want to find certain types of information based on keywords, dates, location, memories, etc. Sometimes this inefficiency affects my professional life especially when my team should make important business decision making.
And I aspire to see what kinds of resources and interests of other people have been collected and get inspired. Although we already know how important it is to pile up numerous resources in our brain that really affect our creativity, there is a lack of centralized collection and sharing with people.
Possible ideas?
- How can we centralize our insights and effectively manage their knowledge
- How can we help people share their inspiration resources and get inspired together
Research insight
- Sharing my interest including playlists is quite active in the music industry.
3. Education and mentoring platform for creators or designers
Why?
When we start studying art and design, the most common words that we heard from our teachers was you cannot earn money if you become an artist, more like people involved in creative industry.
Despite these negative social standards, thanks to my parents, I could start art in an early age and had many close artist friends around me.
As technology developed, my artist friends can monetize their abilities by their own way which is different from how normal 9–6 employers earn their lives. They earn money from ad promotion fees via Youtube and Instagram, earn money from drawing what they like the most via NFT, and make profit from publication and lectures.
Even through a lot of platforms for creators emerged, there might be no platform how to manage their earnings and keep growing their career. Since this is not a traditional way to earn money.
Possible ideas?
- How can we prevent personal creations or individual creators’ ideas online from plagiarism.
- Mentoring critique for entry level, resource sharing, advice for making business. > creators can be divided into the entry level, senior, and leadership position level. Beginners might not know where to start to monetize their abilities, for example like making account on NFT Platforms, and how to become K-drama writer with not relavant major.
Learners who are growing their creative career might be curious about how to protect their stuff from Plagiarisms. Lastly, experts might not convince whether they should start their own business or making companies. Or what brands they should collaborate in order to achieve good images.
4. Self-image & Content creation
- Content creation tools for one’s identity : Video content-based journaling / Podcasting / Live streaming broadcasting
- Meaning out : show off oneself’s value and thinking
https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/13/twitter-podcasts-blue-subscribers/
Possible ideas?
- How can we make content creation and posting on social media that can help young people solidify their self-esteem and build trust in themselves?
5. Discussion & Critique on media content
Exsting examples:
These are the technology that I am interested in and I am still looking into how this tech can be applied to my project and their current progress.
Technology
- Face recognition
- Responsible AI
- Image classification
- Data visualization
- NFT
