1. Our final vocabulary word for this semester is urban resiliency. How would you define this term for a friend? What is an example they would understand? How important is the concept of resiliency to you as an artist/designer? How might it help you creatively live and work in relation to the realities of climate change? Do you have any questions about our semester vocabulary?

   Urban resiliency is how well the urban city can prepare to face environmental change events and how well and soon it can recover from the event. An example would be when there’s flood in the city, how many days would electricity be back? How many days would public transportation be back to work? Resiliency for designer is very important, because what designer does is to design the source – if a product is designed with intention and awareness of better environment, it won’t cause more harm to the environment in later stage. It helps me think more systematically, caring about what chain effects my designs may cause. No questions about semester vocabulary.

2. Complete your Zone Walk project. Upload your map, images and responses to the questions to your LP.  Come to class ready to present question #5: Choose one zone (1-6) as your focus. What is a design idea you have that could communicate to the public what zone they inhabit? What kind of tool, device or signage would you make? Include a list of 3-5 challenges you would face in implementing this project in NYC (think about resiliency of materials, language issues, access to information, visibility during different times of day/during storms, diversity of publics etc.).

I chose zone 5 and my design idea is to put a virtual clock on the zone boundaries, with one hand pointing at the zone it belongs to, and the other hand pointing at whether there’s an emergency and which direction the evacuation place is at. The challenges I might face is people need to be told about this and learning how to read the clock.

 

3. Develop three final project ideas. What might you make and why? (an object, clothing, set of tools, skill manual, a design for connecting you to other people, animals or the earth, creates meaningful social connections with others etc.)  Post your three ideas and include sketches for each idea (and bring these sketches to class next week). For each idea, answer the following:

1) What is your idea and in what ways will this object/design be useful to you over 50 years of change? Think about how each design could have meaning and be useful in your daily life for several decades.

My idea is to design beauty products packaging. Most beauty packaging are not long-lasting. They are disposed when most people receive the product. My 1st idea is to design a bag for lipsticks. It’s a packaging but also a fashion accessories, making user want to keep for years. 2nd idea is to design a box that holds many products using sustainable materials. 3rd idea is to design a digital manual. Because the paper manual in every beauty packaging is thrown away by users, but they have trouble referring back to the manual.

2) How will this design be resilient (used in more than one way, transform into something else over time, and/or encourage social resiliency through its usage)?

The 1st idea is to use the packaging in multiple ways.It can be used as a beauty bag or a fashion accessory. The 2nd idea is not a multi-functional design, the key of 2nd idea is that the packaging is minimal and uses healthy materials and does not use any toxic ink. The point of the 3rd idea is to make paperless design, which is good for the environment, and easier for users to refer to when they don’t know how to use certain products.

3) What specific event(s) of environmental change will it help YOU adapt to or address?

Air pollution. If there are too much waste that contains toxic substances it’s harmful for people. The substances will also go into water and soil, leading to damage to the living environment.

4) How will this design be repaired?

The 1st idea could be repaired and made into a vase. The 2nd idea and the 3rd idea do not need to repair, the 2nd is meant to be disposed, but in a more environmental friendly way; the 3rd is digital.

5) What materials will you use for this design given what you have learned this semester about natural/biological/recycled materials?  Consider how climate change might affect the availability of some materials in the long-term.

Natural/recycled materials from Healthy Materials Lab. There will always be recycled materials because more waste turn into recycled materials.

6) Which of the Long Life Design criteria does this design fulfill?

Manufacturing, function, safety, user, environment, design.