major studio 1

final interaction project: emotocyte

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description

This page documents the final product of our interaction design studio. We were prompted to come up with our own areas of interest; once we had clarity in terms of this, we precipitated out specific research questions to explore further.

Print of grieving person

Woman grieving over the death of a child, with tree and grasses surrounding (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture 1829).

I have been meditating on grief, in both a global and personal sense. Recently, there have been many sources of grief and loneliness; last year, we saw the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic (within the US, it took over in March 2020) as well as manifestations of climate change and climate crisis. I have also lost close family members and friends over the past year. All of these events have contributed to my interest in manifestations of grief at different scales.

Plant life and botany are also personally important. While completing my undergraduate education, I performed research on drought-subjected chaparral vegetation in the Santa Monica mountains (more specifically, on members of the Malosma laurina community). Looking back, while this study was looking to understand the impact of climate change on the flora of the region, it also documented the botanical pain and grief associated with drought. Results exposed susceptibilities in health, changes in morphology, and the inability to function at a high capacity - much like the grief response in humans.

While discussing this project with Professor Harpreet Sareen, he mentioned that one of his succulents had jumped out of its pot. It had grown in heaviness to the point that it fell to the countertop below. Harpreet mentioned that it looked like the succulent had committed suicide. What was weighing on this plant, besides its own biomass?

At the risk of anthropomorphizing, I would like to explore this in greater detail. I would like to understand the connections between floral and faunal grieving practices in this final interaction project. Do trees exude the same weariness as those suffering a loss? As you read this statement, the plants around you may very well be communicating with you - speaking to you, experiencing your joy, crying out, or offering support in our collective grief.

guiding questions

  1. How are plants represented in human grieving practices?
  2. How does plant behavior resemble human grief (note to self: beware of anthropomorphizing)?
  3. What changes in behavior do we observe in human-plant interaction? Why?
  4. How can organic materials or beings assist throughout different stages of the grieving process? What are the kinetic, olfactory, gustatory, visual, etc., signals and responses we can observe in both humans and plants?

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research, design process, + methods

ask/interview/visit

→ ask

  • Artists / designers in sustainable design
  • Botanists
    • The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben: Plant communication
    • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: Indigenous stewardship of flora
    • Dr. Monica Gagliano: Plant communication
    • Trees Up Close by Nancy Ross Hugo (photographs by Robert Llewellyn)
  • Florists
    • The economies of grief
    • Cultural convention
  • Writers
    • E.J. Koh (essays about grief)
    • Ghost Of by Diana Khoi Nguyen (poetry collection)
    • House A by Jennifer Chang
    • A Cruelty Special to our Species by Emily Jungmin Yoon
    • Don't Call Us Dead by Danaz Smith

How do green spaces impact public emotion? How do they support our mental, physical, and emotional health on an individual level? I walked through the community garden on Bleeker Street, through Washington Square Park, Central Park, Stuyvesant Square, and to the water on Pier 25 to investigate this.

Photo of Washington Square Park
Photo of Washington Square Park
Photo of Washington Square Park
Photo of Guin by a community garden
Photo of Guin by a community garden

While walking around the city, I also observed a surprisingly large number of grasses and mosses growing in the sidewalks. These are plants that were not planted. They are plants that are sticking it to the man. Or maybe plants that just want to remind us that they exist.

It piqued my interest: how are these plants able to grow, even when the conditions are less than ideal?

Photo of grass growing in the sidewalk
Photo of grass growing in the sidewalk

→ interview

I will be using the 5 whys, flow analysis narration, historical analysis, behavioral archeology, behavior mapping, botanical unfocus groups, quick & dirty prototyping, and paper prototyping in my research and throughout the process of determining the final direction of this piece.

florists: on floral grief practices and conventions (language of flowers)

(to be completed - sent out several emails, will try in person)

family & friends: on personal, individual grief practices

Wolfram Mesh: "I put [grief] away, in a box. I don't engage with it until I need to, like at a memorial service."

Guinevere Mesh: "Why do you think you do that?"

WM: "I don't do it intentionally, it just happens. It's easier than confronting trauma."

GM: "That's fair. Do you think there's anything that could help you process that trauma?"

WM: "Probably... I don't know."

***

Michelle Li: "I'm not even aware of this: I erase bad things from my memory. My friends will tell me about something bad that happened to me in the past, and I actually don't remember that it happened."

Guinevere Mesh: "It's just gone?"

ML: "Yep, gone. It's like it never even happened."

GM: "Why do you think that happens to you?"

ML: "I'm sure it's my brain's way of protecting me. Like I said, I don't even realize it's happening."

family & friends: on their relationships with plants

Mother: relationship with houseplants, gardening, and the forest.

→ visit

  • Floral shop
  • Cemetary
  • Park
  • Botanical garden
  • Library
    • Obituaries
    • Texts on theory
    • Prints, photographs, historic artworks

***

research: indigenous grief practices

Healing music, ceremony, Native American burial mounds, Ikebana

the importance of music to healing

historical

music in indigenous grieving practices

"Living My Culture" (Accessed 2021).

"Our songs are important to us. Our prayers...Because once the person is gone, all we have are memories."

"Healing through Grief" (Accessed 2021).

"Every night, they'll have singers that will come and sing..." (0:35)

"Being prepared and being told so much beauty about death is what helps me cope and not be so afraid of it" (9:20).

personal

My parents are both classical musicians, so music is central to their lives, as well as how they process emotion. When my mom's father passed away, she told me that she always listens to Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs when she loses someone. The music is incredibly beautiful and evocative of the end of life - I encourage you to listen to the recording with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf below.

research: art installations / exhibits about grief

Telephone booth for grieving family members of tsunami victims (Fujitani, Cuddon, and Smith Galer 2019).

interviews in parsons mfa dt

Ask about a detail within your inquiry, not the goal (e.g., instead of asking about animal adoption - goal - could you ask about the cultural bias around mixed-breed animals?). Don't seek validation or ask leading questions. Only gather information (Sareen 2021).

interview questions

  1. In your experience, where and how have you noticed the phenomenon / problem / situation of grief? Of plant-human relationships?
  2. What details or questions linger in your mind about it?
ananya | she/her | from all over india (most recently, delhi)
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alex | he/him | from woodbridge, connecticut
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cynthia | she/her | from beijing, china
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harpreet | he/him | from atiala, india
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kayla | she/her | from taipei, taiwan

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next steps: embody through making

drawing

I used visual techniques to generate ideas. After receiving feedback, I became particularly interested in understanding historic and current death practices for inspiration. When we combine the concepts of death practices with biodesign, what can we get? In addition to solutions for decay itself, can we create better healing spaces for those impacted by death?

I took a deep dive into death and grieving practices, specifically within Eastern cultures (Chinese and Japanese traditions) and indigenous practices throughout the United States and Canada. This foundation informed my sketches.

concept drawing
concept drawing

Concept drawings (Oct 2021).

short film

***

midterm reflections

peer feedback

link to feedback (only available to those with an @newschool.edu account)

how do different species/objects contribute to the creation of space in terms of senses: sound/smell/ an atmosphere? The fact that you are thinking about death and grief and sustainability and decomposition is really so incorporative of the phases of grieving as well.

external reviewer feedback

richard the

  • Rashid Johnson - on black experience in America, Fly Away, exhibit in Chelsea
  • Post-apocalyptic plants

mark

Andrea Zetel

new references provided

moving towards final form

Based on the feedback from peers and the external reviewers, I identified two areas of this project that must be fleshed out: (1) what should collective grief processing look like, and (2) what forms will augment, rather than dim, this experience?

Throughout the project, both peers and external reviewers consistently asked about whether this project, emotocyte, would be an installation to be experienced by one or by many. Many folks called attention to the fact that there are already grief practices in the collective and personal spheres of grief. The follow-up: where would this particular grief practice fit into that existing set of customs?

To answer that, it’s important to locate the possible gaps in our current practices, or focus on grief in the particular context of 2020-2021. Maybe the question is not the general, “How do we help people grieve?”, but rather zooming in on the concept of assisting people through grief when they are already grieving all the time. This project is about personal grief, but it’s also about guiding someone through grief when their emotional cup is already overflowing. It’s about providing support. How could I help people find community in grief? If I could capture communion with loved ones, with strangers, and augment this with our existing relationships with plants, it would create a grieving niche of sorts.

Following this realization, I found renewed inspiration towards the specific, very deliberate forms that could enhance a healing experience, one that is different from existing practices. Form must provide a clear directive for interaction, and the intended results should come out of those clear instructions naturally.

How many subjects should this installation support at a time?

To focus on collective grieving, form should allow for multiple users at a time, but also quiet reflection. To this end, I’ll like to provide seating for 1-2 people within the installation, but make sure to provide an environment proximate to the installation that people can still contribute to.

To that point, this installation must include clear, reflective tools (e.g., seed paper with prompts or without, open space for remembrance, pencils, pens, etc.). I think there is also importance in public vs. private reflection. I would like to include the option to hang memories on the installation, effectively creating a collective artwork by and for the community (public remembrance), as well as an option to physically bury memories (private).

These two separate functionalities will require different tools. The public memories must somehow be hung, attached, and displayed on this installation. What would be a good way to do this? Can we somehow incorporate the plants, sustainable / biodegradable materials, etc.? For the private memories, seed paper, shovels, soil, and directions must be somehow provided.

Another area that I'll need to dive into is the combination of culture and ecology in grieving practices. Many of my peers were left with questions about existing funeral rites, most specifically surrounding the actual species that are included as a part of different cultural grieving processes. Several folks mentioned festivals and practices honoring the dead, such as Dia de los Muertos (Rachel Gorman '23 - in in the Oaxacan context specifically), the QingMing festival in China (Ziyi (Skylar) Wang '23), Wabi-Sabi and Ikebana (Tricia Ilena '23), and many more. The further research I do in this sphere might help me refine the specific special forms and the particular "grief ecology" of my final piece.

I plan to look into the biological and cultural similarity between the species typically employed in grief practice. Are there patterns to spot among these, even though grief practices span societies across the whole world? Even though there is ecological diversity with regards to location, there must be patterns in the types of organisms that are chosen for these traditions. For example, why flowers? Why the specific flowers that are chosen?

Ultimately, after digging into what collective grief processing currently looks like, the moments and emotions that collective and personal grief processing may miss, and the forms that represent these two things, I will be able to begin prototyping and constructing my final piece. I want the directives and the goals to be incredibly clear in this project, because I think that will provide the most guided facilitation (of both emotion and concept).

***

7 in 7

day 1: paper model

Today, I created a paper model of a possibility for an installation. This model explored form, but, more importantly, it yielded observations about the connection between form and concept that were useful.

Paper model of seat with an awning, a guardrail, and a path. The seat has a cushion on the ground to its right.

There are a couple of key takeaways from this prototype.

  1. The prototype did a good job of communicating one intention: the visual instructions for a viewer to take a seat, or take a seat beside the installation.
  2. The prototype did not do a good job of communicating what this seat's intended use is. The imagery of the organic forms does not immediately communicate grief, or even healing. Further questions that must be addressed:
    • What is imagery that evokes grief and healing?
    • What patterns are present in current grieving spaces?
    • What is the gap that this project seeks to fill? Refine this again, and return to the answer throughout prototyping.
  3. Who is this accessible to? More research into accessible furniture design necessary.

day 2: wire model

Today, I created a wire prototype.

Wire model of seat with a covering over it and a second seat to its right

There are a couple of key takeaways from this prototype.

  1. The prototype again did a good job of communicating one intention: the visual instructions for a viewer to take a seat, or take a seat beside the installation.
  2. The prototype did not do a good job of communicating what this seat's intended use is. Still struggling with this. The imagery of the organic forms still does not immediately communicate grief.

day 3: wire model with foliage

In this model, I explored the use of greenery and texture. While I will continue to experiment with form, I wanted to see the way that the "organic" materials would interact with the wire frame.

Wire model prototype with a green, foliage-like covering.
Close up of the interior of the wire model prototype with a green, foliage-like covering.

This prototype was satisfying in terms of the color palette, the textures I would like to include in the final piece, and the visual experience from within the prototype.

day 4: wire model with foliage

In this model, I worked with Photoshop to create a sense of what the structure would look like if people were interacting with it.

Wire model prototype with a green, foliage-like covering.

Note: Due to a family medical emergency, there are 4 experiments in my 7 in 7.

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prototype 1

Prototype 1 represented the results of 7 in 7. This prototype is the next step in the iteration process, taking the things that worked well and noting the things that didn't.

After 7 in 7, we created storyboards to model the interaction that we wanted to see in the piece. After receiving feedback from my classmates regarding the shape, materials, and type of interaction they'd like to see, I reflected and drew the experience of the piece. The storyboard shows people walking in and out of the exhibit, reading seed paper notes of remembrance that are "planted" in the exhibit, and adding their own memories. In the last frame, after time has passed, the seed paper has sprouted flowers within the exhibit.

Drawing of a person walking through an exhibit surrounded with plants, writing a note, and leaving it in the exhibit.

Storyboard created after discussing the results of 7 in 7.

Following the storyboarding process, I created a new model. After showing the storyboard, I received feedback that folks wanted the entrance to be relatively small compared to the interior space. People wanted to be able to navigate the installation either by themselves or with others; they wanted enough space to decide how they'd like to reflect.

I modified the model to have a more tapered, smaller entrance, and blew out the interior space to make room for more people and greater mobility within the exhibit. The form otherwise stayed relatively consistent.

Bird's eye photo of a model of the project covered in green foliage.

Bird's eye view of prototype 1.

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reflection // refinement // artist statement

I am depressed, and I have experienced great loss. I would like to be less depressed. I would like to be able to process and understand and live with all of the parts of myself in a way that feels reflective, organic, and regenerative, not forced or antiseptic.

Emotocyte is a project that, through existing relationships to nature and botany, will help process the profanity of loss, the role of community in healing, and the (sometimes lofty) expectations for social performance during emotional recovery.

Emotocyte reestablishes human sensory and emotional interaction with natural biological phenomena, while also connecting visitors to each other within a larger narrative about community grief. By creating an architectural installation, I hope to create a specific venue for this interaction to occur. The designated grieving space acts as a medium between physical and emotional planes. Emotocyte allows for directed emotional expression and reflection.

My intention for emotocyte is to help visitors process feelings of sadness, such as those produced by a significant loss or by other depressive events. The installation will invite viewers to stop, slow down, and listen to the senses. Elements of the installation will include visual, olfactory, auditory, and tactile elements (I have not yet found a way to incorporate taste and am still working to understand whether that would or would not fit into this experience).

My hope is that by creating an explicitly reflective, meditative space, this project will produce several reactions. Emotocyte will not only relieve stress through the experience, it will also create visibility into the experience - and utter normalcy! - of these painful emotions. After the global onslaught of grief caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, I view this process as even more necessary and explicit.

--

*It is important to note that I do not view this project as a replacement for other forms of psychological treatment or conventional, traditional grief practices, but rather as a supplement. I absolutely still endorse cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), psychiatry, group therapy, spiritual assistance, as well as funerary services, memorials, and other religious customs, like holding a shiva (in the Jewish faith) or a wake (in the Catholic faith).

Please don’t report me to student health! I am already in therapy, and I am experiencing much joy, pain, confusion, love, fear, anger, curiosity - I am having the complete human experience, so to speak.

Here I am, living and learning about this very complex, very human life.

***

prototype 2

Prototype 1 gave me a better sense of the scale of this project, and I began reassessing the scope. To produce a large-scale, working installation, with plants, soil, and sound, would be a huge lift. After reflecting on the scope of this project, I determined that the expense, fabrication time, and lack of venue would make developing a fully functional, intentionally installation very difficult.

Because of this, I began to consider ways that I could nurture the same set of emotional, visual, and experiential ideals within the scope.

My partner, Michael Thut, suggested architectural representation as a potential next step. 2D renderings and 3D models can communicate the emotion of space, without necessitating the actual construction of a large-scale building. These forms are commonly used as deliverables within the architectural field. Since this installation took on a more architectural form, I thought that this could be a useful tool.

Bird's eye photo of a model of the project covered in green foliage.

Example of an architectural representation. Axonometrics. Image Courtesy of West Line Studio.

Bird's eye photo of a model of the project covered in green foliage.

Image of the architectural rendering superimposed on ambient video. Rendering created in Rhino 7 and Photoshop.

With this in mind, I began learning Rhino 7 (a 3D modelling software) to create an architectural rendering of the installation. However, the resulting image was relatively unsuccessful. I received feedback that the rendering of the structure was, in fact, taking away from the emotional impact of the video.

***

prototype 3

After receiving feedback regarding the rendering, I decided to refocus on physical construction. Since comments centered on the emotional qualities of the video, I thought of ways that I could recenter that in the narrative of the piece.

At the same time, I began reflecting on how the narrative of the project had changed. I felt like the initial reasons I had set out to create this structure (my personal grief and the complexity of grief within the pandemic) were becoming lost. I was still grieving intensely, and the project was not satisfying my wish for closure, clarity, or self-awareness.

While reflecting, I thought of past artistic influences of mine, as well as past trips to museums, exhibits, etc. One piece that came to mine was Marcel Duchamp's Étant Donnés: 1. La chute d’eau, 2. Le gaz d’éclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas). This piece involves looking through a peephole upon a scene in a secret room. I thought about it in the context of this project - how would a peephole change the narrative of grief that I was trying to communicate?

From this, I created a new prototype. Prototype 3 was a box with cutout "screens" filled with soil, peat moss, reindeer moss, and fake candles, and it housed a laptop. The laptop played the video I created during 7 in 7 to add to the internal environment.

Person looking into a peephole on a box covered with a white sheet.

Alex Modlin interacting with prototype 3, looking through the peephole.

Ultimately, this moment created a major pivot in the design of my project. I felt that this was an important breakthrough, and one that represented my personal feelings about grief more accurately. The peephole shifts the narrative to communicate feeling more protective and ashamed of the feelings around grief. Though people are still invited to look in - curiosity took over when people saw the peephole, there is something illicit about that interaction.

Though not the most polished, this prototype was the most successful of the bunch. People intuitively knew how to interact with the piece, and they reacted strongly to the visuals, the smell of the peat moss, and the act of looking in. They did give feedback that the track for spoken word needed to be louder.

***

final stages

Drawing of plans for building and construction of an egglike structure.

Plans for building the egg frame.

After determining the final direction for this project, I began to plan construction (especially given the limited amount of time we had left in the semester!). Having been trained primarily in 2D arts, it was necessary to both draw and test ideas, to make sure that the resulting form would be structurally sound enough to hold the interior box, a laptop, and a speaker.

Painting the interior of the box.
Testing the peephole.

Process of assembling the interior space.

I tested the form extensively on a small scale, then transitioned to the full-size form. Final assembly required glue, clamps, and patience. While glue dried, I completed the interior landscape of the piece by layering peat moss, reindeer moss, and fake candles. Once the egg structure was constructed, the interior box could be slid into the frame. Once assembled, the egg frame could be covered by plastic sheeting and cloth, and I could add the peephole as a final touch.

Video of Looking In.

reflections

Ultimately, I am happy with where this project landed. Both the narrative and the form have come a long way from where I started, and although there is much I would change and improve upon, I feel that this piece is reflective of the direction I want to go in my artistic practice. I was especially pleased with the way the audio was received emotionally (especially since I composed the bassline myself - flattering!) and the way that people reacted to the natural elements. The odor of the peat was a nice surprise. Though I thought quite a bit about the sensory elements before constructing the piece, I did not expect the intensity of the peat when people leaned in to look through the peephole.

In the future, I would like to refine the form, use more sustainable / biodegradable materials, and iterate on the location of this piece. I would definitely like the exterior of the piece to be more refined and even more egglike, maybe taking on different forms across different manifestations of grief. Throughout the planning and research stages, I had discussed the possibility of using sticks to form an egg or cocoon, and I would also like to explore the possibility of using ceramic (namely porcelain). I would also like to dive into the possibility of using completely biodegradable materials. I initially set out to create a sustainable piece that would connect the viewer to nature. Though the final form contained natural elements, I would like to take that a step further and make the entire piece sustainable. It would strengthen the narrative even further if there was an intentional temporal nature to the piece's decomposition.

Much to think about, and quite a bit of information to take forward into Major Studio 2 and beyond.

***

acknowledgements

This project was organized and facilitated by Harpreet Sareen (https://harpreetsareen.com/) as part of the Major Studio 1 course at the Parsons School of Design. I would like to thank Harpreet Sareen, Jess Irish, and all of the students in Major Studio 1 who provided helpful comments, interactions, and advice on previous versions of this project.

references

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