Driving Question: How might I grow my creativity during the COVID-19 crisis through exploring the science of creativity and innovation and experimenting with art?
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
My goal for this module was to escape the confines of my own four walls. I wanted to create something that showcased my yearning for what I was missing out on. To do this, I had to identify what was missing; in my case, it was my friends, the term in Florence, and TGS as a whole community. I then had to figure out how I could show this to the outside world; how could I incorporate creativity in the essence of this module to my wishes.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
I learned the skill of perseverance and that I am 100% a night owl, no questions asked. I learned that my best times to be creative was around 4 AM with music blasting through my headphones, my comfy jumper, and a cup of builders tea. I learned that if you mess up and get paint somewhere, it’s not supposed to be, you have three options: Cry, Paint over it with the closest color to the fabric and pray nobody notices or adapt and add it to your work. I used all three options.
Driving Question:How can I create an eco-friendly product and brand?
Project Description: For this project, I used the design cycle to formulate my own shampoo bars. I also constructed a business factsheet, SWOT analysis, and pricing strategy. With the findings from my market research paper, I created a buyer persona, social media pages and a website to effectively reach my target audience.
Project Reflection: GreenCare was my year-long passion project. I started it because I saw a gap in the current market for green products. Many green brands were only targeting people that could afford a price premium; however, I have always felt that in order for us to make a macro-level shift to conscious consumerism, everyone, regardless of economic background, should have access to sustainable products.
That’s when I came up with GreenCare—a green beauty brand that values inclusivity and sustainability. The entire process has been an amazing (and stressful) learning experience. From the beginning, I quickly realized that I wanted to make shampoo bars because of their potential impact on the sachet market. I also knew I wanted to formulate my own bars to understand my product inside and out. As I continued, however, I soon realized that this would be more difficult than I had thought. In total, it took about four months, many failed attempts, and weird periods of greasy hair to get to a formulation that I was happy with.
To achieve my science A.I. learning target, I researched the biochemistry behind hair and design specifications extensively. I spent days in the kitchen mixing surfactants with essential oils, colorants, and fatty alcohols. After each testing trial, I would ask my family for feedback on my bar so I could improve the next. I failed probably 95% of the time. My bars were always either too dry, too oily, or disintegrated in the bathroom after the first use. It felt hopeless. Nothing worked. I worried that it never would. Then one day, it did.
After analyzing past formulations, finding trends and making conclusions, I finally figured it out. After about eight trials, I discovered a decent formulation for my bars—one that was sulfate-free and had the right ratios to clean hair without drying it. It also stayed intact even after using it for the first time. I felt ecstatic! My mom and sister approved as well. My bars performed all the qualities of shampoo (cleansing and smelling nice) while being completely zero-waste. They’re definitely what I’m most proud of for this project. The biggest takeaway from this project was the lesson of positive risk-taking.
At TGS, risk-taking is a skill defined as “the willingness to make mistakes, advocate unconventional or unpopular positions, or tackle extremely challenging problems without obvious solutions, such that one’s personal growth, integrity, or accomplishments are enhanced”. Through GreenCare, I tackled the extremely challenging problem of formulating my own product. I had to learn that failing was okay. No. Actually, it’s essential. Without those eight attempts, I would have never gotten to the place where I am now. In hindsight, I’m grateful for all those times when I thought of giving up because they make this entire journey so much more fulfilling. Now, I’m not saying that this is the end. In fact, it’s far from it. I know that my entire life will be a collection of failed trials and attempts. But if there’s anything I’ve learned from GreenCare, it’s that the occasional successes make it all worth it.
Driving Question: How can we take lessons from the sports industry to better improve the health of a specific group in need?
Project Description: My goal for this module and term was to understand the effects of exercise in mental health and experience them myself. I also wanted to bring awareness to some “taboo” topics and defeat the stigma around them: gender violence (focusing on sexual violence), mental health, and pole dancing. I asked myself, “How can I apply what I learn about elite athletes to the females in my community who have experienced assault or harassment and could use exercise to improve their mental health, self-confidence and wellbeing?”
To answer this I made a website that is easy to navigate, gives a “safe vibe” and shares reliable information and resources.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium? I learned a lot about myself, the culture I grew up in, and the global perspective of it. From how to do such an incredible sport like pole fitness and gain confidence and strength from it, building a community in the studio I learned at, and learning from strangers who then became friends.
I learned to take a deeper look into where these issues root from, why shame is related to them, and how I can make a difference in my community.
I learned the power and strength I have when I trust myself and how to transmit that to others. All the issues this summative addressed are quite complex and I learned how to balance them, support my claims, and share why I am passionate about such issues and this sport and project.
It also changed the way I see fitness. I now see it as more of a balance between mental and physical health and exercise (mindfulness and physically).
Driving Question: How can I use webcomic style art to convey a message about mental health during quarantine?
Project Description: Daydream During Quarantine is a short story about a girl getting lost in her garden while thinking about her future, her goals and life in general.
What were your goals for this project? I really wanted to grow both my digital art and Japanese skills. Through this project I was able to grow both.
What were your takeaways from the project? Digital art is hard for beginners! I would really like to continue working towards making more digital art and bettering my technique in general.
Driving Question: How can I use my passion for applied physics to create an omni-directional treadmill?
Project Description: Nebula Model O is an omni-directional treadmill specified for virtual-reality gaming.
My goal was to design a functional, beautiful, and structurally sound omni-directional treadmill. Moreover, I wanted to use sustainable, very accessible materials like carbon-glass and other used in 3D printing.
Njeri’s Process Portfolio
The Fool’s Journey: A Look at my Creative Process
I will say, the look of the audience when I lead my presentation with “Hi I’m Njeri, and I am presenting an omni-directional treadmill I devised,” was very close to the best part of it all. It was a look that I am well accustomed to receiving; the look in between intrigue, and “what the heck is she on about?” The key, however, I have learned, is maintaining that perfect balance between eccentricity and conventionality to hold the intrigue of the audience. You see, the eccentricity is what feeds intrigue, but should it not be fed with the spoon of conventionality; you risk losing intrigue in favor of being tossed in the looney bin. It appears, however, that this process of maintaining a balance between sanity and insanity only applies to my presentation technique and not my decision-making process.
Till this day, it both haunts and fascinates me that, inspired by the Australia VR module, I decided to develop an omni-directional treadmill holding only a laughable amount of the prerequisites necessary for such a task.
Expert level understanding of engineering concepts, an understanding of how to use complex virtual engineering software, an advanced understanding of statistical mechanics, material physics? Allow me to laugh in announcing I had none of these.
Zero, zip, zilch.
Quite literally, all I had was an idea of how I wanted it to look, work, and feel, paired with an understanding of classical mechanics in my intellectual toolkit. For lack of a better way to phrase this, in terms of knowledge and skills, this project required a crane, a forklift, and an array of construction equipment, while I only had a small tool kit with a single screwdriver. So my decision, in choosing to build an Omni-directional treadmill may look like one of great hubris, it was one of a much more formidable nature; foolish.
As I embarked on my project, I had to painstakingly learn a six-month formal course on how to use the engineering software Fusion 360 in less than a month. This program served to communicate my idea into a physical form but did nothing to prove it’s functionality. And I was much more interested in functionality than I was in physical design.
In fact, the guiding question throughout the entire project was “Can spherical motion provide an Omni-directional experience, and to what extent is it feasible for the human gait?” The former part, I could only answer through countless simulations I ran. The overwhelming answer was a screeching yes. The answer to the latter, however, can only be theorized for now until a physical human-sized-model is printed and assembled. For now, the assumption is yes.
But you see, in presenting the burning questions that fuelled me through this project, I gloss over the most important part of it all: I had to stumble through it all like a fool. Because I did not exactly have someone to guide me through the janky technical aspects of it, I had to discover things for myself. Moreover, because I was essentially a blank slate in terms of scientific knowledge (in comparison to what I needed to know), I had to treat everything experimentally.
One example of this is when one component would exert far too much pressure on another, a singularity would occur every time I ran a simulation. So I observed it, recorded graphs based on this behavior, then googled it and found out that this phenomenon was statistical strain. It had been discovered more than 100 years ago and sat on the coattails of the theory of thermodynamics. I realized I was in a very unique position where these concepts were not just formulas on a university textbook, but rather something I was actively observing and working with in the most practical sense.
So while I was stumbling through this desert of knowledge as a directionless fool, my lack of direction allowed me to do what science is all about: ask and observe free of any biases. My acceptance of being a complete fool allowed me to skip the Dunning-Kruger curve all together in embracing that I know nothing, and thus birthing my greatest ambition — I want to know.
The truth of the matter is that from a surface level I did it. Against my own expectation (and anyone with even a sliver of reason), I actually managed to do it. Should I have the funds tomorrow, I could print out the human-sized version of the device and begin working on the electrical aspect of it. I could easily have a finished product in less than a year. But that doesn’t matter to me. Nebula is just a device, its inventor, however, as I discovered, is the most foolish, audacious, stupidly curious person who will get it done. That is the greatest discovery I got from this project.
And from this project, I have realized one thing for certain: as long as I live, I will create things, fail, and succeed, allowing the ocean of curiosity to guide my foolish mind.
So I shall leave you with this rhetoric that I continually ask myself: Does it take one to know, to do? or does it take one to do, to know?
Driving Question: How might I grow my creativity during the COVID-19 crisis through exploring the science of creativity and innovation and experimenting with art?
Project Title: The World and Its Viruses
Location: Wuhan, China
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them? I wanted captivate and express my creativity, something which I had been struggling with lately. So I decided to create a series of art pieces to express my perspectives and thoughts on the COVID-19 crisis through maps. By extensively researching my theme, receiving and applying feedback, as well as trying different techniques, I managed to express my creativity and perspectives through this unusual type of art.
What did you learn about yourself, your creative process, or your medium? I learned that creativity is not a state of mind, but an innate condition that people just do not cultivate.
Driving Question: How to grow in Spanish in a fun and unique way?
Project Description: For my project, I wrote a short story in Spanish using the skills I developed this school year. For inspiration, I used the nights spent under the stars in Patagonia and the odd assortment of dreams that came with them.
What were your goals for this project? How did you achieve them? My first and foremost goal was to learn Spanish, but I had no idea it would evolve to what it ended up becoming! To achieve this rather ambitious but straight forward goal I ended up employing multiple different techniques.
First I used the tried and true Duolingo learning app. While it did help it did not cover the topics I wanted to explore nor did it start at the level of Spanish I was at. For most of my Australia term, I ended up using the Duolingo stories since they contextualised the language more and were more interactive for my style of learning. I also ended up watching multiple Spanish language movies that were provided on Netflix with English subtitles. One that stood out to me was ‘El Hoyo’ about a futuristic prison.
Eventually, I ended up just writing and revising my Spanish with native Spanish speakers as they were able to answer my specific questions.
What are you passionate about that lead you to choosing this project? I wanted to challenge myself and as someone who did not excel in language studies in my previous school and even went as far as to quit Spanish and get a Pass in French to avoid my grade. I wanted to prove my past self wrong and to prove my present self that I could learn to love languages.
Did your project develop and change from your initial idea, if so how? My project changed significantly from primarily focusing on speaking to writing once the Chile term was changed. I previously hoped that my Spanish would improve once in an environment that forced me to start using the words I learned. However, later on I opted to focus on writing as it was something I could do more independently.
Driving Question: In what ways can the philosophy of decentralization and blockchain technologies be catalysts for disruption and efficiency for the modern business world?
Project Description: For our Panama module, we gamified the backend of blockchain technology to educate users on how blockchain works.
To do so, we developed the game concept of Metaminers with the aim of having users build their very own blockchain on a multiplayer platform. The goal of the game is to simplify blockchain technology in an approachable and fun way.
Players would play minigames to add blocks to their chain and receive rewards for completing blocks as they progress. Adding blocks to the chain leads players to chests containing rewardables that can be used to help solve problems. Players can also place rewardables in a marketplace where others can buy these cryptocollectibles and experience blockchain transactions on the Ethereum blockchain in the process. Throughout our process we spent time developing a wireframe of Metaminers including the game graphics and other assets. We also developed the structure for the games smart contract safeguarding our outlined game ethics with the aim to primarily ensure positive user experiences on the Ethereum blockchain.
May 20, 2020 by Traditional Chinese Medicine Students
Driving Question: How can we improve our health using Chinese concepts?
Project Overview: In the this module, we investigated how traditional Chinese medicine concepts can use artificial intelligence to improve our health. Through our two months in Shanghai, we learned about the core concepts behind traditional Chinese medicine, and in many instances we explored their uses ourselves.
With this background knowledge, we applied it to the creation of a software similar to a chatbot. The chatbot is used to diagnose and treat people using traditional Chinese medicine techniques and practices. NaiBot hopes to make eastern medicine accessible for newer generations as well as western audiences. We hope you take some time to see how the chatbot works and try it for yourself!
Driving Question: How can we create a board game that represents peoples personal experience with privilege?
Project Overview: Privilege Perusal fuses game design and social justice into what hopes to provide an education while being an enjoyable and engaging activity for people of all ages.
The premise of the game surrounds the idea of privilege. Players embody real life characters for the game which are created through interviews and investigations conducted. These players, which are chosen by a spinner at the beginning of the game, encounter scenarios throughout the game which will showcase different ending points that show the different privileges of people.
Through the project, we aimed to learn about privilege through firsthand experiences and hone our interview and communication skills. In addition, we wanted to use our creativity and art skills to make the game as beautiful as it can be.
