Tag: chen-weina

Weina Chen

Fierce Dynamic:
Visual Language (VOICE)
Contrast of Space 40-60% white space
Shape of Forms All strips
Orientation of Forms None at regular angles
Size of Forms Varied, all long strips
Placement of Form Always going off the page
Space between Forms Irregular

Objective Rules (assignment rules)
#1 Strips must go off the page
#2 No angles are regular to each other

Interpretation of Visual Language
What did you interpret to apply your rules? I interpreted fierce and dynamic to be full of movement, unpredictable, and shooting/zooming off the page
Explain your process. For this set, I created compositions with long lines to demonstrate movement and ensured that at least one end of the line was off of the page. I filled the white space more so than the other compositions to make a more busy and visually interesting feel. I was inspired by busy intersections or freeways. I tried to contrast the angles to show sudden changes in direction, as if something in motion was changing direction on a dime.

Whimsical Delicate:
Visual Language (VOICE)
Contrast of Space 75%+ white space
Shape of Forms All squares 1×1″ or 2×2″
Orientation of Forms Approximately at 90 degrees but intentionally slightly skewed
Size of Forms 1×1″ or 2×2″
Placement of Form Approximately centered, oriented vertically
Space between Forms Irregular

Objective Rules (assignment rules)
#1 All pieces are squares
#2 All angles are slightly misaligned
#3 No piece is quite symmetrical, but could approximately be made so with adjustments (intentionally asymmetrical)

Interpretation of Visual Language
What did you interpret to apply your rules? I interpreted whimsical and playful to be imperfect and slightly off-kilter but still cohesive as an image.
Explain your process. I was inspired by children’s toys and building blocks and how a kid will try and line things up in a line but end up having everything ever so slightly skewed. The whimsical and playfulness comes out to me in the slight misalignment of the squares. The square shapes represent the scatteredness of a whimsical piece, while also a nod to building blocks. The pieces look like they are on the verge of toppling over. It keeps the viewer on their toes while the slightly misaligned theme carries throughout to ensure that the pieces together are distinguished from the other sets.

Safe Efficient:
Visual Language (VOICE)
Contrast of Space 80%+ white space
Shape of Forms Square 1×1″ and 2×2″, 2×1″ strips
Orientation of Forms 90 degrees
Size of Forms Size is uniform, regular
Placement of Form Centered, symmetrical
Space between Forms 1 inch, 0.5 inch, 0.25 inch

Objective Rules (assignment rules)
#1 Maintain vertical symmetry, horizontal symmetry in some cases
#2 Linear arrangement
#3 Squares in each composition

Interpretation of Visual Language
What did you interpret to apply your rules? I interpreted safe and efficient to incorporate very regularly spaced, uniform squares arranged in a deliberate, methodical and predictable manner
Explain your process. I used 1×1 and 2×2 squares in every composition in order to reflect the orderly voice of safety and efficiency. I used a lot of white space in order to ensure that the compositions were minimalist and not superfluous. Each compossition has at least one line of symmetry. I was careful about even spacing in order to follow a set of “rules,” as a safe and efficient voice would exhibit. This set is easily identified amongst the others by its grid-like and orderly composition.

Data Visualization Workshop (Politicians of LA county)

What is your story?
Our group was assigned to play the role of the Politicians of LA county. We brainstormed several storylines that a local politician could adopt, perhaps for an upcoming election campaign or as a PR activity while in office. Possibilities included adopting a “tough on crime” stance, a campaign to celebrate the accomplishments of the police department, an appeal to increase or decrease funding for the police department, to pass a piece of legislation regarding the stop & frisk programs, or to develop a more effective stop & frisk program using data-driven evidence. Given the data set we had access to, our group settled on the story of a local politician who is advocating for reform of the police department’s stop & frisk policies through enhanced sensitivity training. We sought to highlight the inconsistencies in how the program was implemented and draw attention to the wide range of individual officer practices. We felt like a politician would adopt this stance to maximize efficiency and provide legitimacy to LAPD practices with concrete data while simultaneously appealing to the potential cost savings and social justice angles of the story. We also thought that we would get more credence as a politician running for office, if we offered a constructive and proactive measure to tackle problems as opposed to simply showing data.

How does the selected data support your story?
This is a table that shows the divisions who had over 5000 stop and frisks. There is clearly a large discrepancy between the success rates. Some areas are as low as 4% and some are as high as 50%. It seems like bias may be playing a prominent role in some locations and that may need to be addressed with bias and sensitivity training for officers.

Division

Number
of Frisks

Frisks
Ending in Arrest

VALLEY
TRAFFIC

53558

4%

METROPOLITAN
DIVISN

45679

50%

WEST
TRAFFIC

40917

5%

CENTRAL

34478

26%

CENTRAL
TRAFFIC

34368

4%

HOLLYWOOD

32014

31%

SOUTH
TRAFFIC

30556

7%

PACIFIC

27871

9%

SEVENTY-SEVENTH

26271

40%

SOUTH
EAST

25575

34%

SOUTH
WEST

23064

32%

NEWTON

21790

38%

NORTH
EAST

19612

25%

HARBOR

19246

29%

FOOTHILL

18201

43%

WILSHIRE

17955

19%

OLYMPIC

17898

24%

RAMPART

15552

32%

HOLLENBECK

14529

28%

VAN
NUYS

14506

31%

WEST
VALLEY

14328

15%

DEVONSHIRE

13990

14%

TOPANGA

13698

27%

NORTH
HOLLYWOOD

13567

17%

MISSION

12325

38%

WEST
LA

8046

14%

What data did you omit and why?
We did not look at any of the data about the person who was stopped (e.g. their race or gender). This is because our visualization focused on the story of how successful stops and frisks are and which officers may be making too many stops without leading to an arrest or citation. This is because as politicians we are interested in using our citizens’ tax dollars efficiently so we want to conduct training to help officers make fewer and more effective stops. (Note: For the purposes of this visualization we are defining successful stops as those that lead to post-stop activity. This dataset does not allow us to address whether the stop or the subsequent citation or arrest were justified on legal or ethical grounds nor does it address the efficacy of stop and frisk programs in terms of overall well-being. These questions are very important but are outside of the scope of this dataset and visualization.) We also did not include any of the time (date and time of day) data on the stops because we are interested in identifying trends for particular officers or divisions rather than looking for time-based trends.

How does the representation support your story?
We tried various visualizations to analyze efficiency of frisks – bar charts, line graphs, scatter plots etc. However, what stood out from a specific scatter plot (after we used Tableau to obtain a first look into what the data showed) where we plotted Stops per officer v Number of Successful Stops was that the efficiency of frisks was to a great degree, poor. In the representation below, while it was reasonable to expect less successful stops with less stops, the fact that officers making high number of stops returned poor turnover rates of successful stops stood out. By investigating individual officer turnover rates in correlation with graphs that explore location, times, ethnicities of people frisked in addition to a study of demographics of people living and travelling through these locations, we would devise a sensitivity training plan. We would also use this representation to monitor and target moving the dots to the right side as a short term measure, where we can see the overall increase of the number of successful frisks, and then moving the dots downward as a long term measure, where we increase the efficiency of successful frisks.

What visual metaphor(s) did you use, and why?
Since our unit of analysis for this visualization is an individual police officer, we used a scatterplot in which each dot represents an officer. The number of stops and successful stops are represented spatially following the convention of larger numbers being further up on the y-axis and further to the left on the x-axis. We also use color to encode divisions.

Weina Chen

Gestalt Principles —
Word Associations

A) Fierce and Dynamic
1. Fire
2. Changing
3. Bold
4. Raging
5. Fighting
6. Raging
7. Powerful
8. Strong
9. Piercing
10. Overcoming

B) Whimsical and Delicate
1. Asymmetrical
2. Child-like
3. Anthropologie
4. Playful
5. Imperfect
6. Miniaturized
7. Cute
8. Superfluous
9. Casual
10. Intricate

C) Safe and Efficient
1. Logical
2. Engineering
3. Tetris
4. Banking
5. Secure
6. Fortified
7. Satisfying
8. Practical
9. Institutional
10. Protected

For my first set of compositions, I was inspired by racing stripes, music equalizers, and long lines representing movement. This set is tilted at an angle and many pieces have directionality. I wanted to portray a sense of movement and direction through the long lines, arrows, and waves.
For the second set, I was inspired by small building blocks, a childlike and fun object. I purposely misaligned the blocks with each other in stacks to give a sense of imperfection, as if they were casually stacked together by a kid. I wanted to convey a playful tone with these pieces.
Finally for the third set, there is the underlying theme of the container at the bottom of the composition. The set is composed in the lower portion of the page, giving a sense of stability at the base. Simple geometric shapes that are always contained inside the base give the compositions a sense of safety and security.

Weina Chen

Because of some confusion in the first part of the assignment, my unexpected object has changed from the holographic (!) Pokemon card to this glass pitcher. It has a script “S” on the side of it, which makes me think it was snuck out of a Sheraton Hotel or something. I came across it my freshman year here at Cal at the Goodwill on University and Shattuck where I was looking for a liquid-container.

Pitchers like this one are often associated with summer, ice cold lemonade, drinks, and refreshment. This one probably had a great career at the hotel serving customers beverages, before it was taken home by some guests and retired from the hospitality world. I imagine it then having a nice retirement in a home with some small children who set up their lemonade stand with it during the Berkeley summers. Then, when the kids grew up, the pitcher ended up at Goodwill.

I bought the pitcher because I had just gotten a goldfish (Alameda, and he’s still with me!) and I needed a fishtank. At Goodwill that day though, this was the largest container they had — much too small for a goldfish. I ended up buying the pitcher as a temporary home while I secured a real fishtank for Alameda. Afterwards, when I would clean the fishtank, I would use the pitcher as a holding tank for the fish and plants while I scrubbed out their tank.

After freshman year, my housemates would always comment on my “fish in a pitcher” and that they “almost drank him” by pouring themselves a glass. The pitcher is so firmly associated with drinkable, fresh beverages that there’s an element of surprise when there’s a live goldfish swimming around inside! I’ve gotten many comments about “what a pretty pitcher” it is, which have always amused me because it’s a rather standard one. I think the unexpectedness combined with the novelty and beauty of the living creature inside elevates the rather mundane pitcher to one that is artistic and whimsical.

Funnily enough, my roommate, who I have been living with for almost 5 years now, saw me taking pictures for this assignment and commented “oh you’re cleaning the fishtank!” Perhaps this pitcher, at least when associated with me, has lost most of its beverage-associations and become a standard fishtank-keeping tool.

PS. no fish were harmed in taking these pictures. The fish in the picture is actually Stanley, who is Alameda’s friend.

Weina Chen

Object: Sushi roll

1) Sushi is first and foremost, delicious. I chose this object not only because I was hungry when thinking about this assignment, but because it is the intersection of art and food, and it can be taken apart into many components. Sushi holds fond memories for me as a food that brings friends together, because who can say no to sushi for lunch? It is a food that is assembled right before your eyes in a way that I can’t seem to replicate at home. So for this assignment, instead of trying to make it, I decided to take it apart.

3) If we looked at the whole world the same way I analyzed this sushi, I would say that the world would be much slower and more methodical. This made me realize just how quickly we make associations, and there is no really formal step-by-step process of doing it. You make snap judgments of this memory reminding you of this other time something else happened and it just pops into your head. Very rarely do I see an object and think about the scientific makeup of it, then analyze the shape that it takes and all of the other relations that it has to all the other objects I’ve encountered before. I think the interpretive step is what I skip to most quickly.
The interesting thing to note here is that I have been exposed to more artificial intelligence and machine learning during the last few months and I can see the merit in approaching the world in this way. For a computer that doesn’t have its own unique experiences, it could be important to systematically dissect each object or idea it encounters into associations following a general rubric. This way, we can “teach” the computer what makes sense together. So while it is not the way that I think, maybe it could be valuable to be able to see the world in this way.
Luckily, I still think sushi is delicious and staring at it in the poster for hours has not changed my mind! I think one of the themes that came up in a few of the components was ocean and marine ecology. While researching for the project, I read many sources talking about species of tuna and salmon that were endangered and how overfishing was impacting our oceans. It got me thinking that sushi could be a finite resource, and that maybe keeping it as a special treat is more sustainable than everyone eating it for every meal.

Weina Chen

Foods tried:
1. Apple Cider Vinegar
2. Lemon
3. Tomato
4. Peanut Butter
5. Dark Chocolate

Associations with each (before):
1. Sour, acidic, sharp, clean, heard about it as a shampoo substitute
2. Sour, garnish, refreshing, clean, eyes watering
3. Sweet, Italian food, surprisingly a fruit not a vegetable, versatile, gardening
4. Protein, nutty, filling, some people have severe allergic reactions, jelly
5. Bittersweet, romantic, comforting, delicious, deep

Associations with each (after):
1. Sweet after-taste, acidic in stomach, sugar substitutes, unexpected, honey-glazed balsamic sauce
2. Like lemonade concentrate, summer, Popsicles, lemon sorbet, surprise
3. Like sugar sprinkled on tomatoes, home, garden salad, fruit, juicy
4. Exactly like before, expected, everyday, normal, underwhelming
5. Exactly like before, expected, delicious, normal, still a nice treat

I was really excited to participate in this workshop because I was intrigued by how a food can change your perception of taste. Every time I am in a restaurant and the server uses elaborate words like “earthy, woody, musky” to describe food, I am taken aback by how many adjectives people use to detail what they eat. I was curious to see whether this workshop would let me in on some of those insights. As a result, I think I may have been too excited and had too high of expectations for the workshop. While some of the foods did taste differently, I think I expected a bigger change than there was. My associations only changed slightly for the more sour foods and tended to lean towards more dessert-y or summery associations because of the extra perceived sweetness. If food tasted like this once a year, I think I would make it a point to eat lemons on that day (I normally cannot stand the sourness of lemons), but otherwise my behavior might not be so different. If it was like that all the time, I think the novelty would wear off quickly and soon no longer be of interest. As frequency increases, I feel like my perception of excitement and surprise decreases as the feeling settles into normalcy.