#of course every environment and ecosystem has its own context

[waterfall-ambience]

“Evil X should’ve been a wasp to complement Beesuma because wasps are evil >:/”

You fool. You absolute fool. Evil X should’ve been a wasp because they’re also important pollinators. It’s just that people tend to be more scared of them and they do things like hunt pests rather than making honey. They’re overshadowed by their more appreciated bee cousins and that’s why it’s a great fit for the character.

#evil xisuma #hermitcraft #i was thinking about wasp!ex again and the discussions around it. yeah no im not gonna stand for that slander #of course every environment and ecosystem has its own context #invasive species of wasp wreaking havoc on the native ecosystem? cringe. horrid. a problem #demonising all wasps and calling them evil? also cringe but in a different way.

[blackbearmagic]

Hey 👋 Sterling said you might know about kudzu, it’s magical properties and uses. I’m also concerned about appropriation and don’t want to take from closed practices. Any insight would be much appreciated! Thanks 💜

Howdy hey!

I will preface this by saying that I actually don’t know much about kudzu specifically, because it hasn’t taken root (haha) in my area yet--but I can help you figure it out on your own!

I got into invasivecraft for two reasons: I’m a naturalist with great concern for the impact of invasive species, and I just wasn’t getting anywhere magically with familiar herbs and correspondences. I’d never seen anyone use invasive plants as invasives (ie, a spell bottle would call for mint, but the correspondences of the mint had no link to its growth as an invasive), and the potential appealed to me. I thought that, energetically and spiritually, these plants were probably hugely powerful; there was very little impeding their growth and spread physically, so what would stand up to them metaphysically?

My approach to invasivecraft is two-pronged, and involves science and spirit work. If neither of those is your strong suit, you may need to find your own approach, but if you’re down for at least one of them, my words might be useful.

So here’s the science portion.

To approach kudzu, I would recommend first getting to know the plant from a purely scientific perspective. Research its life cycle. Research its natural history. Learn everything you can about it.

While you’re reading, interact with the living plant. Harvest its parts. Dry it. Eat it. Make teas and tinctures. Burn it as incense. 

Disclaimer: Do all your research before putting anything in your mouth. Don’t eat or use parts of plants harvested near roads. Always be aware of the nearest water source; if you wouldn’t drink from it, don’t eat plants that were growing on its banks.

Get a pot of dirt and grow some kudzu. (And never ever ever ever keep that pot outdoors. Invasive plants are only to be grown indoors.) See if you can grow it from cuttings, or roots, or seeds. Observe how it grows. Observe how the leaves come in and the stems spread. Taste different parts of the plant in different stages of growth (if plant is safe to eat). Make notes. Make lots of notes. Absorb as many of the plant’s mundane aspects as you possibly can. 

Become an absolute expert on what kudzu looks, tastes, and smells like. Become an expert on where it came from and why it’s been so successful here. Read so many resources on it that you can start to tell that the author of website B clearly based their information off of what they read on website A. Read so much about it that it actually starts to bore you a little. 

As you are gaining this understanding of the plant, you will probably start to get a sense of what it might be “good” for magically. I did a decent breakdown here of how I find correspondences, using Giant African Land Snail as an example. Basically, I look at how the plant or animal was introduced to the ecosystem it’s disrupting, how it’s disrupted the ecosystem, and why it’s become so successful. This gives me context on how it became an Invasive Species, which gives me a sense of where its power lies in its new environment. Combine this with the knowledge of how the plant grows, and you will get a very good sense of how it does what it does--and how it might be able to help you.

Now comes the spirit work portion.

This part is based on some SPG among... frankly, I think a lot of people, which is the belief in big, archetypal entities that embody a species of plant or animal, representing all living and deceased members, embodying everything the species was, is, and will be. Some incorrectly refer to them as “totems”; I use the term “species-spirit”. 

So you will be meeting the species-spirit of kudzu.

How you go about doing this depends on your experience level and personal practice. If you’re already someone with spirit work experience, just do whatever you normally do to call on/summon/evoke/journey to meet a spirit, and go say hi. If you’re not experienced, you might find meditation--especially guided meditation--to be helpful. Look for one of those “find your spirit animal” ones; they’re appropriative and gross, but they have the same intent as what you’re trying to do.

Going off the example of GALS above, I firmly believe that imported snail shells from the species’ native region would be different energetically and in terms of magical potential than those collected from a region where it’s invasive. I feel that invasive species effectively have two species-spirits--one for the species as a native and one for the species as an invasive. I have only ever worked with Garlic-Mustard-the-Invasive-Species, and I imagine that Garlic-Mustard-the-Native-Species wouldn’t be anywhere near as haughty and stubborn. If you’re looking to unlock the species’ potential in the context of it being Invasive, you should study it and get to know its spirit there. So you may wish to specify that you’re seeking Kudzu-the-Invasive-Species.

So you’ve connected to the spirit of Kudzu. Now what?

Quite simply, start building a relationship with it. You’ve already gathered good information on kudzu; now it’s time to gather information on Kudzu.

Get a feel for its spirit. Is it loud and proud, or is it soft and sinister? Is it friendly? Is it rude? Does it address you in any particular way, and how does that make you feel? (ie, Garlic Mustard addresses me as “mammal”, which... is not wrong. And I’ve been called worse.) Does it want to be addressed in a particular way?

Talk to Kudzu about what it feels its strengths are. What does it feel comfortable helping you with? What does it think it will be best at? How does it think its parts can be best used? 

Ask what it wants from you, if anything. Does it want offerings? Does it want to be harvested in a particular way? Are certain parts of it off-limit for magical use? You may have gotten a sense for these things during the Scientific Approach, but really pursue them now. 

So that’s how I do things.

I look at invasivecraft as a way to find allies. As a descendant of immigrants and white settlers, I’m something of an invader myself in this land; I feel a kind of kinship with invasive species. Like them, I didn’t ask to be grown here, and I didn’t ask the generations that came before me to make such a terrible mess of things--but I’m here now, and I have resources at my disposal that I would be a fool not to use.

(Unlike every other invasive I’ve met, though, I do feel bad about the many “native species” that my ancestors have displaced, and I do try to minimize my impact on the ecosystem.)

When I do work with invasives, I’m not calling on the energy of the individual plant whose parts I use--I go straight to the species-spirit with whom I’ve made an alliance. When I use garlic mustard root in a spell to get a job, I ask Garlic Mustard to poison the soil for everyone but me. When I use its leaves for protection, I ask it to suffuse me with “bitterness” to discourage or even sicken things that may “eat” my growth. (Invasives do best with... “selfish” magic.) Each invasive I work with has its own unique alliance with me, and unique conditions for getting its help. 

Your experience, of course, could be quite different than mine. 

If you’d like to try my approach, by all means, do. I used to discourage people from working with invasives because of how powerful they are (and how uncaring they can frequently be), but so long as you take it slow and understand what you’re getting into, you should be fine.

#invasivecraft #witchblr #alexanderthewitch

[justaddgame]

Cooldown: The Other Monster in Monster Hunter

I don’t remember which monster it was, but just mere moments after its introduction there was this sudden “Aha!” moment as this nagging feeling I’d been having during my early hours with Monster Hunter Rise finally clicked. My Hunter was staring out into the depths of Shrine Ruins as he shouted to his cohorts “Let’s do this!” and this mystery feeling I had been wrestling with before finally had a shape to it. While the nature of Capcom’s popular Monster Hunter franchise appears cruel to some, I think there’s something worth considering that could help add a layer of depth for those wary to give a try.

We are the other monster in Monster Hunter.

The Other Monster in Monster Hunter Rise

Allow me to explain. The launch of Monster Hunter Rise on Nintendo’s Switch this year was met with critical acclaim from both critics and fans alike in a landmark entry—recently shipping 7 million units worldwide—in the long-running Capcom franchise that was born decades ago on Sony’s PlayStation 2 in 2004. Soon after its release in late March, however, I noticed a familiar conversation had developed among a few online outlets over concerns of the game’s main hook. Calling itself Monster Hunter leaves no surprises, and for some it evokes an uncomfortable feeling of relentless slaughtering. I think it’s worth considering the persistent theme existing throughout the series that depicts the monsters as something to be respected as much as they are feared. Because of this, nothing is wasted upon a kill, whether it’s in the use of new gear or vital materials to improve the lives of the community.

Still though, this discourse that surrounds the nature of the game seems to have persisted. Honestly, I get the feeling. I don’t think it’s unnatural at all to feel sorrow for the slain as you stand over them triumphantly. In Capcom’s defense, the monsters are endless—even the flagship monsters that adorn each game’s cover art—and the context behind the quests is often in the aid of the community under threat somehow.

Whatever your feelings may be on the subject, however, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for some to be put off by the context of these games. But my hope is for just one like this to find comfort in visualizing the Hunter in a different light. During my time with Rise so far, I like to think of the Hunter sharing a deeper connection to Monster Hunter’s world than as just a brutal killing machine.

My opinion? Hunters are no different than the rest of the monsters.

The Brain Thinks, The Limbs Fight, The Heart Races

I keep saying that, but what does it mean? So far it sounds like I’m only confirming those fears, right? But I don’t mean a monster in the tyrannical nature, but instead something like anything else you’d come across in Rise’s numerous quests.

In Monster Hunter Rise, players take the role of a Hunter within the village of Kamura, which has been bearing the brunt of monster attacks, all while a greater threat looms from the shadows. Like previous entries, you don’t have to take the task on alone. Palicos, the anthropomorphic felines of the Monster Hunter world, can be called upon to assist you in these hunts and provide numerous advantages in your quests. New to Rise is the Palamute, canine companions that are not only combat trained, but provide extra maneuverability to hunters allowing them to ride away from danger and climb to great heights much faster than on their own. The Hunter remains as the lead of the party, but this partnership is more ingenious than it appears on the surface.

In fact, I think it helps to illustrate the bigger picture: Hunters are not just mindless antagonists to the wildlife. On the contrary, one of Monster Hunter Rise’s fiercest monsters is the trio of Hunter, Palico, and Palamute and also one of many within the greater ecosystem. Each member provides a functional part and adds up to a greater sum to create something that as fearsome as any other monster.

First, take the Hunter, who provides advanced weapon handling skills as well as the vast knowledge of Rise’s bestiary necessary to topple each one efficiently. The Palico, meanwhile, provides crucial support when up against overwhelming odds. For example, think of some of the real-life animals and insects out there that have a defense mechanism—poison, quills, webbing, stingers. That’s the Palico. It’s the Hunter’s mechanism by way of laying traps and afflicting statuses to slow their target. Finally, the Palamute provides transportation and operates like a hidden hand to the Hunter, often distracting the monster so the other limbs can move in.

Working together as one, they create a unique and powerful team that’s awesome to observe and more so to be a part of it. One bout with the wily Bishaten and you’ll begin to appreciate the similarities these three share with the other monsters. When it comes down to it, they all rely on tails, claws, and whatever other tools are in their arsenal. The difference in appearance is merely for show.

Thriving in What Feels Like Home

This characterization only gets stronger as you take your first steps outside Kamura’s walls and into the Shrine Ruins, Rise’s initial area of exploration. It’s difficult to get a sense of these characteristics while spending time in the village, but this changes once out in the wild.

This is especially true for both Rise and its predecessor, Monster Hunter World, which first adopted open environments for players to freely explore, as opposed to individual zones from previous entries that loaded on demand. Quests are generally limited to a generous 50 minutes, and though you’re not likely to spend it all on one quest, especially given Rise’s ramped-up gameplay, it can be time well-spent gathering materials, studying the land, and engaging the wildlife.

But I think it’s in these two games where this extra time can be truly appreciated.

Like every other monster, Rise gives the player the opportunity to live on the terrain, if only briefly, and tap into the monstrous side of their crew. It’s the natural environment for a Hunter, where any restrictions fall away, and they can do what they do best. These moments are best illustrated by Rise’s soundtrack—lying still in the background while environmental ambience fills the void during gathering expeditions—before crashing in at the moment you’re spotted by something larger than yourself. After spending enough time out in the wild, Kamura begins to feel like a sanctuary from the dangers of reality. But that’s the most likely message, isn’t it? Any other monster has a place of security to retreat to, and Kamura certainly fits the bill for the Hunter.

The Titular Monster, Magnamalo, Stares Back at You

While the Monster Hunter series doesn’t necessarily dig down deep for a backstory to the player’s actions, it has been played around with here and there, while relying mostly on player actions. Rise is a more significant step this time around, with Capcom leaning on the tools provided by its in-house RE Engine to construct fun, if only a few, cutscenes to weave together enough engaging narrative in the single player component. Residents of Kamura have names as well as roles, and there’s a shared urgency to everyone’s efforts. Another one of those narrative elements is Rise’s flagship monster, Magnamalo, serving as something of a rival to the Hunter. You eventually tangle with it after a series of events foreshadowing the showdown, and the outcome serves as the game’s soft ending that leads into further adventures online with friends and strangers.

***Spoilers for Magnamalo’s fight***

I thought Magnamalo was a fascinating fight for several reasons, most of all because I saw things in this particular monster that wasn’t shared by others. For example, Magnamalo has a few characteristics that share an interesting similarity to the Hunter. First, we learn that it takes advantage of The Rampage, an event Kamura’s leader, Master Fuegen, alludes to as one of the greatest threats to Kamura’s survival. During these moments, several monsters siege the outer gates protecting the village in a coordinated attack. Magnamalo is apparently cognizant of this and is said to appear during these Rampages to feast on monsters, and we witness this ourselves as the story progresses.

Like Magnamalo, the Hunter participates in Rampages to acquire resources.

Upon coming face-to-face with Magnamalo for the first time, you may notice it fights with patience unmistakably like Hunters. Series veterans will be the first to tell you that best practice is to pay attention to what the monster is doing at all times in order to learn how to react. Magnamalo almost does something similar, choosing at times to fight at a distance, taking pot shots of energy released from its tail. It never seemed to be in a hurry until there was a sure opening.

In some ways, Magnamalo was like catching my reflection in the mirror. Our goals weren’t so unlike, and our methods were carefully crafted and considered. If Magnamalo, a monster, was like myself, how could I not be the same?

Don’t be Afraid to be the Other Monster

None of this is to say you can’t be uncomfortable with Monster Hunter.

I can understand people drawing real-world connections to the gameplay of Rise, I just wouldn’t take it that far myself. I can only take the context of the game and view it in my own perspective, and rather than concluding Hunters as sadistic, I choose to see them through the same lens as a creature like Magnamalo and the many others like it.

There may be other ways to help contextualize these games, I would welcome it. I think a counterpoint could be made from hunts never being depicted as sport, but, Arena Quests, admittedly, are hard to overlook considering these take monsters out of their natural environment. I can chalk that up to it being a video game—of course there’s challenges to do the thing as quickly as possible—and there’s numerous other things Monster Hunter does to gamify the experience all things considered.

I would like to see people try to crack that one. In the meantime, I’ll continue to believe, as I did in that moment on the Shrine Ruins cliffs, that we’re simply the other monster in Monster Hunter. Not a blight on nature, not an unfeeling killer, but a rival in a competitive environment for survival.

#writing #long post #video games #monster hunter #capcom #opinion #Cooldown

[fantroll-purgatory]

PROXIMIA, LAND OF DEEP WATERS

(Did I design a fanplanet for fun? Blame Hussie releasing the Epilogues for this. This is an extension of my broader thoughts on how Trolls are basically Space Orcs? Without further ado:)

PROXIMIA, LAND OF DEEP WATERS

PITCH: Sometime after the tribulations of The Sufferer and The Summoner and of Mindfang, Her Imperious Condescension decided to try an experiment. Could the troll species brood on another planet besides Alternia? Having two sources of soldiers would certainly make her conquest more swift. And if it didn’t work, no skin off of her horns- she has all of eternity to try again. However, things didn’t quite go as planned. Her fated Duel for that cycle never happened, as her Heiress apparent died in a freak accident, so there was a time where The Empress had to deal with her old Lusus. She loaded her Ark Enterprise with a young Mother Grub, as well as some hopefuls from every blood caste tier still in existence- Rust through Violet, though she had her doubts that anyone below Blue would survive the long journey to the planet she had selected within her empire.

When she left Alternia to return to overseeing, the Ark never arrived. She presumed them dead, and thought no more of it. But, the truth was much stranger…

  AU IDEAS ABOUT TROLL BIOLOGY: Trolls are an insectoid species with multiple metamorphic stages throughout their life cycle. They are brood parasites, and possess a relationship with the Mother Grub species that now neither can divorce themselves from. However, over the course of Troll Existence, the species that the Trolls initially resemble has changed, creating a bizarre and redundant genome that has the potential for many fantastic and visible mutations. From Spiders to Bulls, Trolls have been it all. Trolls are by design Crepuscular animals, in that they are most active during Twilight hours (such as Dawn and Dusk). Alternia’s overactive sun and impending environmental collapse have made their nights bright enough that true darkness never quite falls.

 God I do love this setup a lot. I like the idea that trolls are able to just pick up lots of variation. It makes me wonder if the lifespan and # split has a more functional role for trolls, too? Like, lowbloods can go out in Large Numbers, all over, and live relatively short lives where over generations they pick up biological niches that they can then propagate through the other blood colors via the Gene Slurry. It’s fun to imagine in this context what trolls might’ve been before coming to Alternia. It’d be hilarious to imagine they became less buglike and more mammalian/humanoid because of, like, musclebeasts. Be The Horseman.

You talk about sort of reciprocal mutations later down the line and I also wonder if that could be the case for trolls. Like, do trolls sometimes get wings on accident because mother grubs have wings? 

HISTORY: The Fuchsia that was to battle the Condesce did not die, she cleverly faked her demise and stole away onto the Ark in hemoanon. Her original intent was to steal away and die helping trolls for the rest of her long life, but things went wrong on the ship almost instantly. A solar flare from Alternia’s incredibly active sun fried the ship’s navigation as they were leaving the system, causing the ship to veer incredibly far off course. The panicking trolls needed a leader, and the woman who had spent her whole life leading stepped into the role.

When she revealed herself to be their rightful leader, the reaction was fierce. But, when push came to shove, she was the best person for the job. Eventually, her title became known as The Forgiven, who lead the trolls out of darkness and into light.

The journey lasted longer than anticipated, and more things went awry than could be accounted for. Soon after they had moved into dark space, the Mother Grub began to waste away due to a buried disease in her blood. The Forgiven transfused her own blood into the creature in an attempt to save her life (and her species’ future) because as a Fuchsia, she had the most blood to give. This worked, but something in the blood of the Fuchsia warped the Mother Grub. With all of her Jade replaced with pink, her body began to independently produce Fuchsia blood, effectively changing her caste. This caused freak mutations to occur, which warped her body into a semi-aquatic creature, conferred her massive psychic resistance, and, strangest of all, caused the now Forgiven Fuchsia to calm down in her presence. Gone was her deeply buried bloodlust, replaced with a surreal stillness in the presence of the Mother Grub.

Eventually, the Ark crash landed on a habitable planet far away from their intended destination. In a way, it was much like Alternia in that it had deep oceans and a temperature range easily habitable for trolls. It was a veritable paradise for both the cryogenically frozen lowbloods who had survived the many-sweep journey as well as the Highbloods who were awake for the entire trip.

The Forgiven took her Mother Grub, which she had begun to see as a personal Lusus, to a cave system not unlike the Brooding Caverns. In the center of the caverns was a deep pool down into the waters that make up the core of this unlikely planet. Here, the Forgiven decided to create her own society, that would be better, more humane than the world she left. For her part, she may have been right- but “humane” is a relative term. Once her society had existed for a number of sweeps that she deemed enough to ascertain its survival without her, the Forgiven descended to the bottom of the sea, far out of the reach of even other Fuchsias, on a quest even her closest companions could not fathom.

In the modern day, Proximian society has progressed to a point that modern Proximian Trolls are taking to the stars and attempting to replicate their success on other planets within their solar system. This has left Proximia with a much lower Adult to Teen ratio than one would expect.

 A really good justification for keeping the story Teen Focused as is the case on Alternia! I do have to wonder what I always wonder about these sort of aus- Are they worried about being found or have they decided they’re out of probable radius and safe? Do they take any precautions against being found? Or do they think they could take the Condesce if she did find them? 

ENVIRONMENT: Proximia is a hothouse planet, characterized by heavy rainfall, higher than average oceans, and very small polar ice caps. Proximia therefore is primarily a rainforest planet, being more tropical towards the equator, and temperate on the northern and southern extremes. Landmass is less than Alternia, but still decently spacious. The ecosystems have undergone several radical changes since the Troll species arrived, which will be detailed later under whose responsible for each change.

  CHANGES TO THE HEMOSPECTRUM

While the biological blood castes of Alternia still exist to an extent, the changes to both the Mother Grub as well as to society have redefined the entire system. The Forgiven decreed that no longer would blood be a line, but a loop. Each caste needed to pull their weight in order for the species to survive. This has create a more egalitarian society.

The Fuschiablood that permeates the Proximian Mother Grub has extended the lifespan of lowbloods born from the Grub, but oddly, reduced the lifespan of highbloods born from the Grub. Proximian Biologists theorize that it is some kind of enzyme or hormone must exist within the Fuchsia coloring that clamps down on Highblood cells. Or something. They’re not really quite sure about the science of it all yet.

The Limebloods have returned anew on Proximia as full members of society. Mutants on Proximia are not culled immediately. Instead, they are divorced from all castes, and are considered a sub-caste to Fuschia. This will be expanded upon in the Fuschia writeup.

While the Hemospectrum has turned into a cyclical hierarchy, the actual use of the blood castes is in groups of three, known as the Hemotriads.

 Creating a triad system is a great way to break them up, very clever. 

THE HEMOTRIADS

The Hemotriads are the backbone of Proximian Society. While different groups have broken off and move around the planet, they are tied by their adherence to the Triad model.

  The Carving Triad: Bronze, Lime, Purple

The Carving Triad are the Triad responsible for taming the planet and making it habitable to Trolls. All three castes have some measure of psychic prowess, but each has a particular focus that separates them from the Controllers.

Bronze: The Tamers quell wildlife, making them docile and turning them on their fellows. You don’t tend to find Bronzebloods within cities, as their talents are in such demand throughout the planet.

Lime: The Converters were so feared on Alternia because of their innate ability to warp wildlife into new forms. On Proximia, their birth on the planet signaled the beginning of Lusus naturae, native animals of the planet becoming tied to the Troll species and losing their pigment.

Purple: The Subjugators are the defenders of the Carvers, using their psychic powers to keep dissidents in line, and physically destroy any who dare get in the way of their mission, animal, alien or troll alike.

 I of course have to ask the question if there are any ways that purple Rage is kept in line. Is it something that’s been soothed developmentally over time? Or are they partnered with limes who help steady them? Have they found some substance on-planet that keeps them level? Or do they just let the purples go full Red-Eyed Murder Clown Party Hours? Did anything of the story of the Messiahs survive over to Proximia, or is Clown Church completely cancelled? Have any other religions sprung up to replace it? 

The Throne Triad: Fuschia, Jade, Indigo

The Throne Triad live in the Brooding Caverns, where they focus on defending the Mother Grub and rearing the next generation of the Troll species. Together they form the core of Proximian society.

Fuchsia: The Sustainers live in the waters directly below the Brooding Caverns, and it is their role to keep the Mother Grub alive, and to ensure that the grubs make their way to the dry land of the caverns.

Mutants: The Chosen live in the caverns surrounding the Brooding Pool, where they are clients to the Fuchsiabloods. Their job is to be the last line of defense against any and all threats, as well as to cull any wigglers who cannot make it out of the caverns.

Jade: The Infiltrators are the Throne caste most likely to leave the Caverns. When they enter a settlement in full Green, all goes silent. Traditionally masquerading as other castes when they leave the caverns, Jades root out dissidents and threats to society before they become too big to handle.

Indigo: The Builders are the innovators of Proximia. Focused on the future of both their own caste as well as the Troll species, the Indigos build rocketships and training gyms in equal measure. They are considered the second line of defense to the Mother Grub, with Jade being the first.

 This is funnn. Okay, I do have to ask about Rainbowdrinkers in this society. Are they more or less common? Nonexistent? How do trolls feel about them? Revered and/or feared or are they generally accepted? It seems like over time, Alternia developed to think of them as something as a beauty standard (see: that makeup product I told you about that’s meant to mimic their shimmer). Did ideals on Proximia happen to Converge with that, given the status of the Jades? Since caste living spaces are changing over time, could it be that rainbowdrinker traits start bleeding into other castes? 

This cavern arrangement also definitely implies wrigglers are aquatic. Do they experience a tadpool phase and grow up onto land? Do they all retain some of those aquatic features or do the traditionally landdwelling bloods lose all echoes of that? 

The Control Triad: Burgundy, Cerulean, Gold

Scientists and thinkers in equal measure, the Control Triad is linked by their primary colors as well as their psychic powers. The Controllers often fill the upper echelon of Proximian society, despite its claims of being truly egalitarian.

Burgundy: The Speakers can move both the dead and the living with a combination of necromancy and telekinesis. Often responsible for the creation of many troll cities, Burgundybloods are very cosmopolitan, and are seldom found on the frontier.

Cerulean: The Twisters with powers over the mind, are often the enforcers of Proximian law, working closely with Teals and Jades to deal with threats and criminals. “Blue Rules” is often a turn of phrase used to refer to Cerulean caste allowance of brainwashing criminals for reformation.

Gold: The Medics are programmers, doctors, and disability advocates upon Proximia. Due to their caste-specific disease of Voidrot, it became a necessity for the early Golds of Proximia to learn medicine on top of their Alternian technological training.

 This could be a fun one to play with, especially if you play with the idea of proximity to the furthest ring. Does goldblood voidrot get more common the farther they get from the protective layer of good old Glub Glub? Outside of intratriad interaction, do golds and blues often find themselves working together considering the hard/software sort of split we see here? We know from Equius that on Alternia, blues are oft associated with the craft of prostheses. (You could also consider how prostheses themselves might change on Proximia, though. Do they go from metal to more biotech with the advent of the Gold Doctor?)  

The Worker Triad: Olive, Teal, Violet

The most common of the Triads, the Workers keep society going, and are found everywhere there are Trolls. While not the most glamourous of the Castes, without them, everyone would starve and society would collapse in on itself.

Olive: The Farmers were the first Trolls on Proximia who tamed the land after the Limes and Bronzes made it habitable. Olives are notoriously lucky, and those who don’t go into agriculture (such as those in big cities) often make big names for themselves in entertainment and other flashy industries.

Teal: Known as The Keepers, The Tealbloods found that the nascent Proximia was the perfect place for them to be themselves. Found abundantly in cities, the Teals are primarily lawmakers and judges.

Violet: The Sailors, in the early days of Proximia, were never far from the Forgiven’s side, though her commands were for them to create pathways for the Carvers to reshape the planet. Violets, as a Seadwelling caste, have pockets of insular cities under the sea, but the majority of them are sailors, fishermen, and public transit workers.

 We’ve talked about it before, but trolls do seem to be omnivorous with a carnivorous bent. And Olives are, at least somewhat (because of Nepeta, at the very least) associated with hunting. Does this caste take care of hunting, too? Or do they do ranching? Or have troll diets shifted completely to rely more on plant matter than on meat? Did they pull a panda on us? 

Design Notes: Proximian Trolls wear their blood colors proudly, regardless of what colors those are. To wear primarily black is seen as juvenile, similar to presenting as Hemoanon. Even mutant bloods with odd blood colors often scrounge up things that match their inner selves.

Really good, really fun. All around love this! Thank you for submitting. 

-CD

#sonatinetheworld #fan planet #submission

[hasty-touch]

33. Does your character respect nature, or would they stomp on it if it meant their benefit?

For “FFXIV deity asks” meme!

This one you’ve picked is, I think, particularly interesting, especially for Rosaire.

Pretty much all my characters love and/or respect nature to some degree. Some (Viviko) do so in a more sentimentalized, naive way, where “loving nature” means loving birds and flowers and vistas without really understanding the breadth, complexity, and danger that nature contains. Some (Hyacinthe, Mrhael, etc.) understand well that danger and darkness, that civilization and nature struggle against each other, but still respect it and believe in the importance of living harmoniously with it (because that is in civilization’s best interests). Some (Valroit) similarly understand that nature is harsh and cruel, but also see in it the sublime and beautiful, and that nurture, kindness, and creativity exist in nature too – and so love and honor it, and believe earnestly in growing civilization together with nature in the least harmful, most mutually beneficial way. Across this diversity of beliefs, none of them would really feel right about heedlessly exploiting and harming nature. Even those who are pretty OK with the exploitation of nature, out of self-interest and/or belief that it is Spoken’s Twelve-given right to enjoy nature’s bounties (i.e. Denisot), still care about preserving it for future generations, which means respecting an ecosystem’s balance (even if the character might not have the vocabulary to say that with sophistication).

Besides Rosaire, Kharadai probably has the most developed and interesting view of nature – along the lines of, “nature vs. civilization is a false dichotomy, every being is a part of the world and simultaneously in harmony and discord with other beings.” He’s deeply suspicious of narratives along the lines of “we live in harmony with nature, the same as our ancestors have since the dawn of time, unlike [those other tribes]”, instead suspecting that all organisms are selfish and will exploit each other for their own ends. Spoken just have the advantage of being able to see the bigger picture, and it’s in their best interests not to upset the balance of the star – which is bigger than all of us and not necessarily benevolent.

– Anyway, if you thought that was long-winded, I’ll describe now Rosaire’s conception of nature and man’s relationship to it.

Rosaire is Ishgardian Orthodox and deeply religious, even if his beliefs aren’t quite as orthodox (har har) as some might imagine. His beliefs about nature follow from his faith, chiefly his belief in the covenant made between Halone and Thordan’s people.

Coerthas is the Promised Land, and (as the knight Loanne says in the quest “The Pecking Order”) “the Fury has given us dominion over all creatures of this land.” To Rosaire, however, this is not a privilege that can be complacently assumed: it requires that Ishgard’s people worship the Fury and preserve Her Church. Further, Rosaire believes that if Coerthas is Halone’s gift to the Ishgardians, it is sacrilege to defile and abuse that gift.

In truth, Rosaire is a city man who spent most of life indoors, even before the Calamitous winter; in his twenties and thirties he was involved in a few covert missions in the countryside and the Dravanian forelands, but even he sometimes has a hard time believing that on a few of those, he actually camped out in the wilderness with a bedroll. Him! Yet while it is true that he feels close to Halone in the chapels in the city, and he goes to look upon Her statue in Saint Reymanaud when he aches for Her guidance – in truth, it is in the Coerthan countryside – sometimes gazing across the summer meadows in blazing green or the autumn fields in dark gold, but most oft when looking up at the white-topped mountains, majestic and sublime, graceful, brutal, sharp blades sweeping up to the sky that at the same time gently cradle the vales between – that he has felt Her presence most strongly, the divine hand that sculpted the most perfect land in all of Hydaelyn.

That land was not intended by Halone to be preserved in the state She created it. When dominion over it was given to Thordan’s people, it was Her intention that they cultivate it to support the civilization that would practice Her religion. But the correct way of life for the Coerthan people is one that fit harmoniously into the environment that She sculpted, not one that tries to impose the lifestyle of their southron, plains-dwelling ancestors. The Coerthans farm the lowlands and graze livestock on the alm, drive pigs through the forests, hunt and fish its wild beasts, and pick the fruits of their mountain orchards. Such practices are their divine right – and it is their Goddess-given responsibility to preserve and cultivate the riches of the land for future generations.

Such feelings are one of Rosaire’s motivations for devoting this part of his life to the Alpine Greening Institute. To most people, he tends to emphasize the Institute’s humanitarian motives – the need to restore dignified livelihoods to displaced Coerthan farmers, to lower the damn price of bread, and ultimately to relieve the overcrowding of the Brume. (To self-interested nobles, he tends to emphasize how these moves work to their benefit as well, and how something must be done to head off starvation if they want to preserve Ishgard’s social stability.) But there is this religious motive, too. Coerthas was given to the Ishgardians by Halone, and they cannot give up on it. They must adapt, just as their ancient ancestors must have struggled and adapted when first moving to Coerthans from the southron plains – ideally, they will be able to preserve the most important parts of the traditional Coerthan way of life, but above all they cannot cast aside their agreement with Halone that they will steward this land.

And “stewarding the land,” to Rosaire, means shaping it for the benefit of its Spoken inhabitants. He has an implicit belief in a Great Chain of Being, with Spoken superior to all other creatures; therefore their needs supercede all others’, and they have a right to rule over and exploit the rest. (As a tangent, Rosaire congratulates himself for his enlightenment in thinking of this category as “Spoken”, not “the Five Races” or “[Alpine] Elezen”, believing himself exceptionally anti-racist, while you and I would probably consider this more of a bare minimum. But this is a topic to ramble upon another day.) Spoken, of course, are inferior to the gods, and ideally the Spoken will rule over lesser beings -- the gods’ creation -- with sensitivity, compassion, and care. But if it is necessary, those beings can be manipulated, tamed, and culled for Spoken benefit. It is his hope, therefore, that the Alpine Greening Institute will be able to restore the old livelihoods of Coerthas with minimal change needed -- but if their research indicates that radical changes are necessary, possibly with dramatic side-effects for the environment, he would stand in support of them.

So ultimately Rosaire has an attitude to nature with echoes of -- hm, not sure if this is exactly accurate, but I think I’d say -- a mixture of 17th-18th century European (especially English, probably ‘cause thats the language I speak) ideas and aesthetics. There is an idealization of nature, but it is a sort of nature that is tamed and ordered by the hands of man and God(dess). “The land of Coerthas” is a priceless, treasured gift, and yet Rosaire is troubled little by dam-building, wood-clearing and artificial plantations, introduction of foreign species, etc., as long as these are in harmony with the religious ideal of the land. The idea of the picturesque resonates with Rosaire and I often try to pull on the surrounding tropes -- the idea of the medium between untamed, awe-inspiring nature and the order of a mannered garden, applied to an entire land, and how that resonates with Ishgardian national identity. They are the city-state of poncy nobles who fought a thousand-year war, who survive in the harshness of the rugged highlands and there built an ornate and even decadent religion and culture, much like the very temple of Halone built on the mountain that rises from the Sea of Clouds.

When working on Greening Coerthas stuff, I think a lot about how Rosaire’s attitudes would differ from ours -- “green” is a buzzword for us, too, as is “climate change”, but these mean something different to us, living in the time and place we do. I think about the brazenness that I see in the European inventors and agriculturalists of the Industrial Revolution (and other places/periods like the atomic gardening movement) -- there’s a fascinating mix there of foolhardy confidence in human ingenuity, grotesque entitlement to the land, and yet also optimism, hope, and vision. I think about how those sorts of beliefs and feelings might emerge in an Eorzean context and try to blend that in to my roleplay, so we’re not just roleplaying “farming in Eorzea,” but “farming in Eorzea”, embedded emotionally and ideologically in the landscape of this setting.

And also, as you have come to realize by reading all the way to the bottom here, it is a terrible mistake to send me asks for ask memes because I can and will talk endlessly and meanderingly about these things. WHOOPS.

Photo above is "Hintersteiner See with the Alps in Tyrol, Austria" by Uwe Schwarzbach('s mom), CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

#galla-xiv #meme answers // #rosaire ledigne #greening coerthas #ishgardian orthodoxy #rambles // #thanks for the ask! #SORRY FOR THE ANSWER.

[dragimalsdaydreams]

Self

basically a rewrite of some old olddd worldbuilding. I’ll be weaving together ideas from different sources and various religions (Vine Deloria’s writing in particular has been a huge inspiration), so bear w/ me

I also like to write these notes from the perspective of a researcher in that world-setting lmao

the simple explanation is that Self is what we colloquially refer to as soul/spirit/energy/magic

~Basics~

Self is the energy that results from the goings-on of the physical world-- from large-scale geologic movements, to the micro-reactions occurring in our bodies at a cellular level. This energy has many other titles depending on the field of research, but within realms such as metaphysical study, philosophy, and sociology, most refer to it as Self. This reaffirms of the intimacy of the energy and the role our self-- as a concept-- plays in the overall web of existence. Though many have taken to colloquially calling Self “magic”.

Self is present throughout all matter, as every atom reacts with the space and matter around it. The energy release from these interactions results in intent-- a kind of consciousness that can further lead to thought, memory, and emotion, depending on the circumstances. Thus, all that exists automatically produces some degree/kind of consciousness.

The kind and arrangement of atoms result in unique interactions, thus unique configurations of resulting Self. Areas of high energy transfer and accumulation produce highly-active Self configurations, where Self can itself become a factor of change and influence. Such areas are found around ley-lines, living cells (especially neurons), and modern electrical designs. 

However, this is not necessarily a hard and fast rule, as many MANY factors affect how Self manifests, as discussed in the following section.

~Manifestation as Souls~

When Self gathers into a cohesive being, it is generally considered a soul. This doesn’t mean the soul is disconnected from the rest of the Self around it, but that it is merely identifiable as a unique configuration with active intent.

There are many ways Self can organize into souls, but they usually follow one of four main courses. Though these courses usually combine and affect one other such that it can be difficult to point to one specific cause:

- Physical Space/Matter: The Physical organization of atoms naturally produces and organizes the Self around it. Individual organisms most readily produce Self due to their cellular activity, and especially as distinct neurological structures develop and increase in complexity. Groups of organisms may also lead to ecosystem-wide souls, which some ecologists refer to as the Self-equivalent of a superorganism. Ley lines also produce highly-active Self which often coalesces into cohesive beings with personalities, especially as ecosystems develop and further mold the soul of the place. Electronics also interact with Self in fascinating ways, though the specifics of these interactions are poorly understood due to their relative novelty in the course of human history.

- Events/Time: While physical matter is obviously a huge factor in Self interaction, time also plays a distinct role. Geologic/ecological time, for example, helps configure a location’s soul as tectonic plates shift and ecosystems are birthed. Memories of these various shifts in ecology and space are stored in the Self of the place and can be accessed by various means. Some events (catastrophic weather events, wars, etc.) may release a great amount of energy in one particular location, which could coalesce into a soul of sorts. Sometimes this manifests as a particularly strong imprint on the location’s memory, leading to a strong emotion or particular action at the event that develops an intent beyond the event.

- Refusal to Return: Ghosts, basically. Most organisms’ souls break down and return to the surrounding mass of energy and the cycle of creation at the same rate as the physical bodies that hold them. The timing of this breakdown can vary depending on the state of the physical body, the Physical/Self environment, the emotional stability of the soul, etc. but this is generally the case. Some of these souls, however, persist after death. Without a material body to contain and organize this Self, these souls usually warp over time into an unhealthy echo of what they once were. Though not always-- ley lines in particular are common safe havens for wayward souls. These souls will still shift into new forms over time, but in this circumstance they don’t necessarily shift into an unhealthy/unstable configuration.

- Intent: The power of belief is not to be underestimated. The intent of a being (or several beings) can be powerful enough to produce/gather Self into a soul that matches whatever entity or power the beings in question believe to exist. Over time, this soul may even gain enough energy to persist on its own and further affect the beliefs of other beings. Though a soul usually isn’t created just through intent-- even with this power, creation of a soul from scratch is fairly difficult. Typically a soul already existed (sometimes a ghost, other times the soul of a place, etc.), and the power of belief bolsters the soul over time.

The definition of soul can be very subjective, so some folks may not consider many of these configurations proper “souls”. It’s all about perspective-- the soul of a place, for example, can be hard to get a grasp on when it stretches for miles and millennia beyond human perception.

~Communication and Connection~

Communication is the crux of any and all Self manipulations. To use Self is to have a mutual conversation with that energy-- both sides must be able to properly communicate, or the connection can’t initiate and project properly. For example, places and non-’sentient’ energies will respond most readily to the species/communities which naturally developed and flourished there, simply because these energies evolved and developed right alongside those communities. In turn, those species/communities will more instinctually/subconsciously connect to the energies of their homes, whereas they will have to actively search out connections to Self in foreign lands.

While there is wiggle room in terms of communication gradients/overlap (though there may still be hiccups via miscommunication), usually any foreigner will have to train in the Native techniques of the area in order to manipulate any of the Self there. Of course, the non-sentient energies of a place can learn new Self languages just like any other more cohesive soul. However, it’s much harder for one single foreigner to force their language on an entire ecosystem of Self, rather than that foreigner simply learning the language of that area’s Self. Cases where areas are able to learn significantly different Self languages generally involve the influence of entire communities over several generations, to put this into perspective.

These Self language barriers are why the most renowned human magical practitioners are multicultural in either dance, language, or artistic technique-- they are “jacks of all magics”, so to speak. Some areas that are naturally more open to multicultural approaches include ley lines and (interestingly enough) flowing water sources such as rivers and coastal areas. 

~Contracts~

While there are many ways to conceptualize the process of Self manipulation, a common concept is that of the Contract. This concept typically follows four steps:

- Focus: The individual in question must locate the subject of their manipulation in the cacophony of Self around them. (Many magical practitioners call this step the “Search”)

- Contact: The individual must recognize/interpret the language their subject’s Self uses, and project their own presence to their subject via their own soul’s Self. If the subject replies in kind, the contact was successful. (Many magical practitioners call this step the “Greeting”)

- Intent: The individual must communicate the intent of their contract to their subject. The subject will then reply with the conditions required for such intent. This back-and-forth may continue further, depending on the conditions and willingness of the subject. (Many magical practitioners call this step “Bargaining”)

- Application: If both sides agree to the conditions at hand, the results that the individual communicated to their subject will be performed by both sides. (Many magical practitioners call this step the “Alliance”)

The complexity and time needed to complete a contract varies heavily depending on the ‘sentience’ of the subject in question. Non-sentient energies are very easy to connect to (given you know their language), and their contracts can be completed within a fraction of a second as the intent from both sides is communicated through quick/accessible mental imagery. More sentient souls may require a more complex discussion of terms before an exchange of their Self/services, as discussed in the next section.

~Equality and Context~

Equal exchange is vital on a purely physics/metaphysics level, as manipulation/matter cannot simply be pulled out of the void (barring some exceptions, which the messy web of life is always prone to). Thus, the bare-bones of a contract must meet these terms of equal exchange at the very least, or else a contract cannot be performed. 

However, the ‘equality’ of exchange beyond this point can depend heavily on the situation and Self in question. While non-sentient Self usually only requires a simple equal exchange of matter/energy, sentient beings with active intent may require something more elaborate before gifting you their power/material. Common examples of their requests may include: the recitation of elaborate poetry, services owed, personal body parts, etc. What is asked of you may mean nothing to you, but everything to the entity you’re entering into contract with-- or vis-versa. Thus the ‘equality’ of many contracts must be decided case-by-case, between the individuals/entities in question.

In addition, young practitioners often forget that they are subject to being propositioned for contracts as well-- contracts are not a one-way street! In these cases, the focus step is obviously not necessary, as the other side of the contract has already searched and found you. I only note this because young practitioners don’t yet have the experience to recognize a greeting when they themselves aren’t the ones to first initiate, especially when the greeting is from non-sentient Self. Be mindful of the world around you, and know that you do not step through it alone, for all the good and bad that brings.

Young practitioners should also be aware that they are allowed draw terms when loaning their own Self as well. Do not be timid in these exchanges! You are allowed to draw bounds and terms for the protection of something as intimate as your Self, just as any other being has the same right.

~Abilities/Powers~

All beings have unique sensory connections to Self based on their species, community, individual personalities, etc. This affects both the language used for connection, and the unique abilities these beings may perform.

Human Self language is based largely on the:

- Physical: movement/position, direct touch

- Visual: art, written language, display

- Audio: vocal language, instruments

Some argue that physical connection is the most important component for humans, and I’m inclined to agree. Our psychological states and social structures are so heavily touch/body-based, I wouldn’t doubt that our Self is similarly grounded in touch.

Either way, most cultures utilize different combinations of all these approaches. This often results in the use of dance, song, prose, and props/fashion to form connections-- performance at its finest. From the powerful beats of a drum, to the elaborate patterns embroidered on a cloak, the intimate rhythms reflected between body, mind, and environment are embraced in countless, stunning ways.

Human manipulation of Self is usually focused on the manipulation of physical matter. This can be applied in many different ways, such as the construction of tools/objects, terraforming, the healing of the body, etc. While humans are certainly not limited to physical manipulation, there’s little doubt that our grounding in touch as a language manifests in a similarly physical result in manipulation, in most cases.

#bangin' out some more notes don't mind meee #this is also like. kind of how I actually think the world works.. #minus maybe the magic-specific stuff? that's more worldbuilding on my part #self #magic #notes #SHUT UP ASHLEY

[architectnews]

My ArchiSchool spotlights 17 student architectural projects

A playground for dogs and a holiday boathouse designed to educate children on animal protection are included in Dezeen's latest school show by My ArchiSchool.

Also included are self-standing modular units designed to address sustainable development in Hong Kong and a teahouse designed as a retreat for stressed city workers.

My ArchiSchool

Institution: My ArchiSchool

School statement:

"My Archischool provides an introduction to architectural education and digital design for those seeking knowledge and skills to aid their future career aspirations.

"The Hong Kong-based organisation offers in-person and online courses to help young people develop 3D modeling skills that can be applied to future careers in architecture and urban planning. Geared towards children and teenagers between the ages of six and 18, the various stages of tuition start at the beginner level and progress to cover a range of tools, interfaces, and outputs.

"One-off classes allow students to get a taste of the available courses and teaching styles. A variety of program packages are offered to those wishing to develop a wide range of skills over several sessions. These include writing and portfolio development, while the most comprehensive package concludes with an exhibition of student work after eight months of study.

"One of the digital tools taught through the programme is the 3DExperience Platform developed by Dassault Systèmes, which allows students to build in and manipulate 3D digital models of cities like Hong Kong and Paris."

Designing my Floating Restaurant for All Climate Conditions by Antonia Villet

"When faced with the increasing frequency of flooding, what can we do to get prepare?

"Villet has designed a beach-side restaurant. The main restaurant area is elevated from the beach. The roof is a wooden cantilevered structure, open towards the seaside. Guests go up the restaurant along a long ramp or a staircase. It is always accessible despite the water level.

"Villet used an adaptive approach, designing a flexible building that can quickly adapt to different climatic situations."

Student: Antonia Villet Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: antonia.villet[at]gmail.com

Designing my Teahouse with 100 per cent renewable energy by Oscar Chung

"To embrace the biodiversity, what can we do to support the ecosystem of our city?

"Chung has designed a teahouse that runs on renewable energy. The roof serves as a 'bird hotel' for the migrating birds passing by. Food and water freshly harvested from the teahouse garden are served when sensors detect the bird's motion.

"People would eat their tea upon the open deck below (under the organic form of the roof) and enjoy the sounds of birds. As a result, Chung has developed an ideal partnership between humans and nature."

Student: Oscar Chung Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: oscarchungbk[at]gmail.com

Designing my Floating Restaurant: A City Island by Annecy Hui

"How can we uphold the quality of living during the lockdown?

"Inspired by the loneliness aroused when lockdown happened, Hui has designed a restaurant as an island. The upper level is the main dining area, with the lower deck served as the arrival and departure hall.

"Based on the geometry of the semi-hemisphere, every table is facing outward towards a sea view."

Student: Annecy Hui Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: annecyhui0[at]gmail.com

Designing my School accessible for All by Abigail Shih

"What can we do to design a more inclusive society? Particularly educational facilities?

"Shih has designed a school located on the waterfront. She designed the classrooms under an exoskeleton, which allows all rooms to face outwards.

"Such a design was inspired by the tents of a campsite which mitigated the various levels of the ground. Different site conditions can be easily turned barrier-free. This articulation of rooms provides a better acoustic separation of each room."

Student: Abigail Shih Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: abigailshih97[at]gmail.com

Designing my waterfront Restaurant for people with their dogs by Na Kyung (Arlene) Lee

"What can we do to support the friendship between dogs and humans?

"Lee has proposed a dog playground in the city, where dog-friendly facilities like open space and running areas will be provided.

"The ground floor is designed to be very spacious for people and their dogs to exercise together. The idea of mutual support between humans and dogs creates a better quality of city living."

Student: Na Kyung (Arlene) Lee Course: Architectural Design Program 1.0 Email: arlenenk.lee[at]gmail.com

Designing my Floating Restaurant with a courtyard by Alanna Mak

"How can we farm more sustainably? Let's start it from our kitchens!

"Mak has designed a green restaurant with a garden, from which people can harvest home-grown vegetables and fruits. The main dining area is inside an elongated vault allowing natural sunlight throughout the day whist sufficient shading is be provided by the rib-like structure.

"The courtyard serves as a light well to bring in more natural light and facilitated the cross ventilation."

Student: Alanna Mak Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: alannamak999[at]gmail.com

Designing my Resort with 100 per cent renewable energy by Minjoon Ji

"Green living is a new standard of quality living. How can we provide more options of green design?

"Ji has designed a resort which would be equipped by its own renewable energy setups like solar panels and windmills, taking advantage of the site conditions.

"He designed the entrance similarly to a Korean house, whilst the windmills were put up as a welcoming gesture to the guests when they arrive."

Student: Minjoon Ji Course: Architectural Design Program 1.0 Email: jiminjoon079[at]gmail.com

Designing my Floating Restaurant with sustainable fish-farming by Heidi Liang

"Who wants to eat? Food freshly caught from the water!

"Liang designed a sustainable 'dream' community – a floating restaurant, equipped with a fish farm. The building blocks were of conical shape with an open-top in order to allow cooking at the table.

"The fish farms were arranged along the entrance pathway to the restaurant so that guests can see them when they arrive. As a result, Liang has developed a new prototype of a sustainable community."

Student: Heidi Liang Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: [email protected]

Designing my Floating Restaurant with an Aquarium by Maia Li

"When people see the beauty of nature, they will be motivated to protect it. The question is how to ensure people see it?

"Li has designed a floating restaurant/aquarium in the middle of the ocean to ensure guests appreciate the ocean's beauty. She has created layers of glass enclosure to deflect the sunlight into rainbows."

Student: Maia Li Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: sengangela[at]hotmail.com

Designing my Holiday House by Queenie Sun

"How do we motivate more people to protect our animals?

"Sun has designed a holiday house boathouse. The boathouse is designed to travel around, taking children to different places to see various animals on land and water. It is a tiny house with a comfy living area and an open deck."

Student: Queenie Sun Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: sunqueenie865[at]gmail.com

Designing my Home in forest by Sophia Xue

"How can we nourish our kids with nature?

"Zue has designed a school campus project with various educational facilities. Open space and playground were on top of her list. She has created sky gardens in addition to the open space on the ground floor level. She emphasised simplicity and calmness when designing the interiors."

Student: Sophia Xue Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: sophiaaamyxxx[at]gmail.com

Designing my Teahouse for spiritual Wellbeing by Alice Ippolito

"How can we help people living in a city enhance their mental health?

"Ippolito has designed a teahouse project as a hideaway. The building is designed as an undulating sculpture with the tearooms arranged in a simple and open-plan approach.

"Once the guests entered the lobby, they witness the beautiful river. The spatial layers demonstrate how the environment would influence the spiritual realm of city lives."

Student: Alice Ippolito Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: alice.ippolito.nyc[at]gmail.com

Designing my Teahouse as a micro-cosmos by Zoe So

"Have you ever got lost? How can we find our ways out in such a chaotic world? Can architecture be a solution?

"So loves designing mini-communities. She turned her teahouse project into a 'micro-cosmos' by designing all sides of facades to be in glass structures.

"The interior atmosphere would then be synchronised to the outside world. Guests would enjoy tea-making whilst feeling protected and fully immersed in the world."

Student: Zoe So Course: Architectural Design Programmee 1.0 Email: soyi.xx1120[at]gmail.com

Designing my Home in the garden by Natalie Lau

"Speaking of green architecture, how can we make the act of building green and environmentally friendly?

"Lau has proposed self-standing modular structural units which could be prefabricated off-site. As they are designed to be self-standing and ensure minimal disturbance to the site and area. Lau played with the modules to form different blocks for various areas. Lau has answered some of the critical issues of sustainable development in urban contexts like that of Hong Kong."

Student: Natalie Lau Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: launatalie1126[at]gmail.com

Designing my Teahouse as a city retreat by Angus Watt

"What's troubling you at this moment? Shall we take a break?

"How can architectural design support the modern world to achieve 'wellbeing' as highlighted in the sustainable development goal of the United Nations?

"In his design of a teahouse, Watt has created a city retreat for those who feel stressed and tired. The design would be made from timber, as inspired by the woodlands of his mother's homeland. The intimacy of the texture of wood would help people reconnect with nature."

Student: Angus Watt Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: melizabe2[at]yahoo.com

Designing a temporary housing as a refuge with hydropower by Edward Ho

"How can we protect people's lives and properties while the frequency of disastrous happenings keeps going up?

"In his design of housing development, Ho has created a small cluster for 10 residential units in a form of an oval shell. When flooding happens, water would be drained along the nullah.

"The water flow would then generate hydropower with the built-in turbines sets for the estate as a backup if the city grid went wrong during flooding."

Student: Edward Ho Course: Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: edho1110[at]gmail.com

Visual Mock-up for Green Bathroom and sustainable Kitchen by Annecy Hui, Oscar Chung, Na Kyung (Arlene) Lee and Abigail Shih

"How can we rally more powerful brains for sustainable architectural design?

"Four levels six students of My Archischool have hand-built a part of the visual mockup of their 'Green Bathroom' and 'Sustainable Kitchen' design in order to invite more young ones to experience the awesomeness of living with green architecture!

The water closet is disguised as trees with the interior green wall, which would be watered simultaneously whilst people go shower. An 'edible forest' on the kitchen counter ensures home-grown veggies and herbs are available every day. "

Student: Annecy Hui, Oscar Chung, Na Kyung (Arlene) Lee and Abigail Shih Course: Research Project on Sustainability by Level six, Architectural Design Programme 1.0 Email: annecyhui0[at]gmail.com, oscarchungbk[at]gmail.com, arlenenk.lee[at]gmail.com, abigailshih97[at]gmail.com

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and My ArchiSchool. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

The post My ArchiSchool spotlights 17 student architectural projects appeared first on Dezeen.

#Architecture – Dezeen

[interkomitet]

Leaders Summit on Climate

Vladimir Putin took part, via videoconference, in the Leaders Summit on Climate. Organized by the United States, the event is being held on April 22–23.

The President of Russia put forth Russia’s position regarding the development of broad international cooperation aimed at mitigating the negative consequences of global climate change.

On the Russian side, the summit was also attended by Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov and Adviser to the President and Special Presidential Representative on Climate Issues Ruslan Edelgeriyev.

* * *

Speech at the Leaders Summit on Climate

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President,

Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

Our discussion today has demonstrated our deep mutual concern over climate change and our interest in stepping up international efforts to resolve this problem. The success of our efforts will largely determine the future of the entire planet, the development prospects of every country, people’s welfare and their quality of life.

We believe that the universal agreements reached at the UN provide a reliable legal framework for the joint efforts of states to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

I would like to point out that Russia is scrupulously implementing its international commitments in this sphere. This concerns, first of all, the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. We have been working energetically to formulate modern legislation to ensure reliable control over carbon emissions and to stimulate their reduction.

Yesterday I delivered my annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, and one of the top priority tasks I have set in terms of socioeconomic development was to substantially limit cumulative emissions in our country by 2050.

I am sure that this task is feasible despite Russia’s size, its geographical, climatic and structural peculiarities. Let me recall that compared to 1990, Russia has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions more than many other countries. These emissions were cut in half – from 3.1 billion to 1.6 billion tonnes of СО2 equivalent. This was a result of the fundamental restructuring of Russian industry and energy over the past 20 years.

As a result, now 45 percent of our energy balance comes from low-emission energy sources, including nuclear power. It is common knowledge that nuclear power plants produce almost zero greenhouse gas emissions throughout their life cycle.

We intend to continue increasing the scale of associated gas utilisation. We will also continue implementing our large-scale programme for ecological modernisation and higher energy efficiency in all economic sectors. We will ensure the capture, storage and use of carbon dioxide from all sources and create the infrastructure for producing hydrogen as both a raw material and a source of energy.

I would like to mention in this context that Russia’s Sakhalin Region has launched a pilot project to create a carbon pricing and trading system. This project will allow this Russian region to reach carbon neutrality by 2025.

Obviously, the situation that provoked the global warming and related problems emerged a long time ago. What do we think about comprehensive solutions to these problems?

First. Carbon dioxide has been in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Therefore, it is not enough to talk just about new amounts of emissions. It is important to absorb the carbon dioxide that has already accumulated in the atmosphere. It is no exaggeration to say that Russia is making an enormous contribution to the absorption of global emissions, both our own and those of others, owing to the absorbing capacity of our ecosystems, which is estimated at 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year.

Second, we must take into account absolutely every cause of global warming. For example, methane accounts for 20 percent of anthropogenic emissions. The greenhouse effect of each tonne of methane is 25–28 times greater than a tonne of СО2. Experts believe that if we could halve methane emissions in the next 30 years, global temperatures would decrease by 0.18 degrees by 2050. The difference between this figure and the target set in the Paris Agreement is about 45 percent.

In this context, it would be extremely important to develop broad and effective international cooperation in the calculation and monitoring of all polluting emissions into the atmosphere.

We urge all interested countries to take part in joint research, to invest in climate projects that can have a practical effect and to redouble efforts to create low-carbon technologies to mitigate the consequences and adjust to climate change.

Third, I have no doubt that climate efforts should, of course, rally the efforts of the entire international community. Russia is willing to propose a number of joint projects and discuss possible incentives for foreign companies that would like to invest in clean technology, including in our country.

And lastly, global development should not just be green but also sustainable in the full meaning of the word – and for all countries without exception. And consequently, it should be closely connected with progress in such high-priority areas as efforts against poverty and closing development gaps.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasise once again that the Russian Federation is genuinely interested in stepping up international cooperation so that we can continue to search for effective solutions to climate change, as well as other acute global problems. In fact, this should be the goal of the current video summit.

Thank you for your attention.

http://interkomitet.com/news-of-the-day/leaders-summit-on-climate/

[markwhitwell]

How Can Yoga Help Change the World? Mark Whitwell on Yoga and Social Change

Mark Whitwell | Heart of Yoga

Is Yoga Activism?

Our work is to bring authentic Yoga practice into the world as a powerful and efficient means of social change. Authentic Yoga is intended as a redemptive survival toolkit full of equipment that you can put to use immediately and share with your precious collaborators. It is not a new belief system or a religion or cultic sect, but an invitation to add embodied practice to our shared mission to eliminate sectarian belief systems as a basis of culture and life altogether. Yoga exists to be fitted to your life and relationships, to your cultural background and unique directions, not the other way around. It is about unwarping yourself from all social contortions, not adding more.

We hold firm to the classic definition of Yoga from our teachers, who defined it as to go in our direction of choice with continuity, a positive step towards something, rather than an act of asceticism or restraint. Yoga was never intended as an escape from the world, as it has been popularised by misogynistic renunciate cults. Nor was it intended as mere exercise: what my teacher Desikachar described as “mediocre gymnastics.”

Rather, Yoga is the embrace of body, breath, and relationship. By empowering our intrinsic drive to contribute our life to life, to be in relationship, we break the imagined wall between individual and social change. Our daily practice illuminates the connection between the depth of intimacy we can feel with ourselves and the depth of intimacy we can enjoy with others. When we are happy and blooming in life we naturally turn outwards towards connection with others. By contrast, when we feel separate from ourselves we tend to withdraw from relationship:

“Our sensory disengagement with others, the environment, and ourselves prevents us from really participating in our own lives with a profound depth of feeling. When we are not participating fully in Life — body, breath, and sex — we are less than fully human…As we keep closing down, we lose sight of our absolute birthright: to give the truth of ourselves and be receptive of the caring wisdom of others and all that surrounds us.” — The Promise (74).

Body, Breath, and Relationship

This is why we emphasise that the first act of social change is to be intimate with our own embodiment: the power of this universe that is arising as the whole body. Every body is a location of radical autonomous intelligence. Consider how wonderful our ‘ordinary’ bodies really are: from the soft feeling capacity of the frontal line from crown to base, the highly evolved nervous system and spine and its culmination in the sublime mystery of the brain core, to our ability to enjoy creative pleasures of all kinds including self-expression, art, music, logic, feeling, and the refined movement of energy between intimates in Sex. Our Yoga does not put us in touch with anything more extraordinary than what is already embodied as us, sitting here right now.

We practice Yoga to feel in Howard Thurman’s words, key mentor to Martin Luther King, what we know to be true: that we are “part of a continuing, breathing, living existence… alive in a living world.” Our practice reveals to the mind that our individual lives are nothing less than Life itself — literally. That we are an individual expression, utterly unique and unprecedented, of a larger unified process called Life that is every person and every thing.

We are autonomous, vulnerable, peaceful, and powerful individuals who are committed to relationship. We step into our full and deeply intuited capacity for love, compassion, courage and service and we do so as a collective. And we place all our bets the power of intimacy and love to sweep away the restrictions of these dark times.

“Meaningful experiences of integration between people,” Thurman continues, “are more compelling than the fears, the inhibitions, the dogmas, or the prejudices that divide. If such unifying experiences can be multiplied over an extended time, they will be able to restructure the fabric of the social context.”

The capacity for the intimate human connection and integration that Thurman speaks of can only begin in individual bodies, in the embrace of our natural embodied state of strength that is utterly receptive.

We are Nature

As our sensitivity to Life in the form of our own embodiment deepens, we feel and enjoy our place within the entire web of Nature. We can see clearly now that humanity is not participating in the ecologies of Mother Nature, and for humanity to survive we must function in our natural relationships. Patriarchal culture has deluded humanity into thinking we are separate and superior to the Earth’s ecosystems that we are made of, creating cultures of numbness, abuse and exploitation. Yoga is to reverse this perspective, to embrace our intrinsic connection. We are empowered to speak with utter certainty of our embodied knowledge that all life is sacred, and that any system which does not recognise this truth must be dismantled.

The recognition that we are nature allows us to release the widespread sense of guilt many change-makers feel when they consider their own needs for rest and regeneration. We cannot burn-out one piece of Mother Nature in attempt to save another from burning. This is why we say that Yoga is the first act of ecology, learning how to care for rather than control Mother Nature, starting in our own body. It is our practical method to process and release our grief for the hardness we perceive all around us, and it is our direct participation in the intelligence and nurturing function of nature — the body’s intrinsic movement towards harmony and health, the digestion of experience and emotion, the recovery of self-regulation, the releasing of what is no longer needed, and the receiving of what is. If you feel stressed or burnt out, please make use of these remedial practices to rest and restore.

I know so many sincere people who care deeply and so who innocently fall into practicing their efforts for change in ways that reproduce what has been called ‘grind culture.’ Who went out to work for social change with the same instrumentalization of the body, the same drive towards burnout, that capitalist economics trained us for. As the Nap Bishop Tricia Hersey beautifully writes,

“Grind culture has a fetish for seeing human beings move at the pace of a machine. It enjoys weary bodies and limited imagination […] Everything in nature needs to rest. The Earth can no exist without deep pauses….Our bodies deserve nothing less.”

As a result, many people find themselves in their adult life feeling that they are not allowed to rest at all, or that to take any amount of time away from work (or activism as work) is a waste of energy, a luxury, something for the lazy or uncommitted. Everywhere, human beings are burning out as these internal psychologies of endless grind destroy the ecosystems of body and mind. We are not robots, and we cannot treat our bodies like machines in this way.

To conclude this article I want to thank you for your commitment to serving humanity and the more-than-human sphere. The very fact you feel interested to read this article means you are a person who feels deeply and cares. Thank you for being a serious person who perceives clearly the utter chaos of human cruelty and suffering we exist in in these times. Thank you for bringing your love of life to bear on whatever the area of life is that you have felt compelled to attend to. I honour the stand you have taken.

Whatever your cultural background, whatever has inspired you to dedicate yourself to serving the world, whatever your tactics and strategies, we offer you these simple practices as a means of empowering your chosen directions and nurturing your “soft animal body,” to use Mary Oliver’s phrase. Please put them to your own creative use.

Let’s get the job done together and put love into action, within and without, in the vision of a society where life is nurtured not pillaged. Where we are all free to rest and relate in this beautiful garden of a world and enjoy the pleasures of a free-born life.

If this speaks to you, look into the yogas brought forth by Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya and his wife Srimati Namagiriamma, their son T.K.V. Desikachar, the yogi U.G. Krishnamurti, and their friends and students around the world. Desikachar’s book ‘The Heart of Yoga,’ is an excellent place to start, and we have made a course of learning in the basic principles of practice that is available by donation on our website.

From my heart to yours.

Mark Whitwell

About:

Mark Whitwell has taught yoga for over three decades across the globe, and is the founder of the Heart of Yoga foundation, and the Heart of Yoga Peace Project. Mark Whitwell is interested in developing an authentic yoga practice for the individual, based on the teachings of T. Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) and his son TKV Desikachar (1938-2016), with whom he enjoyed a relationship for more than twenty years. Mark Whitwell is the author of four books: ‘Yoga of Heart,’ ‘The Promise,’ ‘The Hridayasutra,’ and, ‘God and Sex: now we get both.’ He also edited and contributed to his TKV Desikachar’s classic yoga text, ‘The Heart of Yoga.’ Mark Whitwell is a father of three and a grandfather. He now resides between New Zealand and Fiji and continues to write, teach, and speak.

#markwhitwell #yoga #heartofyoga #yogalife

[easyfoodnetwork]

‘Food Is Political. It’s a Part of Our DNA.’

Devita Davison, executive director of FoodLab Detroit, has long advocated for an equitable and sustainable restaurant industry. She still sees a lot of work to do.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the continuously volatile political environment have centered Americans’ focus on vast fissures in systems of government, capitalism, and inequality. Throughout the spring and summer, it spurred grassroots activism and uprisings calling for racial justice across the country. Every industry — but especially the food industry — has been impacted by these upheavals. Businesses are closing at a high rate due to diminished income. Service workers have lost their jobs or are put in harm’s way to make ends meet. And those strains are sparking a reckoning that’s challenging past systems for how businesses operated and treated their staff. For many people in the restaurant world observing the social and economic climate of the last few months, this moment feels pivotal. Could a better food system be on the horizon?

Devita Davison is an activist and executive director of FoodLab Detroit, an organization established to support independent food businesses while exploring models that create a more equitable and sustainable environment for employees, producers, and the people in the community. A native of one of the Blackest cities in America, with deep roots in activism and food sovereignty, Davison has the benefit of a long perspective on food movements and economies. Last year, based on a series of talks with women working in Detroit’s dining scene, FoodLab published A Seat at the Table, a solutions-based guide to building a better food industry. In 2020, the organization also launched a fellowship program to explore opportunities for a radically different way of eating and providing hospitality.

Eater spoke with Davison about what she sees as the primary issues in the food industry in Detroit and beyond right now, and whether she thinks this is the moment in history when a new, more equitable system will emerge as a dominant vision for the restaurant world. She also touches on what, for some reason, continues to be a sensitive subject for some: Is food political? Spoiler: It always has been.

Eater: Where are some of the issues you see in the restaurant world right now, and are there opportunities to change them?

Devita Davison: We can’t have a conversation about restaurants in a bubble. We have to think about it as an ecosystem. You can’t talk about reimagining the [restaurant industry] without thinking about how landlords and real estate play such a huge part. Rents are so exorbitant, which is one of the reasons why restaurants struggle just to break even sometimes. If we’re really going to think about what transformation and opportunity look like, what does it look like within the context of having spaces that restaurateurs and chefs could afford? Does that model look like ownership [or] cooperative ownership? What does it look like to be able to be successful? Do restaurants have to be brick and mortar? What does “restauranting” mean outside of the walls of a brick-and-mortar restaurant?

You can’t talk about restaurants [without thinking about] who gets attention and who doesn’t. You have to think about providing restaurateurs and chefs with the ability to democratize narratives of storytelling. Who gets to tell that story and how would a chef or restaurant tell the story?

Lastly, when we see the growth of some of these restaurants, especially within the last two or three years, you have to look at where funding is coming from. A lot is coming from private equity firms, which are basically turning restaurants into short-term investment tools. It is those people that are causing the most harm in our communities, especially when they partner with developers and [become] a part of a strategy for this new luxury high-rise that’s going into communities. They’re not taking the community into consideration. The mindset is that if it is not profitable, it does not belong in this community.

How do small restaurants in Detroit fight back against that during a pandemic and a challenging economy right now? How are we going to make sure that there are still independent restaurants at the end of this that are working toward more ethical models and doing things better for their workers?

It’s complicated. Because by the time we see an artisanal coffee shop or farm-to-table restaurant or an Italian mercado, or even Whole Foods, for that matter, enter in some of these neighborhoods in the city of Detroit, we need to understand that there were policies already put in place behind the scenes long before you saw that development in your community.

We can now see the transformation of Midtown, and the gentrification of Midtown, or, for that matter, the entire 7.2 square miles of Greater Downtown, including Midtown, Woodbridge, Corktown, Eastern Market, Downtown. Yes, we see it now. But [what] we see now was in the works 15 [or] 20 years ago.

The reason why I mention this as you talk about the role of restaurateurs is [that] restaurateurs should not bear this burden alone. It takes active participation and involvement with the community. If you value locally owned restaurants, if you value the opportunity for your neighbors to open up small businesses in your neighborhood, [then] you have to value and understand how real estate and capital works. And that is influenced by the laws and policies we vote for.

A lot of folks misunderstand how the cycle and the process of gentrification works. Should I blame, fight, and point the finger at a chef or a restaurateur who’s a part of a development project that the city of Detroit has enticed and lured, who was given developer tax abatements and developer subsidies? Should I blame the restaurateur for that? Or should we be checking the developer? Or should we be checking the city council? Or the mayor? Why is it that this developer and his project have been subsidized, but every day, I’m struggling and fighting for BIPOC owners to get access to the capital that they need, so that they can open up their own restaurants in their communities and neighborhoods?

“You can’t talk about climate change without talking about food. You can’t talk about immigration without talking about food.”

I don’t really like the [phrase] social distancing. I prefer physical distancing, because we’re physically distancing ourselves from one another so that we can all be safe and fight this pandemic. I don’t think we’re socially distancing ourselves. We’re finding new ways to use technology to bring us even closer together. But here’s the thing: The phenomenon around physical distancing has been something that Black, Indigenous, and people of color business owners have been dealing with since the violent precision of housing policies that redlined and segregated our communities from one another. For decades, we’ve been physically distanced from one another.

When I think about what it looks like in five and 10 years and how we sustain these restaurants and our neighborhoods and our communities… it’s going to be a competition for resources. So, how do we make sure that we value the restaurant, the deli, the takeout spot, the delivery spot, just as much as we value NoHo Hospitality coming downtown and being a part of the Shinola Hotel? And value them so much that we are able to give them some tax abatements, some credits, some resources. Because they’re caregivers of our community. They’re hiring some of the most vulnerable workers: Folks who may not have a license and can’t drive; people who may be returning citizens; people who are elderly and want to go to work and people who are disabled and want to live a couple of blocks from the place they work. How are we ensuring that they get the same amount of resources? That’s what I’m thinking.

Where do you see the Detroit community and its restaurant industry fitting into the world of politics and advocacy?

I do believe — and the work of FoodLab [believes] — that yes, you can begin to cultivate, nourish, and provide an education through generations of cooks and chefs who actually know that there is a possibility that we can educate a collective group of people or customers beyond just acclamations and awards.

Here’s the thing. You’re talking to someone who is a native Detroiter, born and raised, an African-American woman where food has always been political. You’re talking to someone who is the manifestation of the dreams of her ancestors, as we laid one of our elders to rest yesterday: John Lewis.

You think about how he got his start as an organizer, as an activist in his group, SNCC, which was a group of college students who performed sit-ins. Where did they do their sit-ins? At lunch counters where they weren’t allowed to sit and order. And it was those students who were just like, “What we’re going to do is we’re going to take a place like a lunch counter, and this is where we are going to take the fight.” So, of course, I think food is political. It’s a part of our DNA.

Here in Detroit, oh, my god. Of course. Our food is wrapped up into the radicalization of a food movement, starting with the Gardening Angels that was started by a group of elders who didn’t have the language — that didn’t understand urban agriculture at this time — [that didn’t know] Detroit was going to be the epicenter. They just knew that there were hungry babies and hungry families, and they knew how to grow food.

Gardening Angels started growing food in vacant lots and side lots and in their backyards. Coleman Young [Detroit’s first Black mayor] actually saw this happening and was like, “Wait a minute. The elders are onto something. How can the city begin to provide them with the resources to grow and develop this program?” Then, he started the Farm-A-Lot Program for the city of Detroit. He provided tools and resources and seeds to Detroiters so that they can grow their own food. And now you have the DBCFSN (Detroit Black Community Food Security Network) with Malik Yakini and the whole organization is sitting with farms on what, seven acres. They’re now building a grocery store cooperative, and that goes hand in hand with the workers that Mama Jerry Hebron is doing, which goes hand in hand with the work that the Keep Growing Detroit team is doing. So, food in Detroit has always been political, so much so that the goal in Detroit is food sovereignty. We want to control the food that we grow and ensure that it stays in Detroit.

That’s why I’m just baffled that some can say that food is not political when it’s tied to every policy that you can imagine. You can’t talk about climate change without talking about food. You can’t talk about immigration without talking about food. It is at the intersection of everything. I think sometimes the best way to explain policy and the importance of good policy is to describe it through the context and through the lens of food.

Based on what you’ve observed during this crisis, do you think that restaurant workers or people who own restaurants are going to become more instrumental in effecting actual policy change?

[In the past few months,] the immediate thing that [the industry] thought about was that we need assistance from the federal government to help save our industry. Makes sense. Absolutely. If they’re saving the airline industry, if they’re saving the cruise industry, lobby the federal government. Then [Tom] Colicchio goes on to say that they formed the Independent Restaurant [Coalition] almost overnight: They started calling their friends in PR, hired a lobbying firm, hired a communications firm, and voila! Overnight! They had this group that was altogether that was going to be lobbying to save independent restaurants. And I thought to myself, well, damn. Don’t tell me what they can’t do. Because they have the resources to become politically active.

But what scares me is they began to center their activism around Paycheck Protection Program dollars: How can we begin to bend and stretch and change PPP to ensure that we are included? The problem is that those who are clamoring for PPP adjustments for bailouts — the reason that they allowed this was because they were the ones that were going to reap the rewards of this multibillion-dollar transfer of money like we’ve never seen before.

“Certain people in this country have always used and occupied restaurant spaces as a manifestation of their privilege.”

What scares me is they’re lobbying for this transfer of dollars, this transfer of power, this transfer of additional wealth to a small number of people that is not going to impact their workers. This is the owner class. These are the people who actually own a restaurant lobbying to make their food, to maintain their power.

They’re not lobbying on the behalf of the industry to save the most vulnerable — the workers. So, yes, I do see them organizing, but I don’t see the organizing for the advancement, care, and maintenance of restaurant workers. I see them becoming more politically active, but they’re doing so for their own enrichment, and that’s the scary part to me.

Are you hopeful for the future at this point in time?

I think about that all of the time: Am I hopeful? I see fantastic stories [about] chefs leaning into a tried-and-true practice that African Americans have relied on since we were brought to this country as slaves — and that tool is mutual aid and solidarity. Every time I see chefs leaning into mutual aid and solidarity around using their kitchens and their spaces to cook for our most vulnerable populations, they are taking care of homeless communities, they are feeding the poor, they are feeding frontline workers, they are literally putting their bodies on the line, and I think, “Oh, my god.” Chefs are doing what they do best, and that is feeding people. Every time I talk with our cohort members, it’s, “Oh, my god, change is going to happen.”

But every time I feel this sense of hopefulness and joy, I also read a story about a freaking customer who will just not put on a goddamn mask, who will go into a restaurant and curse out a bartender or front-of-house worker and be pissed that they can’t do what they want to do in this space. I’m reminded of the fact that certain people in this country have always used and occupied restaurant spaces as a manifestation of their privilege. A part of that is treating people any damn way you feel like. And that’s unacceptable to me.

Then my heart hardens because, in order for this restaurant industry to change, it cannot just be workers. It can’t just be restaurateurs. The public also has to be a part of this change. We can’t begin to talk about dismantling or transforming unless there are changes along the supply chain, unless there are changes within that ecosystem itself. And that ecosystem is so big.

I think that we will be influenced by some restaurateurs who want to do better. But what I’m hoping is that they set the standard, that they are the ones that are looked up to, and the people that don’t live up to these expectations will be the ones who will be shamed.

And the restaurateurs who do change, who are a part of this restauranting at the intersection of people and planet as well as profit, they’ll be the ones setting the bar. I think I’ll see that in my lifetime, as opposed to a true transformation of the entire industry. That’s the only thing I can hope for at this time, is to continue to surround myself with those individuals who are trying to do the right thing, and they become a part of my tribe. They are part of my community. These are the people I look to, the people I support, the folks who I will spend my money on every day. Those are the people I who evangelize on their behalf.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3iLuG5g https://ift.tt/3mIuCWf

Devita Davison, executive director of FoodLab Detroit, has long advocated for an equitable and sustainable restaurant industry. She still sees a lot of work to do.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the continuously volatile political environment have centered Americans’ focus on vast fissures in systems of government, capitalism, and inequality. Throughout the spring and summer, it spurred grassroots activism and uprisings calling for racial justice across the country. Every industry — but especially the food industry — has been impacted by these upheavals. Businesses are closing at a high rate due to diminished income. Service workers have lost their jobs or are put in harm’s way to make ends meet. And those strains are sparking a reckoning that’s challenging past systems for how businesses operated and treated their staff. For many people in the restaurant world observing the social and economic climate of the last few months, this moment feels pivotal. Could a better food system be on the horizon?

Devita Davison is an activist and executive director of FoodLab Detroit, an organization established to support independent food businesses while exploring models that create a more equitable and sustainable environment for employees, producers, and the people in the community. A native of one of the Blackest cities in America, with deep roots in activism and food sovereignty, Davison has the benefit of a long perspective on food movements and economies. Last year, based on a series of talks with women working in Detroit’s dining scene, FoodLab published A Seat at the Table, a solutions-based guide to building a better food industry. In 2020, the organization also launched a fellowship program to explore opportunities for a radically different way of eating and providing hospitality.

Eater spoke with Davison about what she sees as the primary issues in the food industry in Detroit and beyond right now, and whether she thinks this is the moment in history when a new, more equitable system will emerge as a dominant vision for the restaurant world. She also touches on what, for some reason, continues to be a sensitive subject for some: Is food political? Spoiler: It always has been.

Eater: Where are some of the issues you see in the restaurant world right now, and are there opportunities to change them?

Devita Davison: We can’t have a conversation about restaurants in a bubble. We have to think about it as an ecosystem. You can’t talk about reimagining the [restaurant industry] without thinking about how landlords and real estate play such a huge part. Rents are so exorbitant, which is one of the reasons why restaurants struggle just to break even sometimes. If we’re really going to think about what transformation and opportunity look like, what does it look like within the context of having spaces that restaurateurs and chefs could afford? Does that model look like ownership [or] cooperative ownership? What does it look like to be able to be successful? Do restaurants have to be brick and mortar? What does “restauranting” mean outside of the walls of a brick-and-mortar restaurant?

You can’t talk about restaurants [without thinking about] who gets attention and who doesn’t. You have to think about providing restaurateurs and chefs with the ability to democratize narratives of storytelling. Who gets to tell that story and how would a chef or restaurant tell the story?

Lastly, when we see the growth of some of these restaurants, especially within the last two or three years, you have to look at where funding is coming from. A lot is coming from private equity firms, which are basically turning restaurants into short-term investment tools. It is those people that are causing the most harm in our communities, especially when they partner with developers and [become] a part of a strategy for this new luxury high-rise that’s going into communities. They’re not taking the community into consideration. The mindset is that if it is not profitable, it does not belong in this community.

How do small restaurants in Detroit fight back against that during a pandemic and a challenging economy right now? How are we going to make sure that there are still independent restaurants at the end of this that are working toward more ethical models and doing things better for their workers?

It’s complicated. Because by the time we see an artisanal coffee shop or farm-to-table restaurant or an Italian mercado, or even Whole Foods, for that matter, enter in some of these neighborhoods in the city of Detroit, we need to understand that there were policies already put in place behind the scenes long before you saw that development in your community.

We can now see the transformation of Midtown, and the gentrification of Midtown, or, for that matter, the entire 7.2 square miles of Greater Downtown, including Midtown, Woodbridge, Corktown, Eastern Market, Downtown. Yes, we see it now. But [what] we see now was in the works 15 [or] 20 years ago.

The reason why I mention this as you talk about the role of restaurateurs is [that] restaurateurs should not bear this burden alone. It takes active participation and involvement with the community. If you value locally owned restaurants, if you value the opportunity for your neighbors to open up small businesses in your neighborhood, [then] you have to value and understand how real estate and capital works. And that is influenced by the laws and policies we vote for.

A lot of folks misunderstand how the cycle and the process of gentrification works. Should I blame, fight, and point the finger at a chef or a restaurateur who’s a part of a development project that the city of Detroit has enticed and lured, who was given developer tax abatements and developer subsidies? Should I blame the restaurateur for that? Or should we be checking the developer? Or should we be checking the city council? Or the mayor? Why is it that this developer and his project have been subsidized, but every day, I’m struggling and fighting for BIPOC owners to get access to the capital that they need, so that they can open up their own restaurants in their communities and neighborhoods?

“You can’t talk about climate change without talking about food. You can’t talk about immigration without talking about food.”

I don’t really like the [phrase] social distancing. I prefer physical distancing, because we’re physically distancing ourselves from one another so that we can all be safe and fight this pandemic. I don’t think we’re socially distancing ourselves. We’re finding new ways to use technology to bring us even closer together. But here’s the thing: The phenomenon around physical distancing has been something that Black, Indigenous, and people of color business owners have been dealing with since the violent precision of housing policies that redlined and segregated our communities from one another. For decades, we’ve been physically distanced from one another.

When I think about what it looks like in five and 10 years and how we sustain these restaurants and our neighborhoods and our communities… it’s going to be a competition for resources. So, how do we make sure that we value the restaurant, the deli, the takeout spot, the delivery spot, just as much as we value NoHo Hospitality coming downtown and being a part of the Shinola Hotel? And value them so much that we are able to give them some tax abatements, some credits, some resources. Because they’re caregivers of our community. They’re hiring some of the most vulnerable workers: Folks who may not have a license and can’t drive; people who may be returning citizens; people who are elderly and want to go to work and people who are disabled and want to live a couple of blocks from the place they work. How are we ensuring that they get the same amount of resources? That’s what I’m thinking.

Where do you see the Detroit community and its restaurant industry fitting into the world of politics and advocacy?

I do believe — and the work of FoodLab [believes] — that yes, you can begin to cultivate, nourish, and provide an education through generations of cooks and chefs who actually know that there is a possibility that we can educate a collective group of people or customers beyond just acclamations and awards.

Here’s the thing. You’re talking to someone who is a native Detroiter, born and raised, an African-American woman where food has always been political. You’re talking to someone who is the manifestation of the dreams of her ancestors, as we laid one of our elders to rest yesterday: John Lewis.

You think about how he got his start as an organizer, as an activist in his group, SNCC, which was a group of college students who performed sit-ins. Where did they do their sit-ins? At lunch counters where they weren’t allowed to sit and order. And it was those students who were just like, “What we’re going to do is we’re going to take a place like a lunch counter, and this is where we are going to take the fight.” So, of course, I think food is political. It’s a part of our DNA.

Here in Detroit, oh, my god. Of course. Our food is wrapped up into the radicalization of a food movement, starting with the Gardening Angels that was started by a group of elders who didn’t have the language — that didn’t understand urban agriculture at this time — [that didn’t know] Detroit was going to be the epicenter. They just knew that there were hungry babies and hungry families, and they knew how to grow food.

Gardening Angels started growing food in vacant lots and side lots and in their backyards. Coleman Young [Detroit’s first Black mayor] actually saw this happening and was like, “Wait a minute. The elders are onto something. How can the city begin to provide them with the resources to grow and develop this program?” Then, he started the Farm-A-Lot Program for the city of Detroit. He provided tools and resources and seeds to Detroiters so that they can grow their own food. And now you have the DBCFSN (Detroit Black Community Food Security Network) with Malik Yakini and the whole organization is sitting with farms on what, seven acres. They’re now building a grocery store cooperative, and that goes hand in hand with the workers that Mama Jerry Hebron is doing, which goes hand in hand with the work that the Keep Growing Detroit team is doing. So, food in Detroit has always been political, so much so that the goal in Detroit is food sovereignty. We want to control the food that we grow and ensure that it stays in Detroit.

That’s why I’m just baffled that some can say that food is not political when it’s tied to every policy that you can imagine. You can’t talk about climate change without talking about food. You can’t talk about immigration without talking about food. It is at the intersection of everything. I think sometimes the best way to explain policy and the importance of good policy is to describe it through the context and through the lens of food.

Based on what you’ve observed during this crisis, do you think that restaurant workers or people who own restaurants are going to become more instrumental in effecting actual policy change?

[In the past few months,] the immediate thing that [the industry] thought about was that we need assistance from the federal government to help save our industry. Makes sense. Absolutely. If they’re saving the airline industry, if they’re saving the cruise industry, lobby the federal government. Then [Tom] Colicchio goes on to say that they formed the Independent Restaurant [Coalition] almost overnight: They started calling their friends in PR, hired a lobbying firm, hired a communications firm, and voila! Overnight! They had this group that was altogether that was going to be lobbying to save independent restaurants. And I thought to myself, well, damn. Don’t tell me what they can’t do. Because they have the resources to become politically active.

But what scares me is they began to center their activism around Paycheck Protection Program dollars: How can we begin to bend and stretch and change PPP to ensure that we are included? The problem is that those who are clamoring for PPP adjustments for bailouts — the reason that they allowed this was because they were the ones that were going to reap the rewards of this multibillion-dollar transfer of money like we’ve never seen before.

“Certain people in this country have always used and occupied restaurant spaces as a manifestation of their privilege.”

What scares me is they’re lobbying for this transfer of dollars, this transfer of power, this transfer of additional wealth to a small number of people that is not going to impact their workers. This is the owner class. These are the people who actually own a restaurant lobbying to make their food, to maintain their power.

They’re not lobbying on the behalf of the industry to save the most vulnerable — the workers. So, yes, I do see them organizing, but I don’t see the organizing for the advancement, care, and maintenance of restaurant workers. I see them becoming more politically active, but they’re doing so for their own enrichment, and that’s the scary part to me.

Are you hopeful for the future at this point in time?

I think about that all of the time: Am I hopeful? I see fantastic stories [about] chefs leaning into a tried-and-true practice that African Americans have relied on since we were brought to this country as slaves — and that tool is mutual aid and solidarity. Every time I see chefs leaning into mutual aid and solidarity around using their kitchens and their spaces to cook for our most vulnerable populations, they are taking care of homeless communities, they are feeding the poor, they are feeding frontline workers, they are literally putting their bodies on the line, and I think, “Oh, my god.” Chefs are doing what they do best, and that is feeding people. Every time I talk with our cohort members, it’s, “Oh, my god, change is going to happen.”

But every time I feel this sense of hopefulness and joy, I also read a story about a freaking customer who will just not put on a goddamn mask, who will go into a restaurant and curse out a bartender or front-of-house worker and be pissed that they can’t do what they want to do in this space. I’m reminded of the fact that certain people in this country have always used and occupied restaurant spaces as a manifestation of their privilege. A part of that is treating people any damn way you feel like. And that’s unacceptable to me.

Then my heart hardens because, in order for this restaurant industry to change, it cannot just be workers. It can’t just be restaurateurs. The public also has to be a part of this change. We can’t begin to talk about dismantling or transforming unless there are changes along the supply chain, unless there are changes within that ecosystem itself. And that ecosystem is so big.

I think that we will be influenced by some restaurateurs who want to do better. But what I’m hoping is that they set the standard, that they are the ones that are looked up to, and the people that don’t live up to these expectations will be the ones who will be shamed.

And the restaurateurs who do change, who are a part of this restauranting at the intersection of people and planet as well as profit, they’ll be the ones setting the bar. I think I’ll see that in my lifetime, as opposed to a true transformation of the entire industry. That’s the only thing I can hope for at this time, is to continue to surround myself with those individuals who are trying to do the right thing, and they become a part of my tribe. They are part of my community. These are the people I look to, the people I support, the folks who I will spend my money on every day. Those are the people I who evangelize on their behalf.

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[hopefulfestivaltastemaker]

May 17, 2020

Here is my second blog post, which I think is enough to call it “weekly”. Here I touch briefly on several interesting things I saw, read, or thought about over the course of the week.

The Limits of Decentralized Decisionmaking

Justin Amash, who briefly flirted with a Libertarian Presidential run these last few weeks, made the following claim.

To maximize happiness and well-being, we must embrace localism and decentralization. Individuals, families, and communities make far better decisions than technocrats and bureaucrats in a distant capital.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 10, 2020

This is an attitude that I think is shared by a majority of libertarians, but it has limits, in particular with zoning. A basic political economy problem with zoning is that the perceived benefits (less local traffic, preference for fewer people nearby) are more local than the costs (higher housing prices, depressed economic activity). Therefore, there is a strong rationale for coordination between neighborhoods and cities to reduce zoning restrictions. The logical unit for such coordination is a state or the federal government. The U.S. Constitution does implement open borders and free trade between the states; while the freedom of movement principle has not, to my knowledge, been invoked against zoning, at least the principle has been established that the federal government has a broad interest in the question.

Amash himself has stated that is favorite Amendment is the 14th, which, among other things, extends the protections of the Bill of Rights to the states and cities. It seems logical to me at least that the principle would apply to property rights as well.

Finally, there is a certain romanticization of local government that I think one should question. Due to their lower profiles, local governments are often less representative and responsive to the public need than state or the federal governments, and I simply see no basis for the claim that they, in general, know what is better for their citizens or are willing to act appropriately upon such knowledge.

Zoning as a Virtual Budget Item

While on the subject of zoning, I’ve been thinking about how to communicate the costs and benefits of land use policies. All governments have to make budgets, and costs that are off-budget are more easily put out of mind. And so I’ve wondered about treating zoning as a virtual budget item.

The benefits of land use restrictions are mainly in the form and aesthetic preferences and relief from congestion and other negative externalities of density. The costs are in the form of higher housing costs, depressed economic activity, and higher infrastructure costs (lower in absolute terms, but generally higher on a per capita basis). Several economists have estimated that the United States loses out on hundreds of billions, or even trillions, of dollars of economic activity per year due to zoning restrictions, so these are not insubstantial costs. For a local government budget, we could treat the economic costs of zoning as a kind of tax on the citizens, including a share that is externalized to other jurisdictions, and compare it to formal budget items such as roads, police, fire, schools, etc. It wouldn’t surprise me if this exercise shows that, for most cities, zoning is the most expensive thing that they do. Making the costs explicit would force a more careful reckoning of whether the benefits are really worth the costs. Since housing costs are regional, it would help if one city was more aware of the costs imposed on it by its neighbor’s land use policies.

It would be a challenge to tally up costs of land use policy in this way, and the result would no doubt be contentious. But I don’t think it would be too terribly hard to make a first pass. There are some decent estimates of the price elasticity of housing supply, and we could probably come up with a guesstimate of how much housing a city could support under an unregulated market.

Cities and Disease Risk

Joel Kotkin has a very interesting piece this week, putting the risk of infectious disease in cities in context. I think the evidence is pretty clear that, all else being equal, larger cities impose more risk of infectious disease. That’s what one would expect. The whole point of a city is that it fosters high levels of interaction both with other residents of the city and people from other cities. As Luis Bettencort points out, cities are social reactors, accelerating transactions such as commerce and the spread of ideas. But the same nature accelerates undesirable transactions, such as crime and infectious disease.

Kotkin goes on to point out that not all else is equal. Among the world’s megacities, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, and New York City have all had very different outcomes during the ongoing pandemic. He points to the history of achievements in public health that have enabled dramatic city growth since the 19th century while simultaneously improving safety. There is much the world’s cities can continue to do for further improvement. This is a much more sensible approach than trying to respond to pandemic risk by undoing urbanization.

How far will the virtualization of travel go?

I joined in a conversation this week with Mark Frohnmayer of Arcimoto and several other business ventures. He made a prediction, which I have seen in quite a few other forms recently, that the world is undergoing a permanent shift toward remote work and the replacement of business travel with videoconferencing. To paraphrase his comment as best I can, people now realize that there is no need to fly across the country for a half hour business meeting that could have just as well been done over Zoom.

I hope he’s right, but it should be noted that this is only the latest iteration in a debate that has been going on for decades. The historical evidence is quite mixed. Before the pandemic, the rate of remote work had been creeping up but was still under 5%. We were also in the midst of a long term increase in the volume of air traffic, and at least some evidence suggests that there is a complementary relationship between air travel and telecommunications.

Once the pandemic subsides, what will be radically different? I think it was just as obvious last year or in the 1980s as it is now that there is no need to fly across the country for a half hour business meeting. There must be reasons (not necessarily good reasons) for doing it, and I would not place any confidence in predictions about future travel patterns that do not show understanding of those reasons.

Overall, I see an abundance of sociological questions around virtual travel that are not adequately answered. I think there is an enormous need for more research on the topic, as smart use of telecommunications could be the most important solution we have for chronic urban challenges such as traffic congestion and housing costs.

The “Growth at all Costs” Strawman

There is a pervasive notion in academic and activist environmentalism that the world is currently structured on a “growth at all costs” paradigm which needs to be changed. This paper, by Robert Costanza and colleagues on ecosystem services, is the example that triggers this comment but is only one of many.

Now, I won’t comment right now on how economic policy should be structured, but as a descriptive matter, this trope is absurd. There exist numerous laws in every country in the world that restrict growth, at least in the short term, and protect the environment, restrict migration, enact trade barriers, limit urban development, protect labor, and so forth. In well over a decade of political activities, “growth at all costs” is not even remotely close to how policymaking is done at any level of government I have ever observed.

I think there is some importance to ecosystem services as a research topic, and it is one I am actively working to understand better. Unfortunately, the presence of such patently absurd statements about economic policy calls into question the credibility of the broader work.

Oregon Metro on Affordable Housing

This week the Oregon Metro Council held a work session to review last year’s affordable housing bond. The work packet is here if you care to see the details.

Overall the bond is for $620 million to build 3900 housing units, or about $160K per unit. This is already about twice what the private sector builds apartments for, but these figures are only Metro’s contributions, which leverage money from nonprofits or other governmental entities. In four projects profiled in the work packet, construction costs are $130K/unit of Metro money, $364K/unit total, and $261K per bedroom.

During the work session, several councilors asked questions about the cost and expressed hope that the bond could be extended beyond the 3900 planned units. But most of the discussion was on matters such as the COBID program, which steers contracts to small and minority-owned businesses, prevailing wage and construction labor diversity requirements, and insuring that protected minority groups are fairly represented among residents of the new units. Whatever the merits of these policies may be on their own, I saw no questions about or any attempt to quantify their costs.

There is another big question on the efficacy of the bond that I saw no attempt to address. Since Metro cities restrict zoning capacity through density rules and the Urban Growth Boundary, to what extent will these 3900 new units compete with the private sector for scarce zoned capacity? If there is competition, then the gain of affordable units could be offset by a number of people being priced out of the private market.

The main problem with policies that are designed to accomplish many goals is that they don’t accomplish any goals very well. If the goal is to provide affordable housing to the maximum number of people who need it, then the most efficient solution is to increase zoned capacity and provide vouchers for people who can’t otherwise compete on the private market.

[humbleoaks]

Independent Study 2020: Childhood in the Information Age

This paper focuses on suburban childhoods of the late 20th and 21st centuries. Though many of the children raised during this time are entering adulthood, my conclusion remains that each of us has an inner child that can be fed and healed through nature’s experiences.

It is important to note that mental health will be discussed heavily. While it remains a serious and legitimate concept, this paper focuses on the development of anxiety and depression disorders through seemingly superficial causes. There is a level of privilege that comes with these stressors and situations. Therefore, I am viewing the stressors, both spatial and inter-personal, and their effects as something that can be treated or alleviated. This is a critique on the structure of modern society and not on the legitimization of mental health disorders.

The situations described within inspired my writing today. It is important to note that these following situations predominantly affect white, upper-middle to upper class families. A level of privilege must be recognized in the terms of home ownership, location of said home, ownership of electronics, internet connectivity, and familial structure. 

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Spatial Relationships

III. Inter-Personal Relationships

IV. The Undisclosed Side Effects of the Information Age

V. Nature’s Benefits and Where to Find Them

Bibliography

 “Man’s unhappiness is due to his having first been a child” -Descartes

 I. Introduction

Youth is a timeless concept. It stretches and snaps like elastic throughout a lifetime. Moments are found of pure bliss and contentment, like that of a child, until human’s mortality butts its head. There is a time of adolescence where this peace of mind is fostered in the comfort of the homestead before the norms of society are imposed on the ever willing yet defiant juvenile. It is within this period of true biological youth that one learns the basic foundations of what it means to be part of something larger, whether that be the relationship to earth and its roots or to others and community.

Throughout human history, the structure of childhood has fluxed across time and culture. Surely there has always been responsibility for the child to care to, and it is up for argument if those responsibilities are more or less intense compared to those of today. Yet those responsibilities were almost always tied in one way or another to nature. The field, the cow, the crop, the fawn had dominated the landscape in which the child works and plays. Their connection to the earth was strong and respected. It brought peace, instilled tolerance, taught patience, and empathy. Today, that connection has been lost to many children of Western civilizations either to fear or apathy. Nature has turned itself over in concept, and it is worth it to question where those values will be instilled in new generations if not with the help of nature’s order.

Stimulation of the mind once came slower and simpler for youth than what is seen in our modern technocratic society. The time period beginning in the late 20th century where technology changed the course of human life, called the Information Age, is responsible for this sensory overload. The mind had time to recover and regenerate before moving onto a new frontier. Now, from the moment of birth, children are exposed to multitudes of stimulants either from technology itself or the societal structure it has helped to create. They are supplied a constant dose of input from which it seems there is no end.

The Information Age’s impact both benefit and depress the human condition. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution and advanced by world wars, Western society has molded into a completely new form where technology has become omnipresent and nature a secondary place of life. Subconsciously it has influenced the decisions of economy, land use, community and family. It is tethered to the idea of comfort, advancement, freedom and ingenuity. This society has seen great joy and connection come from the Information Age. However, this era of history has just yet begun, and its impacts on the child just starting to surface. The way we have come to define childhood in the unspoken name of advancement may hold deeper, more sinister effects on the next generation than originally considered. An era of information and electronics, the Information Age’s impact on the structure of spatial and inter-personal relationships has caused an unprecedented spike in adolescent mental health issues. Reconnecting the child to nature can both alleviate and regenerate a prosperous mental state.

II. Spatial Relationships

The reconfiguration of spatial relationships for the child of the Information Age must be traced back to the 1960s. The post-WWII era brought a flourishing consumer economy, veteran benefits that allowed private vehicular and home ownership, and an accelerated movement of white flight from the urban landscape. While Americans yearned for a sense of normalcy, a baby boom occurred leading to an increased emphasis on the nuclear family and the ideal of the quarter-acre lot. Thus, suburban land planning surged and put forth the values of transport and ownership throughout the United States. The dominant landscape for child rearing became stretches of asphalt and green grass lawns, an antithesis of the streetscape in which community and play took place before, but in perfect alignment of the patriotism Americans held. Lawns provided a narrative of unity and civic responsibility. Although children amply sought out play within this context, it was limited in opportunity and could be viewed as a void in which the child applies play onto rather than fully participating with the landscape. At the same time, the move towards the indoors for the child was increasing as products rolled out yearning for their attention and that once familiar streetscape became a place primarily for travel.

Still, children were not totally bound to the indoors. But what was increasing in prominence were landscapes specifically designed to instigate play. The boundaries of childhood began to shrink as play became a structured concept built into the spatial relationship of suburbs on account of planners and developers. “Where is this vital activity to be carried on if every part of the child’s environment is spoken for to meet the economic, social, and cultural needs of the adult community?” (Nabhan, 1994, pg.27). For example, play became a controlled notion through the heavy use of sports fields and playgrounds. These set the narrative as to how and when play should be performed instead of allowing a flow of interaction to naturally occur between children and end on their autonomy. “It is a loss that so many playgrounds have become dominated by machine-like recreational equipment, structured games, and paved-over areas… play has become too domesticated” (Nabhan, 1994, pg.8-9). While natural ecosystems, bountiful with creases and crevices for the imagination, were being erased, a strict new order was quietly unfolded for the child to accept.

Today, 52 percent of Americans live in suburban landscapes (Bucholtz et.al, 2018) and these spatial restrictions have concreted themselves through cultural normativity, or folkway. These limitations go unquestioned for families child rearing in such communities. This provides the foundation upon which the Information Age amplifies the cultural control over childhood in which inter-personal relationships have evolved or degraded in a sense as the child spends more and more of their developmental years indoors and in touch with screens rather than companions.

III. Inter-Personal Relationships

Just as the home landscape became increasingly structured in disregard to the child’s will, the education system in more recent decades has also pushed to confine the limits of the child’s lifestyle. In 2001, President George W. Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act in which state standardized testing was enacted along with Common Core standards beginning as early as preschool (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.188). In order for public education systems to maintain federal monetary support, grades of students must meet a set national standard. According to Greg Lukianoff (2019), “Today, kindergarten is much more structured and sedentary, with children spending more time sitting at their desks and receiving direct instruction in academic subjects ‘drill and skill’ style.” (pg.188). This means that increasing pressure to perform is put on children as early as age three and continues throughout their educational journey. Comparatively speaking, reference the drastic change in checklists for entry to first grade from 1979 to 2011:

Is Your Child Ready For First Grade? (1979)

·         Does your child have two to five permanent or second teeth?

·         Can he repeat an eight to ten word sentence, if you say it once, as “The boy ran all the way home from the store”?

·         Does your child try to write or copy letters or numbers?

Source: Whitley, 2011

Checklist from St. Theresa’s in Austin, Texas

·         Identify and write numbers to 100

·         Interpret and fill in data on a graph

·         Form complete sentences on paper using phonetic spelling (i.e. journal and story writing)

Source: St. Theresa’s Catholic School, 2012

In order to keep up with demand, schools sacrificed play in the form of recess at an increasing rate. According to Richard Louv (2008), “In the USA, as the federal and state governments and local school boards have pushed for higher test scores in the first decade of the twenty-first century, nearly 40% of American elementary schools either eliminated or were considering eliminating recess (p.99).  This means that children lost time to build social and emotional skills within their school environment and their chance to enhance it on their own as homework assignments stacked up. As information intake is pushed in favor over character building, children spend more time isolated from others and bound to books or computers when instead they should be enjoying the freedom and exploration of early development.

The restrictions from the educational environment are emphasized by parents. The same ‘concern’ that government agency has for students has been normalized in the household as well. Many parents of upper-middle or upper-class households not only want to meet standards for education but also mold their child to get them ahead in a competitive world. This practice of parents cultivating their children’s talents by way of adult-guided activities, lessons, and closely monitored experiences is called concerned cultivation (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.173).  Whether it be organized sports, music lessons, debate teams or math tutoring, the child’s after school time is dictated towards the enhancement of a feature to their personality instead of their development as a whole. It seems increasingly that the autonomy of the child and their right to decisions made about their life are overlooked for the benefit of information intake. They may be yearning for free play, the spontaneous connection with others their age, more than they can express. Even then, does the child understand the comparative value of free play and socialization with peers versus the structured activity presented to them? It may be that the generation held to high standards from the start are beginning to completely lose out on what it truly means to be a child. The forcing of maturity is starting earlier and earlier. Children soon may be trained to only perceive a life of organized activity just as the limitations of their spatial reality have become normalized. And even still, the newfound technology of social media may forever alter the way in which these children believe inter-personal communication to be normal.

According to Pew Research Center, in 2018, 95% of teens reported them having a smartphone or access to one. “These mobile connections are in turn fueling more-persistent online activities- 45% of teens now say they are online on a near constant basis” (Anderson & Jiang, 2019). Whether it be for schooling purposes or social, the increasing rates at which youth are consuming some form of media from technology-based sources is overwhelming. This trend spiked dramatically around 2007 to 2012 when the most popular social media platforms were founded, such as Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.147). At first social media was just a small addition to the typical social life of a teenager. Then, like a snowball effect, the concept of the virtual-self appeared. Today that version is just as valid as the real self and is used in placement for conversation. Pew again cites that teens are more likely to report their social interactions with friends happening online, about 60%, in comparison to the 24% that spend time in-person with friends at the same frequency (Anderson & Jiang, 2019). One of the major reasons for not meeting up in person is due to the overwhelming amount of schoolwork and concerned cultivation that these teens face. Children born after 1995, for example, spend 18% more time in school and 145% more time doing homework than the youth of 1981 (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.185). It makes out that this may be the only way for teens to truly get to know each other. But is this the equivalent to in-person communication? Not close. Verbal cues, facial expressions, and body language cannot be transferred across a screen and therefore limit that amount that two people can truly begin to know each other. Would this matter anyway to a generation where childhood was increasingly solitary the way it was?

It should also be noted that the primary goal of social media companies has shifted since turning into conglomerate monopolies. The ideal is to get users, in this case teens, to stay on the site as long as possible. Users are continually guided down rabbit holes, thus creating distractions away from the original concept of connection with friends and towards what could be called empty information intake. And since social media is universal, it’s entirely possible for teens to follow or view the pages of complete strangers. The constant bombardment of seemingly perfect virtual selves again enforces the competition factor in the adolescent’s life. Not only is pressure to succeed coming from school and home, but also now from the sites they divert to in order to get away from it all.

The constant bombardment of digital information crosses generations in the Information Age. Media consumption has also affected the parents of adolescents, especially in the form of the 24-hour news cycle. The drive to push excitability and sensationalism to news viewers, predominantly to viewers over the age of 30 (Mitchell, 2016), means that increased fear over the safety of children is yet another restricting factor in the child’s life. The trend to fetishize safety and over-estimate the danger children are in means that parents are less likely to teach their children to accept risk, even in low doses.

Another look back to the late 20th century is necessary to understand the current news programming and its effects. In the 1980s, an increased movement to protect American kids from strangers led to the beginning of missing children’s photographs on cartons of milk (c. 1984) and crime shows like America’s Most Wanted to be broadcasted to the general public (c. 1988). “Many parents came to believe that if they took their eyes off their kids for an instant in any public venue, their kid might be snatched. It no longer felt safe to let kids roam around their neighborhoods unsupervised” (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.166). These parents, growing up in the 1960’s, may have experienced a giant crime wave either personally or from the news. After decades of bombardment from media sources that the threat carried on, even if they had practiced escapism from the urban atmosphere, parents grew weary of letting children roam free. In 2004, 85% of mothers said their children do not play outside as much as they had when they were the same age. 82% cited safety concerns and fear of crime as the primary reason (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.186).

These fears are unfounded, especially within the suburban setting. Nation-wide, 91% of missing children are runaways and less than 1% are abducted by strangers (National Center). The news media is made to promote these ideas just as much as social media is made to keep their users hooked. If it pulls ratings, it will be broadcasted, even if the truth is skewed. What this push for concern does promote is not the actual safety of children but the concept of safetyism, or an obsession with eliminating threats both real and imagined. “Safetyism deprives young people of the experiences that their antifragile minds need, therefore making them more fragile.” (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.32). The media these parents are intaking inadvertently affects their parental habits, making them more inclined to produce behaviors and rules that restrict the independence of the child in favor of protecting them from any possible threat of danger. According to development psychologist Allison Gopnik (2016), “…By shielding children from every possible risk, we may lead them to react with exaggerated fear to situations that aren’t risky at all and isolate them from the adult skills that they will one day have to master.” The mental growth of children becomes stunted as they inherit the notion that the world at large is against them with possible threat around every corner. Not only are children then more restricted in time span for play outdoors, but it becomes a concept that is equivalent in danger with the likes of abduction. Parents carry their fear and hesitation of exploration to the child’s mindset. This is inherently bad as exploration enhances self-discovery and allows children to become steadfast in the face of adversity. As adolescents mature, their lack of exposure to stressors disables them from becoming productive with new peoples and ideas. The introversion of the mindset, now both spatially and personally confined on a multitude of fronts, takes a deep toll on the mental health of these people as they age.

IV. The Undisclosed Side Effects of the Information Age

The stressors facing modern adolescents are bombarding them on all fronts, maintaining a daily cycle. For them there is seemingly no escape as the stressors are tied to a form of technology or tech-influenced societal structure in which they must partake to be a fully participating citizen. The pressure of advancement leads them towards a mindset where taking breaks could change the course of their whole lives. What could the effects be from these stressors on the mental health and social ability of the children of the Technological Revolution?

First, we must introduce iGen, the generation of children born from 1995 and onwards. These children grew up just at the beginning at which information technology was becoming a staple of the middle-and-upper class lifestyles. The childhoods of the oldest iGen members held a healthy mix between outdoor free play and technology use as the first iPods and Play Stations rolled out. Screens may have been a part of their educational environment, but not the largest role, and standardized testing was not yet a large part of their formative learning environment.

These people, now well into their 20’s, have witnessed the exponential growth of social media and entertainment as well as the use of electronics throughout their lifestyle, even so much as to into their love lives. The generations born in the 21st century, however, are more likely to have grown up with technology already a norm of daily life and social interaction. Children born after 2010 learn motor skills at the same pace as they learn to navigate iPhones. Regardless, all people born within this time span have been mentally impaired by the explosion of the Information Age, even if at varying degrees. iGen suffers from far higher rates of anxiety and depression than did Millennials at the same age- and higher rates of suicide (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.30).

There are a number of social and emotional trends that go hand-in-hand with the diagnosis of mental illness among iGen, all stemming from the previously stated stressors as well as the continuing disconnect children have from the natural environment. First is the concept of cultural autism, the tunneling of the senses and feelings of isolation and containment as experience opportunities narrow ((Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.64-65). The world is viewed within a continually narrowing window by iGen youth due to the multiple restrictions on their lifestyle. Yet the world seems overwhelmingly large, given the amount of information constantly available to them. This develops them to have a ‘know it all’ state of mind as almost every bit of information that can be conveyed visually or linguistically is at their fingertips. However, there is also the loss of primary experience, or when all senses including touch and smell are enacted. Descartes viewed primary experience as a major cultural force in the world, yet it increasingly is lost to screen time and isolation. Therefore, this ‘know it all’ mindset is unfounded, and the child may be existentially aware that they are truly missing out on the full human experience- their window to the world is narrowing. Does the dread that comes with this existential binary lead iGen to having greater mental health issues?

Even if iGen does realize their loss of a primary experience, the way the Information Age has wired their brains leads them to believe the outside world, nature, is inherently boring due to their normalization of instant gratification. Technology is fast-paced and almost anything can be loaded within seconds for the iGen member to intake and move onwards. However, other tasks that require more critical thinking and imagination may seem too daunting or exhaustive for them to take part in, whether it be navigating in-person social interactions or conjuring up a play experience in a field. They tend towards frustration and surrender rather than pushing onwards, their brains are no longer wired to explore the context outside of their slight vision of how the world works as most things in life have been dictated to them or on behalf of them. “They can’t make their own entertainment. They have to bring something with them” (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.12).

iGen has normalized their limited personal boundaries and restrictions thrust upon them from the outside world and in turn have retreated to the realm of the internet to act out their lives. As noted before, much of their free time is now spent indoors behind a screen. Lianna George (2008) states that too much technology in these formative years stunts to maturation of a normal frontal lobe and ultimately freezes the brain in “teen mode… unable to learn, remember, feel, or control impulses.” This is in part because of the psychophysiological stress recovery theory in which responses to stress are located in the limbic system and need a rapid recovery to prevent damage and exhaustion. Constant bombardment of the senses that iGen undergoes from schooling to leisure time does not allow for this recovery to occur. According to Raemond DeYoung (2002), Associate Professor of Environmental Psychology at the University of Michigan, the inhibitory process tires and reduces mental effectiveness, increases irritability, impatience, and distractibility. Where once generations past could find solace in the outdoors to mitigate stress response, iGen no longer has such an ample opportunity due to inherited hesitation. In fact, iGen children are more inclined to suffer from a nature-deficit disorder. First introduced by Richard Louv (2012), nature-deficit includes “atrophied awareness, a diminished ability to find meaning in the life that surrounds us, whatever form it takes” (pg.11). The shrinkage of the opportunity and increasing sensory demand results first in non-scientific but social disorders like nature-deficit, cultural autism, and loss of primary experience, then eventually in an increase in diagnoses of anxiety and depression.

 James Sallis of the Active Living Research Foundation cites an indoor, sedentary childhood being linked to mental health problems (Louv, 2008, pg. 32). Kids spending more than two hours on screens for leisure are at elevated risk of depression and suicide-related outcomes (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.152-153). The stressors of the real-world, topped with the social and emotional isolation coming from increased time spent of the internet, is leading kids to be diagnosed at an increasing rate and at younger ages. The rate at which American children are prescribed antidepressants almost doubled in a five years’ time in the early 2000’s with a 66% increase among preschool children (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.49). Assuming that the disorders manifest the same way in a developing brain as in adulthood, between 2000-2003, there was a 49% increase in the use of psychotropic drugs on teenagers (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2019, pg.50). But is this the most effective way to deal with the mental health issues of iGen? At face value the answer appears to be yes. Without looking into the context upon which these mental disorders develop, it may seem as if these issues are due to personal accounts of the world, of the way the individual perceives the environment around them. However, by delving into the structure of this new era one can see that society has set up the youth to fail internally. Children are not smaller versions of adults and it seems as if we have regressed to that mindset yet again. Surely a restructuring is in order for the health and longevity of this generation. Maybe this begins with schooling or parental guidance, but these are large structures upon which most of American society operates. Along this path in the Information Age one can see how slowly but surely the child has become detached from nature, the true homestead, the original caretaker. It could be that reinstating the child’s relationship with nature, even at older ages, could help to promote their mental health and quite possibly save their lives.

V. Nature’s Benefits and Where to Find Them

There is a sense of calm inherently tied to any form of nature. Without input from humans it provides a twinkling of sound, whooshes of fresh air and a stillness that humans have not been in tune to for quite some time. It has been proven, even before it needed to be, that nature has restorative powers. According to Richard Louv (2012), direct and indirect contact with nature can help youth recover from mental fatigue and restore their attention (pg.27). Exposure to parks or patches of ecosystems enhances coping abilities, promotes a more positive outlook on life, and higher life satisfaction. In one study, after a green outdoor walk, 92% of participants felt less depressed; 86% less tense; and 81% less angry (Louv, 2012, pg.59). Mood and self-esteem can be promoted even after five minutes outdoors, especially among the young. But how does this work? Nature is not a traditional therapy session. It does not make a person focus intensely on the issues that plague the mind or the heart. Instead it promotes primary experience, involuntary attention. The user is fully emerged in a landscape that takes one outside themselves and places them into a vast oasis where sensory intake is passive and not active. By not having to actively take in the surrounding context, stress is alleviated in knowing that the landscape is removed from the issues plaguing the mind. It is this primary experience that was stripped from the child in the Information Age. Giving it back to them can enhance their abilities far beyond what school could teach.

We have noted the social and emotional behaviors taught to children of the Information Age: cultural autism, loss of primary experience, fear in face of adversity, etc. But what could nature teach this generation to combat the forces driving them to illness? Within direct, natural experiences lie challenges and stressors. However, these come in low doses and often voluntarily included by children during play. Allowing children to partake in these ‘wild’ landscapes allows them to become friends with fear and develop their responses to danger or difficulty later in life. They will be less afraid and more willing to step up. Spending free time outdoors doing such activities can increase the child’s self-esteem. A higher self-esteem will allow them to partake in social media and inter-personal relationships with greater stride. They can productively engage with people and ideas that challenge their belief system. Time spent outdoors also promotes the concept of biophilia, or ‘nature-loving’ (Louv, 2008, pg.43). Within this state of mind, the child yearns to affiliate with other forms of life, thus learning empathy and social support. This allows adolescents the proper mental platform to build strong friendships and sustain intellectual development. According to The Geography of Childhood, “The endless forms generated by evolution subconsciously reassure us of our own validity. Understanding the difference empowers us to grow and care. The variety of organisms helps to teach tolerance. The land releases us from competition” (Nabhan & Trimble, 1994)

Releasing children from an indoor, sedentary lifestyle is as easy as a walk home, a bike ride with friends, or a wander in a forested path. What is most important though is the identification of nearby nature for each child. Although most of these children do live in suburban landscapes, ecological patches and corridors still exist within them, yet to be touched by development. Children can be allowed outside at first to view and contextualize their homescape. They can identify these edges and remove the conceptualized fear associated with them. Then, parents can play their part by allowing children their autonomy for exploration of these landscapes. Allowing children to turn over logs, dig in dirt or search for bugs on their own will give them a sense of independence and confidence that will foster positive mental habits later in life. If no ‘wild’ nature exists near the child’s homescape, parks work in the same fashion, as long as they are not dominated by jungle gyms or soccer fields. It is important to not under-estimate the imaginative powers of a child- a small space of nature may seem vast and intricate to them. No matter what, the letting go of the standards and structure of the Information Age, even for just a few moments, can let the child once again be whole. Again, youth is a timeless concept. Each one of us has a child inside, brewing with imaginative and empathetic forces. There is no age limit to this exploration, and no bounds to nearby nature.

Nature is the stage in which there is no winner or loser. It is a true equalizer, asking nothing of the child when the world seems to yearn for so much of them. It is both literally and figuratively a breath of fresh air. When the social system promotes the child in nature, it promotes a homecoming that makes for stronger, healthier citizens. It may seem that nature is a far-off concept, but in reality, it is still right outside.

  Bibliography

Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2019, December 31). 2. Teens, friendships and online groups. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/11/28/teens-friendships-and-online-groups/

Bucholtz, S., Bucholtz, S., Kolko, J., Kolko, J., Housing and Demographic Analysis Division, & Department for Housing and Urban Development. (2018, November 14). Most Americans Describe Where They Live As Suburban. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/11/data-most-american-neighborhoods-suburban/575602/

Kaplan, S. & R. De Young (2002), Toward a better understanding of pro-social behavior: The role of evolution and directed attention. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25(2), 263-264 http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/83666

Downs, R. M., & Hart, R. (1980). Childrens Experience of Place. Geographical Review, 70(2), 229. doi: 10.2307/214444

George, L. (2008, November 7). Dumbed Down: The Troubling Science of How Technology Is Rewiring Kids’ Brains. Macleans.ca.

Gopnick, A. (2016, August 31). Should we let toddlers play with saws and knives? The Wall Street Journal. http://www.wsj.com/articles/should-we-let-toddlers-play-with-saws-and-knives-1472654945

Hart, R. A. (1995). Affection for Nature and the Promotion of Earth Stewardship in Childhood. The NAMTA Journal, 20(2), 58–67.

Hart, R. A. (1982). Wildlands For Children: Considerations of the Value of Natural Environments in Landscape Planning. LANDSCAFT STADT, 14(1), 34–39.

Kaplan, R. (n.d.). The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 2/6/20

Louv, R. (2012). The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Louv, R. (2008). Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Lukianoff, G., & Haidt, J. (2019). The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. New York City: Penguin Books.

Mitchell, A. (2016, October 6). Younger adults more likely than older to prefer reading news. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/06/younger-adults-more-likely-than-their-elders-to-prefer-reading-news/

Nabhan, G. P., & Trimble, S. (1994). The geography of childhood: why children need wild places. Boston: Beacon Press.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. About NCMEC. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2020, from https://www.missingkids.org/footer/media/keyfacts

St Theresa’s Catholic School (Austin, TX). (2012, January). Expectations for incoming first graders. https://www.st-theresas.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/1st_Expectations.pdf

Whitley, C (2011, August 1). Is your child ready for first grade: 1979 edition. Chicago Now. http://www.chicagonow.com/little-kids-big-city/2011/08/is-your-child-ready-for-first-grade-1019-edition.

#blog #research

[madstars-festival]

JOE DY: “GREAT IDEAS CONTINUE TO INSPIRE ME”

We are honored to welcome Joe Dy – one of the most awarded creative leaders in the Philippines – to our Final Jury at AD STARS 2020.

After joining McCann Worldgroup Philippines in 2015, Joe Dy helped steer the agency to become one of the most awarded in Asia. He’s currently channelling his talents into several yet-to-be-revealed creative ventures after stepping away from his role at McCann earlier this year to embark on a gap year. 

An inductee to the Philippine Creative Guild Hall of Fame, Dy has a shelf crammed full of awards from Cannes, Clio, AD STARS, LIA, ADFEST – to name a few - as well as being a certified barista, a comic book geek, and a former sportswriter. We are delighted that he will be joining our Final Jury this year.

In life before McCann, Dy worked everywhere from BBDO Guerrero to JWT Shanghai, JWT Manila and Leo Burnett Manilla, where he first cut his teeth as a copywriter.

In times of crisis, creativity can help to bring people together. Are there any inspiring projects taking place in the Philippines to help with COVID-19?

Innovation is always welcome but given the complicated mix of challenges with which the Philippine population struggles, I’m finding more inspiration and more value in ingenuity over innovation during these difficult times.

Whether it’s mobile wet markets being brought to the slums, or repurposing those big water dispenser jugs and turning them into face protectors, or food services repurposing their inventory into selling DIY fast food and deconstructed meals, there are countless examples of ingenuity being displayed not just by creatives but by people whose only objective is to survive. We’re all working on the same brief, the same problem, and all around us are reminders that there are many ways to attack it.  

And each one is really reminding us that creativity will always be essential to problem solving.

Meanwhile, with a lot of brands having preached social good over the past decade, now is the time for them to put their money where their press releases are. I think when this is all over, we will remember which brands walked the walk, and which ones are all talk. This is a time for brands to prove which among them we can genuinely trust.

Do you think this pandemic will change consumer spending habits long-term?

Specific to the Philippines, the penetration of e-commerce and cashless transactions had been slower than the rest of the world. An affinity towards cash and a distrust towards digital security have long stood as key barriers. But with more people forced to adjust to the so-called new normal, we are finally learning to trust these digital ecosystems.

Perhaps more importantly, with more households embracing these new ways of dealing business emerging, we’re also rediscovering the value of earning a consumer’s trust. Brand loyalty may be an archaic notion but these days every transaction, every touchpoint, every brand experience is the consumer entrusting you to take care of them. To keep them safe and secure. Brands will do well to recognize the importance, and fragility, of that trust.

You joined McCann in 2015 and since then it has become one of the most awarded agencies in Asia Pacific. What were the creative/leadership strategies that led to this success?

I’ve always believed that key to creative success is having a strong genuinely creative culture. An environment where passion is nurtured and bravery is encouraged.

We all know that several elements go into making great work happen; strategy, ideation, crafting, selling, production. So many moving parts, so many minds and many voices, all held together by trust. With a team of great people whom you trust, you just need to get out of the way.

A culture of trust lets everyone on your team feel they can share any idea, be honest with feedback and that their POV will be taken seriously. Trust makes it clear to everyone that you are all interested in shared success as opposed to personal agendas.  

This also allows me to be tough on the work. I’m able to push them further and guide the work towards the desired standards, because they know that I have their best interests at heart. That they can trust me to take care of the idea.

Great work takes great trust.

You’ve received countless accolades, but your ‘Lives’ campaign for Fully Booked is especially renowned. Do you enjoy writing for radio? Can you remember how this concept came about?

I actually cut my teeth doing radio ads for a retail store back when I was a junior writer in Leo Burnett and it remains close to my heart. One of my earliest mentors taught me that radio may be a tough medium, but it’s what separates the hacks from the real writers. It really tests one’s ability to paint images, create experiences and persuade minds with just words.

Fully Booked is one of the biggest book chains in the Philippines and has a large inventory of literary classics in all its branches. When “Lives" first came about, we were trying to come up with a way to communicate how reading a book is like living another person’s life.

We observed that one life is measured with age, and the other with page numbers. Once we arrived at the idea of twisting every page number into a character’s age, we knew we had something special.

It was one of those ideas that just excited me when it was first on the table. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy but my gut was telling me to trust the idea. Key to its success is our belief in the idea. Because it would sustain us as we wrote dozens and dozens of scripts, while testing the structure against several novels.

Working on the campaign were some of the creatives whom I trusted the most. I knew they would put the most care, effort and had the most patience to see this through to the finish line. Throughout the course of the three year campaign, we explored different genres. To arrive at the final material, we wrote for about 30 novels, multiplied by several drafts, each script meticulously crafted down to every single word choice. Among a few I remember that didn’t make the cut The Old Man And The Sea, Metamorphosis, Ready Player One and Norwegian Wood.

I remember insisting that each line needs to hit three things: It must call back to a key milestone in the novel, that each combination of numbers and situations must twist the image in your head (especially the start), and it must evoke an uneasy emotion. Then, all the lines put together must cohesively tell both the story of the novel, and a provocative story on its own.

And we were very particular with the sound design and music too. Each script was scored with much care and restraint, with just the right touch of sound effects at key moments to create that visual mystery we were trying to capture.

Over the course of the campaign we produced 9 scripts, 7 of which picked up metal. So thankfully, all that hard work ended up being well-rewarded.  

You’re currently taking a gap year… what are you working on?

Stepping away from the industry for a while will force me to test and re-channel my creative energy on other ventures, including helping out in the family business. I’m already exploring a few possible enterprises that I’ve been meaning to get into, and this has me toying with new business models and designing new product experiences.

I’m also looking to invest some time in further reinventing myself. Maybe take some courses and learn another discipline or craft. The last couple of times I took a break, I took a course in principles of entrepreneurship, learned a bit of code, and became a certified barista!

Is it true that you come from a family of entrepreneurs? What did you learn from them?

I picked up a lot from my family, especially my father, is grit, bravery and business instincts. But one value that sticks out is the importance of trust in business. Despite coming from humble beginnings, he would always stress the importance of integrity over profit. He always reminds us that it’s easier to earn back money than it is to earn back trust.

You once shared some advice for young creatives: “Choose growth over validation. Choose to be in a position that forces you to be better.” Do you still live by this mantra?

Putting that into context, I guess the question to ask one’s self is whom do you trust with your development?

With your growth as a creative and as a person. Someone who will tell you what you want to hear and that you’re great, or someone you can trust to challenge you and cares enough to make your development and welfare a personal objective as well. Someone who sincerely has your best interests at heart. That doesn’t mean validation isn’t important. But it shouldn’t be empty either.

You’ll be judging the AD STARS Awards 2020. What are you most looking forward to?

I approach judging the same way I approach being exposed to the ideas. I’m always excited and I always review every piece of work with the thought that someone believed in this piece of work enough to enter it, so I want to see what they see as well. Great ideas continue to excite me.

I still have faith in the power of a well-executed idea. These days, we are constantly told to trust the data, trust the data. While I do believe in data, I also believe that data can show you the numbers, but it’s creativity that will allow you to influence it.

Joe Dy is judging the Diverse Insights, Outdoor, PSA, Place Brand, Radio & Audio categories at AD STARS 2020, which are free to enter. Submit your work before 15th May via www.adstars.org

#philippines #creative

[evanvanness]

Annotated edition, Week in Ethereum News, April 19 issue

Here’s the most clicked for the week:

As I always say, the most clicked is determined by what people hadn’t already seen during the week.  

My thought is that the annotated edition tries to give people a more high-level overview.  If I were only reading a few things this week, I would read

Quarterly update from each EF team

Prysmatic launches the Topaz testnet, ready for multi-client testnet

Compound’s decentralized governance launches

Why so many South Americans are into DeFi: “when you believe and know in your heart that nothing is riskier than your government or a bank, any alternative becomes much more enticing”

7 reasons Eth2 will change the blockchain game

The quarterly update from each EF team is pretty down in the weeds, but some of those teams don’t do much communicating. They don’t have the same need to communicate as EF pays salaries, plus some of teams are low-level stuff where the audience is already quite small.  It’s at least worth skimming to get a general idea of what the EF teams are doing though.

Prysmatic launched their new testnet, which isn’t the multi-client testnet™ but is very close.   We should see that in the next few weeks.  The “7 reasons Eth2 changes the game” is certainly an Eth bullish post, but I suspect that the “eth2 skepticism trade” is going to start unwinding and it could have a big impact on the price of ETH.  In fact, I think the price of ETH would likely be higher right now if Eth2 didn’t exist, because crypto fund managers have all turned eth2 into “just a meme” and sold on skepticism.  Meanwhile literally zero Eth wannabes have yet to deliver anything scalable without trading off decentralization - and if you trade off decentralization, then you may as well just use SQL.

I suspect Compound’s governance will prove to be something that many projects copy.  Of course they didn’t come up with it all on their own, they certainly incorporated many elements from others (eg, Maker) but it’s a solid model for web3 apps to follow.

Finally Mariano Conti’s essay on why DeFi.   Contrary to Bitcoin’s “tHe DoLlAr iS aBoUt tO coLaPsE,” DeFi provides an alternative financial system to the folks whose fiat is actually on the verge of collapsing and who don’t want to hold volatile assets like ETH (or an unsustainable memecoin like BTC).  Of course it’s not perfect, and it’s risky but any Argentine has a pretty good sense that DeFi is less risky than their banking system or Argentina’s Peronist Peso Printer.  

That thing goes brrrrrrrrrrrrrr like no other.

Eth1

Geth v1.9.13, with dynamic state snapshots if you use the flag

Nethermind v.1.8.1 – receipts, bodies and state can be synced in parallel. WebSockets and HTTP run on same port

Latest core devs call. Beiko’s notes. Progress and discussion on EIPs for Berlin.

Quilt doc on account abstraction implementation plan

Most of this speaks for itself.  The clients continue to improve while things are being worked on for the next hard fork.  Meanwhile the longer-term stateless Ethereum continues to be worked on.

Eth2

Prysmatic launches the Topaz testnet, ready for multi-client testnet

Chainsafe’s Lodestar client in TypeScript releases initial audit report from Least Authority

Latest what’s new in Eth2

Latest eth2 call, lots of talk of API standardizations. Ben’s notes

Proto’s eth2fastspec, an optimization for transition speed to the spec

An update to add atomicity to cross-shard transfers at EE level

The Lodestar tooling has already proven to be really useful to devs and the code quality is quite high by all accounts.

Ben’s what’s new in eth2 is also a good high-level read, I just assume you already know that.

Layer2

When DeFi meets rollup, how rollup chains will work together

Arguably this could be in the “things you should read this week” above, as it’s a relatively high-level look at how rollups will work together, using Eth as the settlement layer. 

Stuff for developers

Writing your first zk proof with circom and snarkjs from Iden3

Brownie v1.7 – (python-based dev/testing framework). easy CLI github/EthPM package install. And a quick walkthrough of using OpenZeppelin contracts with Brownie

Remix online and desktop IDE v0.10 – more e2e tests, dev node in browser, plugin improvements, publish to IPFS, async/await for script execution

OpenZeppelin test environment v0.1.4

dshackle – Eth API load balancer

Flash mintable asset backed tokens

Upload to IPFS directly from ENS manager with Temporal

How MeTokens personalizes with 3Box Profiles

Loopring launches an API for their dex rollup

Patterns for access control in Solidity

money-legos: tool to build DeFi apps

I’ve been trying to provide more context in the links of the devs section, which means I have less to say here.   

That money-legos quickstarter for DeFi apps seems like it’s built for hackthons.

Security and ERC777 attacks

Sebastian Bürgel finds a bug cancelling the transaction in the Multis UI

Certora on a Synthetix reentrancy bug they found

Slither v0.6.11 – support for Solidity v0.6, auto-generate properties for unit tests and fuzzer

Curve found a vulnerability in the Curve sUSD code. Funds are safe.

Two ERC777 re-entrancy attacks this weekend. ERC777 is widely known to be vulnerable to reentrancy attacks, something ConsenSys Diligence highlighted in the Uniswap audit and on which OpenZepplin published an exploit on last summer

Thus a Uniswap market for imBTC (ERC777) got drained for ~1300 ETH with reentrancy and then lendFme also got drained for $25m USD by the attacker tricking the code into believing more had been deposited than actually had. Peckshield has a solid writeup. The losers are the liquidity providers, and dForce which had the entirety of its liquidity drained.

The dforce/lendfme attacker ended up giving back the money, apparently because he (i’ll use masculine probabalistically) used some front ends without covering his tracks, so he decided it was better to quit while still ahead.

ERC20 has some problems as a token standard, but auditors are generally quite skeptical of ERC777.  Could we see a better standard someday? We certainly could, but it seems unlikely to be 777.

Ecosystem

Quarterly update from each EF team

What is still lacking to replace WeChat with web3?

Transaction fees > uncle rewards for miners in March 2020. Obviously Black Thursday’s transaction fee spike contributed to this

Replacing all the different components to make a web3 WeChat is hard.  Even stuff like pictures is quite complicated.

Enterprise

EY releases OpsChain, v4, new SaaS model for public/private chains

Study of key management systems for enterprise

How the Baseline Protocol synchronizes between different systems of record

Using Baseline Protocol for medical tests

John Wolpert’s “mainnet as middleware” for a way of synchronizing different databases.   It’s not quite “global settlement layer” but it basically is settlement but without the finance aspect. 

Governance, DAOs, and standards

Compound’s decentralized governance launches

EIP2585: Minimal Native Meta Transaction Forwarder

Austin Williams mentions this 2002 Microsoft Research paper on Sybil resistance

Sybil resistance is quite hard, as we’ve found out with some Gitocin grants issues.  I don’t think anyone is surprised by the issues, it’s obviously not a 100% onchain trustless system yet.

Application layer

A guide to the shutdown of Maker’s SAI

Play short-deck hold’em with Phil Ivey is the new VirtuePoker promo

Ox opens the waitlist for Matcha, a “better way to swap tokens”

First RocketDAO loan using an ENS name as collateral

DeFi Saver’s vault protection product Automation v2 with flash loans and Maker’s next price

How MetaCoin is thinking about Nikolai’s Reflex Bonds idea for a stablecoin without pegs

dYdX crosses 1billion USD in originated loans

AtStake, an Eth-based competitor to OpenBazaar. Also: help test OpenBazaar with Eth

A writeup of PieDAO’s managed Balancer pools

AtomicLoans lets you lock up BTC for a Dai/USDC loan. (Get ~9% by lending your Dai/USDC)

Gnosis launches a dex protocol with ring trades in batch auctions every 5 mins. First app on the protocol is dxDAO’s Mesa, available through mesa.eth

Do dexes count as DeFi?  I’ll count them as a yes for my weekly metric, which - now that I’ve counted - is at 9/11.  

I didn’t count VirtuePoker as DeFi but I’ve seen some persuasive arguments that gambling has often historically served as a (rather inefficient) method of capital formation. 

It’s also interesting to see dexes evolve.  Exchange is so fundamental to web3 that I think it’s quite possible that we see a segmented market in the long-term, despite the fact that liquidity is a great barrier to entry.  There are simply niches that can be best served by certain tradeoffs, and Gnosis’s batched auction ring trades is an interesting look.

Tokens/Business/Regulation

Another flippening: value transfer on Ethereum exceeds Bitcoin

7 reasons Eth2 will change the blockchain game

Swiss Financial Stability Board recommends heavy stablecoin regulation in response to G20 call for stablecoin comments

Coindesk reports that China’s Blockchain Service Network will incorporate Ethereum

Canada’s regulatory guidance for crypto exchanges

Bullionix: mint gold coin NFTs using DGX

HashCash v2 – personal token spam protection with auto-decreasing bond

me tokens, synthetic labor personal tokens on a bonding curve integrated with Moloch/Aragon from Chris Robison. Unfortunately I can’t read the blog post because Medium censored it.

DeFi Market Cap, neat way to compare what pools are popular inside of DeFi

Virtual gold coins is a pretty interesting bundle.  

Also cool to see some folks experimenting with personal tokens.  Until 2017 got out of control, the hope was to see more experiments (and no scams, ahem!) at small scale, rather than “here’s $100m in ETH, now it’s 1 billion in ETH....now you’re panic selling the bottom.”   Capital allocation in decentralized ecosystems has not been great.

General

MyCrypto and PhishFort get 49 malicious Chrome extensions removed

Etherscan’s ETHProtect, taint inference analysis

Shapeshift buys Portis, and will rebrand it as Shapeshift

Binance is planning a centralized (DPoS) EVM chain

SheFi, a DeFi education program aimed at women

Why so many South Americans are into DeFi: “when you believe and know in your heart that nothing is riskier than your government or a bank, any alternative becomes much more enticing”

The Eth logo made of Venezuelan bolivars

The Eth logo was made up of 3.71 million bolivars, so 0.16 ETH, or under $30 USD.  A sad commentary for a country that briefly had the same standard of living as the United States just a couple decades before I was born.  

Ultimately it is hard to retain the fruits of your labor if poor public policy choices are made by voters, and none was worse than electing an authoritarian dictator.

Finally, you might notice that below I added the sponsor and calendar section to the annotated edition for the first time.  

This newsletter is made possible by ConsenSys

I own 100% Week In Ethereum News. Editorial control has always been me.

If you’re wondering “why didn’t my post make it into Week in Ethereum News,” then here’s a hint: don’t email me. Do put it on Reddit.

Dates of Note

Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):

Apr 21-23 – EY Global Blockchain Virtual Summit

Apr 24 – EthGlobal’s HackMoney virtual hackathon starts

Apr 24-26 – EthTurin

Apr 29-30 – SoliditySummit (Berlin)

May 8-9 – Ethereal Summit (NYC)

May 22-31 – Ethereum Madrid public health virtual hackathon

June 17 – EthBarcelona R&D workshop

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[gamerszone2019-blog]

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review - Fall Of The Planet Of The Apes

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/ancestors-the-humankind-odyssey-review-fall-of-the-planet-of-the-apes/

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review - Fall Of The Planet Of The Apes

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey sure isn’t afraid of throwing you into the deep end. My first foray into Panache Digital’s survival game began as a young ape alone in a dark forest, the imagined laughs of hyenas and snarls of tigers echoing in the trees in a confusing cacophony. Before I could finish reading the message detailing my very first objective, a warning popped up and demanded I dodge out of the way–of what, I couldn’t be sure. Not knowing what to do, I couldn’t respond in time, and my ape was left alone, scared, hallucinating, bleeding, and poisoned, my screen a milky display of dark green and shifting shadows. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do or where I should go. I began to wander and, thankfully, about 30 minutes later I found the rest of my clan.

At first, I believed the entire ordeal was simply a poor start. As it turns out, that first journey through the confusion of a dangerous jungle, blindly limping in different directions in hopes of finding someone to help me, is a fairly accurate depiction of what your journey in Ancestors will regularly entail. My time with the game saw me suffer similarly disorienting fates over and over, testing me to figure out what I’d done wrong and then do my best to adapt. Ancestors prides itself on giving you as little information as it can and daring you to rely on your ingenuity and resourcefulness to survive. Though the game fulfills its promise to do the former, it fails to deliver a compelling reason as to why you’d even want to rise up to the challenge of the latter.

You play as a member of an ape clan in 10 million BC Africa, and you try to ensure your lineage continues through to two million BC–the time period archaeologists say our ancestors’ evolution finally transitioned us from ape-like beings into a new, more human species. To survive that long, you need to manage how much you eat, drink, and sleep while also steering clear of predators and taking care of injuries. As your life continues, and you interact with more aspects of the world, you grow smarter and acquire new skills, which you can then pass on to your descendants. Upon death, you take control of another ape within your clan and continue the process, striving to evolve into a brand-new, more human-like species before your entire clan completely dies out.

Every second of real-world time translates into a minute in-game–except during sleep, which speeds this equation up. Your in-game progress produces opportunities for further clan evolution to then jump ahead in time by months, decades, or millennia. If you or one of your clanmates becomes pregnant, for example, giving birth to a baby will cause you to leap forward 15 months. For significantly larger jumps in time, exploring as an adult with a baby on your back will allow you to accrue energy to further improve your neurological network and unlock new abilities, which then allows you to advance a whole generation and move time forward a full 15 years. A jump in generation can be followed by an evolution, which moves you to a new, calculated placement on the timeline that’s dependent on which advancements you make. Adapting your metabolism to new plants doesn’t give you as huge a boost, for instance, as learning to use rocks as tools. Evolutions push you ahead tens of thousands of years, providing the most efficient way of getting from 10 million BC to two million BC.

It’s definitely not easy, though, especially since your clan needs to sustain itself throughout those eight million years in a single lineage. Though your clanmates learn what you do in real time, losing an entire clan means you have to restart from a brand-new lineage and relearn everything you’ve previously discovered. If your clan dies after you’ve adapted to eating fish, for example, you’ll not only need to go through the entire process of reacquainting your diet, but you’ll have to teach your new lineage how to make fishing spears all over again. When it’s a few minutes of knowledge lost, it’s not that big of a deal. But when you’re losing hours of progress, it can be quite disheartening.

Instead of saving your skills and knowledge between runs, Ancestors records your progress by keeping track of how far you travel. Initially, you can only begin a new lineage on a cliff within a jungle. However, you can discover and unlock other starting points in the jungle, and even reach other biomes, such as a lake-filled swamp and arid savanna. Unlocking these new start points provides welcome variety–as each environment contains its own unique ecosystem of creatures and plants as well as its own set of weather-based challenges–but your primates always begin in the same clueless state. Even if you already know what to do, you’ll have to retrace your steps and go through the same motions over again to recreate the same conditions that pushed your ape’s neurological network to evolve to where you were in the game before your clan was wiped out–ideally with more of your clan intact this time so you can go further.

This gameplay loop can be immensely frustrating, and it’s one that gets more drawn-out the more you play. By my fourth lineage, it was taking close to two hours to retrace my steps and redo everything I had already had to relearn a few times already. There’s nothing in the game that allows you to recover from a failure and quickly rebuild what’s been lost, either, which is demoralizing when your downfall is your own fault and downright frustrating when it’s just bad luck. I’ve lost entire clans because of my own hubris, sure, but I’ve also lost a clan because, after going through an evolution, the game randomly spawned my clan next to a tiger’s den and there were no materials nearby to make weapons. I spent the final 15 minutes of that eight-hour run helplessly watching my entire clan be slowly devoured before needing to start over.

I couldn’t go back and try a different approach to escaping the massacre of that unfortunate run because there’s no manual save feature in Ancestors. The game saves automatically when you discover a new location or go to sleep, with each lineage tied to one save file. You can manually back up your save to your PC, but there’s no easy or straightforward in-game solution to help you avoid a punishing death.

What small satisfaction the game does provide is consistently ruined by violent predators, though the threat does lessen once you make it far enough into the neurological network’s expansive skill and perk tree.

Having to redo everything you’ve already done also keeps you from discovering new things–which is paramount to surviving and one of the few good parts of Ancestors. With practically zero tutorials, Ancestors forces you to be experimental in order to succeed. There’s joy to be had in bashing different items together to see what happens and then compiling and testing hypotheses. As much as I was frustrated by needing to redo the entire process of creating the aforementioned fishing spear in repeated playthroughs, I felt genuine accomplishment in figuring it out the first time. Most of Ancestors’ puzzles can be solved with logical sense, so the challenge comes in figuring out where to find the materials you think you need. Granted, this being a game, there are occasionally arbitrary hurdles you need to jump through to build certain tools, but you’ll typically only find these associated with more advanced, late-game tasks.

You don’t get to enjoy much of the satisfaction in discovering new things and regularly evolving, though. Predators repeatedly sneak up on you and interrupt your efforts, which typically causes you to drop whatever you were messing with. It’s disheartening to want to explore and forge new tools, only to then have to put your odyssey on hold to limp back to your clan and deal with your injuries–and then be attacked again almost immediately upon heading back out. Yes, the jungle is a dangerous place. But when a tiger leaps out of the reeds to aid a crocodile that’s trying to eat me, it’s a stark reminder of how Ancestors upholds the need to rise to the challenge of survival above the experience of evolution. Historically, it makes sense, as our ape ancestors undoubtedly lived many more years as prey than predator. But in the context of a video game, the constant barrage of spawning enemies gets in the way of the gameplay loop of learning, responding, and evolving–a roadblock that’s only chipped away at and eventually toppled once you acquire the skills and tools so that your entire clan can work together and put up an adequate defense against the creatures that hunt you. Much has to be done to get to that point, though, so contending with larger predators–especially the collection of deadly wildcats that stalk and pounce on you at seemingly every quiet moment–feels unfair early on, especially in areas where there are no trees to escape up into. Dealing with their near-constant attacks or the wounds they inflict can make it discouragingly difficult to actually experiment and evolve.

The closest you come to feeling safe while playing Ancestors is when you’re up in the trees. You spend a lot of time in the branches as a result, but unfortunately there’s no easy way to travel between them. You can climb practically anything in Ancestors provided you have the stamina, so scrambling up into a tree is a quick, painless process. However, with no way to easily course correct yourself–and since trees are rarely positioned in a straight line–you typically only get to enjoy a few seconds of fast-paced, energetic movement before you run out of branch, plummet to earth, and possibly break your legs if you were too high up. And that’s a shame, because it’s actually pretty fun to leap from branch to branch once you’ve got the swing of things. There just aren’t many opportunities to use what you’ve learned once you’ve got the mechanics down. Upon leaving the forest, your chances slim down even more, as the follow-up areas are sparse on the first environment’s signature large trees.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey lingers for far too long on its most toilsome aspects. The game does reward initial experimentation, but then asks you to repeat processes over and over again without any means of securing your legacy. It’s an absolute grind to reach the closest that Ancestors has to an endgame goal–survive for eight million years–and one costly mistake, whether the game’s or your own, can erase everything you’ve accomplished. What small satisfaction the game does provide is consistently ruined by violent predators, though the threat does lessen once you make it far enough into the neurological network’s expansive skill and perk tree. But as it stands, investing in Ancestors’ journey demands too much effort for too little reward.

Source : Gamesport

#Game Reviews

[doodledialogue]

Interview series - What after B.Arch? #13

Interviewee: Ar. Aditi Pai Post-graduation: Master of Landscape Architecture | CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India

What prompted you to take up this particular program?

I realised in due course of the architectural educational journey that the built spaces cannot and should not be isolated from its surroundings. The response to site context is very important and it would be with the help of further education in Landscape Architecture that I could strengthen my understanding in this regard.  

I focused on schools in India to study Landscape Architecture since it would help me be relevant and allow me the time to absorb the nuances since I had already planned to set-up my own practice here.

Image source: https://cept.ac.in/441/cept-university

When did you take up Master’s?

I practised at Integrated Design (InDe) in Bangalore for nearly a year and a half (Including my Internship) before taking up Masters. While I was sure about my interest in landscape architecture, my short stint at a firm that practised Landscape helped me in getting clarity regarding the field. This helped me be sure about why I was studying the course, opened me up on a lot of technical aspects that I was expecting to learn more about and also to be open to all that the course had to offer.

This can be taken up in two ways, the first would be to continue with the flow of education after Bachelors to avoid a break in the professional world once started or another way would be to work for a bit (Ideally in an office that already practices the Masters subject one is looking at - Urban Design, Landscape etc) and be ready put in that extra effort to make up for the break and get back on track with the practice at the earliest.

When did you start with the application process?

It is always good to keep track of the applications processes followed by the institutes one is interested in and send applications on time to avoid last-minute hustles! I can’t remember the dates, but I was well in time with the application process.

What preparation did you do before starting Master’s?

My work experience at Integrated design (InDe) under the guidance of Landscape Architect Mohan Rao, has been my foundation into understanding the profession in its best form. This practical understanding of the subject was my preparation for the Masters Programme.  

Did you have to give any entrance tests?

The selection process was in three stages:

Portfolio of works that was to be mailed

The selected students had a written test based on general knowledge regarding Landscape and

A personal interview with a panel of interviewers.

How long was your program?

2 years. From July 2009 to July 2011

Did you have post-masters plans in mind when you took up Master’s?

Yes. I had already planned to have my own practice focusing on Architecture & Landscape design. That helped me to always be aware of both built & unbuilt spaces while studying the subject to plan the way ahead

Could you tell us a bit about the learning environment at CEPT?

The teaching process at CEPT is very informal. The lectures are more like discussions which makes it very interesting. The exercises involved some individual projects and a lot of group work as well. Most of the exercises required us to work on real sites from around the city and designing solutions for them. (Which also helped us explore the beautiful city of Ahmedabad)

The faculty had been very approachable at all times. CEPT, as a campus has such a strong sense of space and an aura of the Master architects that can be felt in every space. This encouraged interactive learning from peers and faculty through discussions (from the course and other disciplines as well) throughout the campus. So once you are in CEPT, the learning is always on and it is best not to shut-off because 2 years is all that one has there.

Studying at CEPT from 2009 to 2011, gave me this opportunity to study under the guidance of one of the pioneers in the field of Landscape Architect in independent India, Prof.Prabhakar Bhagwat. It was extremely inspiring to see the passion for landscape in him and being so actively involved with all the works happening at the studio and having nearly 60 years of teaching and practising experience in the discipline!

Also, the entire design faculty were well established Landscape Architects like Ar. Aniket Bhagwat and many others. The course also involved interactions with practising consultants for all the technical subjects which made the learning very practical.

Were you involved in research projects/competitions while studying?

Yes. The studio works were predominantly research-based scaling from small projects within the city to larger scale regional studies.

Could you tell us a bit about your thesis?

We were encouraged to consider thesis topics in or closer to our home towns to make the research possible in a more familiar environment. My thesis was about studying the Environmental impacts of recreational activities along the banks of River Kali. The process, in a nutshell, involved us to visit the site and gather all relevant data to get acquainted with the environment. Post that, it was through continuous discussions with the faculty that we analysed all the data, explored further through rigorous reading and generated a well-researched document that becomes a resource.

How did you manage the finances?

Since I couldn’t get scholarships, my parents helped me with the expenses along with a little of my savings that I managed to gather while I was working before pursuing a Master’s.

Did you travel while/after studying?

Travelling during the course was more to explore the architecture and landscape around the city. As part of the course, the travel was mainly for Thesis work and summer internship. Also, through a subject called regional study, we analysed a small city called Shirpur in Maharashtra which required us to spend a lot of time on site generating data for the research.

How do you think doing a Master’s degree helped you?

I believe Master’s should only be considered if one really finds the need and is not a compulsion. Since I was already planning on the studio, my purpose of pursuing Masters was to bring in added value to the studio and practice a good blend of built and unbuilt spaces with an evolved response to a context. Working in a firm that practices Landscape before my Masters, gave me the opportunity to interact with a people from the discipline and also from CEPT from whom I could get a know-how regarding the course.  

The course by itself touched upon a wide spectrum of Landscape which equipped me with the knowledge to address projects of varied scales and typologies.

Did the city/country you studied in play a major role during your postgraduate study?

Absolutely! Ahmedabad as a culturally rich city and heaven for lovers of Modern Architecture and to be studying in an institute designed by the Pritzker Laureate Prof. B.V Doshi is never short of inspirations.

Could you please tell us about your current work and future plans.

I am the Co-Founder and Principal Landscape Architect at The Purple Ink Studio, a practice co-founded with Akshay Heranjal in 2011 at Bengaluru. The studio believes in constantly exploring the parameters of design and blurring the boundaries between architecture and landscape. Through projects of varied scales and typologies, the studio makes conscious efforts in including landscape as an integral part of the design and endeavours to create micro-ecosystems within the architectural spaces.

What message would you like to give to those planning their post-graduate studies?

Firstly, I would urge the students opting for Master’s (in any subject) to introspect and be sure if the investment of time & resources is going to be worth it since it is a very individualistic choice and (again) Masters is not a compulsion. It is a medium that would bring in added know-how to a subject that the student must be already interested in. Through the seven and half years of running a practising and with several discussions with students, I have observed that the need to study Master’s has become mere fashionable or taken up due to peer pressure than finding the true need and meaning for it.

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About the interviewee…

Aditi Pai is the Co-Founder and Principal Landscape Architect at The Purple Ink Studio, an award-winning practice co-founded with Akshay Heranjal in 2011 at Bengaluru.

The Studio won the most coveted ‘Best Practice in India of 2016’ award from TRENDS EXCELLENCE AWARDS for Architecture & Design and have also been listed in the PERSPECTIVE 40under40 ASIA and as the Top 50 Next Gen Architects who will shape India, amongst other numerous National & International Honors.

Aditi has her Bachelor’s degree from K.L.S. Gogte Institute of Technology, Belgaum and a Master’s Degree in Landscape Studies from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. She is a TEDx speaker and has also presented works at various design related events in India.

#architecture #architecturestudent #Architects #architect #m.arch #B.ARCHITECTURE #b.arch #whatafterbarch #postgraduation #higherstudies #ahmedabad #CEPT #CentreforEnvironmentalPlanningandTechnology #landscape #landscapearchitecture #bvdoshi #india #indianarchitecture #Gujarat