Yan Feng, Ariel Hsu
2020
Mirror
[Painting]
House of Feng, Southern California
We created a visualization that reflects how we view and feel about the current state of being in the world. It was important for us to convey a message of duality as there is light and dark to a given situation. In Mirror, it addresses the polarity we observe as a result of COVID-19 as there are currently no effective and viable vaccines to treat the disease; hence, quarantine measures were implemented globally to flatten the curve and decrease the rate at which the it is spread. As a result, we observed a decline in environmental pollution. The theme of Mirror is duality: the dark aspect being COVID-19, while the light aspect is the decrease in environmental pollution. The Tree of Life represents connection and togetherness; we are connected together from the branches of the tree, to the roots that entangle deeply into the soil. We also want to capture the transformative process of living through this challenging time, using a metaphoric representation of a phoenix flying away from a Coronavirus-infested Earth and towards a newly transformed Earth; destruction and rebirth, changing the way we work, socialize, commute, shop, and seeing this change on a global scale. The butterfly symbolizes transformation which emphasizes humanity’s resilience to keep moving forward. The various planets seen next to the phoenix symbolize an inclusive message - we are all in this pandemic together.
Our tagline, A S T R O A S T R A L, speaks of seeking answers from the stars. In both astro- and astral, it carries the meaning of, or relating to the stars. The study of astronomy is “the branch of science which deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole” (“Astronomy”). While the definition of astral implies an esoteric connotation, “relating to a supposed nonphysical realm of existence” (“Astral”). The parallel we are drawing is the Mirroring of both definitions in that they are subjects with much of it remaining a mystery and in the unknown. Yet, wandering hearts and curious minds look up to the stars in search of meaning to life and much more.
We each had our own vision in how we wanted to convey our story. However, it was important that we map our thought process using stickies so that we can create flow to the narrative we are telling. We started by using the story mapping process, writing down the main messages we wanted Mirror to deliver and what images to use for symbolism. We used agile principles and values along with the scrum framework, and created a simple scrumban board for our project to stay on track. Since the time frame to deliver is 48 hours, our standups are reduced to 1-2 minutes, mainly to check for impediments. We’ve had to terminate a sprint in the beginning as we had a name and theme change. Our product backlog refinement process was insightful as we had our vision and project submission requirements in visible view. Our sprint reviews and retrospectives were slightly longer than our daily standups; we mainly used these two ceremonies to present what we were able to finish and how we should improve our process or workflow for the next sprint. For example, we ran into a few issues getting the paint to grab onto our canvas (the cardboard’s texture was not cooperative). We were able to overcome this impediment by changing our brush stroke techniques, and applying multiple layers of colors.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SmAQ_0ZM6DbwWuy-aOp8lT6xWO1p0QMVA8NyMfUy-bc/edit?usp=sharing
https://twitter.com/astrosirens
“Asia NO2 Statistics from OMI.” NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2020, so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/no2/pix/regionals/Asia/Asia.html.
"Astral." Google, 2020.
"Astronomy." Google, 2020.