BYU Y Serve Scenic View Team

There is a line from the article, “Human Rights and Culture: from Datastan to Storyland” that resonated throughout the creation of our documentary. The text reads, “The antidote to a culture that equates security with conquest and punishment is a culture that prizes connection and creativity.” Though the living conditions in Provo, Utah are not as extreme as some mentioned by the article, this is still an important statement.

Connection and creativity and how those elements can positively affect society, was the focus of out film. There are many small groups of subcultures that most do not even know, or at least think about. One such group is the BYU Y Serve Scenic View Team, and especially the group they help. Becoming a young adult when one has been a child their entire life is a difficult transition for anyone, but for those with autism, this is even more true. This group of BYU volunteers helps these young people by helping them, participating in activities, and simply being their friend.

This group is one that meets frequently -- it is not a simple annual service project, but those involved are committed to creating a connection between themselves and those they are serving. Having spoken with one of the program directors, we were able to get a sense of how driven the program is to helping these people and how much care and love there actually was for their service. Revisiting the quote mentioned in the introduction, life can be cold. People with autism can be misunderstood by the public and even family, and are at times met with harsh consequences. The friendships made by this groups efforts are a small service that is a wonderful example for the rest of the world when it comes to treating neighbors. With examples of creativity and connection such as this, the fight against the harsh nature of many societies.

“Serving doesn’t have to be a chore or a task. It doesn’t have to be one of those things your dad drags you to first thing in the morning to go rake someone’s leaves. It’s super fun.” This attitude from the group’s director is a great example of what sort of mindset can change the world. If entire societies were able to say, believe, and apply the ideas referred to in this quote, the world would be much more accepting. These service providers do not have to be there. They are not obligated to help at this service group, but they come anyway because they want to make a difference in the world.

10X

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          10X (pronounced “10 times”) is a video game inspired by the privacy protection found on Apple iPhones that automatically erases all of its data after 10 failed passcode attempts. The game’s purpose is to raise awareness about how crucial it is to protect and stand by encryption (digital privacy) that allows us to freely and privately store personal information on technological devices without comprising our security. 

          While the topic on encryption has never had any particular attention, things changed on February 16th 2016 when the FBI requested (ordered) Apple to write a piece of software that would allow them to hack the personal iPhone of one of the terrorists responsible of the Bernardino shooting back in December, 2015. Apple CEO Tim Cook opposed the order stating that writing such piece of software could threat the security of Apple’s customers and that its implications would be beyond the legal case. From that point, opinions started to diverge as a lack of information and misunderstanding started to get into the mix. In the verge of the elections later during the year, the Apple vs. FBI case even made its way into politics to further divide the nation. Republican Candidate Donald Trump even proposed a boycott on Apple products until they give the FBI access to the terrorist’s iPhone.

          As a programmer myself who had worked with encryption in the past, I have realized that supporting privacy while at the same be willing to do everything to avoid further terrorist attacks can be difficult. For that reason, I have created a game that simulate the experience of breaking into an iPhone. 10X gives us the option to break into a safe by attempting to open it by typing the right passcode. After 10 unsuccessful attempts, the safe auto-destructs itself and it is game over. The game focuses on giving the player a thinking experience. He or she must think and try everything to open the safe although the player is completely unaware of what really resides inside of it. Although the game’s purpose is to open a safe, the player is given the option to quit the game at any given time. After 5 unsuccessful attempt, the game proposes to help the player. The latter is offered a “hacking” feature that can modify the game by getting rid of the 10-try limitation. The player is specifically warned that such feature could potentially comprise all the other safes in the game. In the end, if the player chooses to unlock the “hacking” feature, the safe unlocks after a few try of any passcode. The player is shown then a picture of a Fawkes mask that represents the famous hacker group Anonymous. 

          At this point, the game makes its point that unlocking such powerful feature means that it is also available to anyone, even the people that you wouldn’t want to have access to it. The player is informed then that the safe has already been emptied. Anonymous wins and the player looses. The player can only win by walking away and resist to the desire of hacking the safe. 

          As pointed by Chimamanda Adiche, when telling a story it is important to reach as many people as possible. 10X tries to do so putting itself in the shoes of people that perhaps do not understand encryption. For the people that do, they will simply walk away and not try to break into the safe. For the others, the game invites them to think and let them find out by themselves that it wasn’t a good idea. This is important to avoid the danger of a “single story” that ultimately will fail to reach everyone. 

A World of Gravity

          What if we lived in a world where the gravitational force on Earth was variant from one day to another in the same way the weather fluctuates? After some discussion, we realized that such a world would have a lot of implications in comparison to the world we currently live in. Taking in consideration that some days the gravity would be strong enough to gives us a hard time to move around while some other days it would reach such low levels to allows us to float around as if we were on the moon, our buildings would have to be designed in a different way, we would dress differently to adapt to those weight shifts, and we would have perhaps new ways to exercise under such variant conditions. Most importantly, we would have to find ways to work whether those gravitational changes occur or not. 

          That being said, in this world, people would be more sedentary than nomadic. On heavy days, people would stay home and work from there. Telecommuting would be extremely popular, thus, increasing the amount of people doing business online. This would force the government to put more security in the cybernetic world than real life. Law enforcements wouldn’t be as popular on the streets since most crimes would occur online. Hackers would be as common as we hear robberies in our current world. If required, the government would have access to people’s information in order to track maleficent users. Meanwhile, hackers would constantly find new ways to bypass and avoid government's security patrols. This would create a world where people got used to being surveilled, while at the same time, not being too concerned because they would believe that they are being protected. On the other hand, some regular people wouldn’t agree to the idea of having limited privacy; therefore, some people would create softwares to browse the web anonymously.

          In Bleeker’s “Design Fiction,” he not only talks about how design fictions should create functional, interesting materials, but that the design fiction process should derive from a good story. So rather than just creating a world where the gravitational pulls shifted like the weather, we imagined what life would be like for the people who lived in this unexpected and inconsistent world. What would they live in? What kind of sports or games would they play? What was their history like and what stories would they see on the news? What would they wear? 

In the same way people tend to stay at home more often during cold winters, heavy gravitational periods would require homes built specifically for those conditions. In most homes, they will have a magnetic floor (responsive to magnetic shoes) to adjust to the gravitational strength of the day, keeping the occupants to a comfortable weight. As for the rooms, they are similar to what we know today. The main difference is that people wouldn't leave things laying around or on counters because of the danger of having those items flying all over the place. Homes are simple and small.

People would also create new activities to enjoy the perks of light gravitational days.

Since a lot of time would be spent at home, people would be mainly informed/entertained through the media (newspapers).

Seeing the Good in the Gravity Shift of ‘86

By Zach Connell March 14, 2016

As we look back over years, many disastrous Gravity Shifts have interrupted our peaceful lives and for some people has ended their lives. Today marking the 30th anniversary of the great Gravity Shift of ’86, now is the time to remember and honor the lives lost during that tragic event. Though on a more positive note, not everyone was negatively affected by the gravity shift. One couple recalls the ‘adventure’ they had that presented them the opportunity to meet and fall in love. After meeting with them, the Redfords, I have come to realize how deeply they honor and respect that day.

The morning of, Mr. Redford got in his car and drove to work. Since he works as a nurse for the hospital, he was greatly needed to help with all the injured people that were coming in. Noticing that his wheels were not getting much traction on the ground, he decided to grab the sand bags in his garage and place them in the trunk of his Toyota. After twelve 50lb bags he was finally able to get his car to rest on the ground the way it should. “I remember seeing animals, trash, and even people stuck on lamp posts and signs. They must have accidently jumped too high, or taken too big of a step that just launched them off the ground. It was really dangerous, and looking back I don’t get why I didn’t realize that I needed to be more safe” Mr. Redford remarks about his trip to work. It’s truly devastating knowing that the people who disappear on those days died as a result of floating up into the abyss.

Mrs. Redford looked out her window on the same morning and thought to herself that she would stay safely inside for the day after hearing about how light the gravity was. However, she was swayed when she saw her cat Sprinkles stuck in a tree, feet dangling above with its claws jabbed into the bark holding on for dear life. “I ran outside to desperately help my poor Sprinkles. The unfortunate thing was that I myself started to rise into the air with each step I took. I was risking my life to save my cat, probably not the smartest decision, but I would hate to see Sprinkles succumb to the weightlessness and float up to heaven. Why Sprinkles was outside in the first place I have no idea” Mrs. Redford remarked.

All of this happened as Mr. Redford was driving by. “I saw a pretty looking girl struggling to get to a tree with an almost floating cat, so naturally I had to stop.” Serendipitously for the both of them, he did stop and helped out his future love. Both individuals remarked in our interview about how fate can be a funny, and slightly ironic thing. They each saw an opportunity to make a frightening situation into a positive memory.

After listening to the story of this lovely couple, I realized how maybe everything does happen for a reason. The grass is green, Christmas comes once every year, indisputable these facts are as the gravity shifts we experience every day. The only way to get through it is to keep a happy face and move along.

Lastly, the creative designers of this world would come up with clothing that not only would allow us to adapt to the gravitational shifts but also make us worthy of a catwalk.

Having the weather constantly fluctuating has made us, as a species, learn how to adapt our clothing to fit the weather presented. In a world where gravity fluctuates, clothing would also need to reflect that change. The artifact I have created is a lightweight aluminum exoskeleton designed to help brace the spine of the individual wearing it. It was created for periods of increased gravity to help wearers avoid collapsing spines. The top connectors support the shoulders, while the lower help support the muscles in the upper legs. The waistband is there to help distribute extra weight across the hips. This artifact could be compared to long underwear. When the weather outside is frightful and cold, we put on warm layers to survive. It only makes sense that we would also have to adapt to the crushing forces of gravity. To maintain a sense of fashion this artifact would be worn under the clothing, thus not interfering with outside appearance.  On the other side of the spectrum, fashion would also have to reflect when gravity is lighter. In the shoes, the people can instal weights and/or magnets that keep them grounded when the gravity is threatening to carry them away. These items would all be fashionable and attractive to wear.

Webspinna Battle

In our preparation for our Webspinna battle, we found in our reading the following segment that broadened our understanding of this assignment:

“Finding one’s voice isn’t just an emptying and purifying oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses. Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced. Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.”

Overall, what Jonathan Lethem means is that our artistic process is merely a remix of what has been created before, but in a way that reflects our own individual interpretation. Given this knowledge, we realized that we needed to glean from the collective chaos of the internet those clips that reflected some ideals that not only embody our existence, but also our observations regarding current circumstances. Additionally, we wanted our battle to not only reflect a certain element of our identity, but also open up social criticism as well. As such, we began with identifying certain aspects of our personal backgrounds that could be stereotyped into creating a sense of conflict. Inspired by the bombastic nature of the recent political primaries, we decided to leverage both of our national identities (Jake being American and Juan being Canadian/Latino) to poke fun at American patriotism and its effect on foreign relations. We found inspiration from personal experience with stereotypes, but also looked towards the art form of the political cartoon to get a better impression of what stereotypes came up most frequently. We boiled down these stereotypes regarding other nations into two categories: pride due to excess wealth and proficiency in war. (Cartoons below stand as an example)

Although we recognize (and do not totally agree with) these stereotypes, we wanted to display how fruitless such notions of American supremacy are in the context of other nations. Thus, we came up with ideas on how Juan (representing foreign countries) could reverse my over-the-top American strategies to put Canada/Latinos/the World into “their place.”

First, it was important for us to come up with an easy concept to understand. With that in mind, we concluded that a round-based battle would be best. Second, we decided to have America start each round because of its past history on striving to be the first at everything.

In order to have a sort of exposition for our respective characters, the Webspinna duel starts with a clash of our respective national anthems, which also quickly sets the rivalry tone of our presentation. Next, we decided to touch on America's pride by having her defend herself with something that she is proud of. With that in mind, we opted for the "Pursuit of the Happiness" song and a "Make Money, Money" audio clip to highlight how America prides itself as the land of opportunity (and you could say wealth as well).  Meanwhile, Canada replies with a song by Drake, a famous Canadian artist in the United States, to point out that America's opportunities also extend to other nations. Feeling mocked, America takes the next round to the next level by bringing its powerful and incontestable military arsenal into the mix. The exchange of bullets and nuclear bomb audio clips is an attempt by America to wipe Canada only to realize that the whole operation was unsuccessful (which also hints at some of the weaknesses of a military-based foreign policy). Facing such failure, America switches gears and pulls out his ultimate weapon; finding a bombastic voice that can attack on a more personal level. We recognize that kind of attitude has manifested itself in the recent political debates. As such, we included an audio clip from republican candidate Donald J. Trump (a very strong voice many Americans are backing) attacking Juan's hispanic nationality. Shocked by Trump's intentions to build a wall, Juan rallies a group of friends, chases the Trump, and claims victory as a final declaration that such verbal attacks only harm America’s standing.

However, our presentation ends then on a more hopeful note. While Juan is celebrating his victory, he invites Jake to join him. This is our attempt to show that we believe in a future where nations can still come together despite their differences and/or previous conflicts. On an even more personal note, although Juan and Jake have different backgrounds, we can still look beyond those backgrounds to find similar ground in building up the inherent good that the United States offers to all here at BYU.

Poaching

                   Although nationality is typically assigned by some sort of legal process, I have come to realize throughout my life that sometimes it can also be a matter of choice. I was born in Nicaragua, grew up on the French Canadian side (Quebec), and currently work and study in the United States. With such background, I sometimes feel that the whole nationality concept is a little bit abstract. 

          The objective of my painting remix is to reflect the world in which I grew up along with the different nationalities that I identify to. Originally painted by Hendrick Van Cleve III in the 16th century, The Tower of Babel not only is a representation of the corruption of God's children but also the explanation behind the different languages that we have in our days. This is extremely interesting because the concept of not understanding a language is sort of strange to me. I grew up speaking Spanish, French, and English and I can barely recall having to learn any of them. Additionally, I have rarely being in a situation where people around me would speak a language that I didn't fully understand. My own version of The Tower of Babel shows that all the languages that came out of that event are the only ones that I know. For that reason, I included elements (buildings) that represent the nations that have brought those languages; the Eiffel Tower for France, the Tower Bridge for England and the Sangrada Familia for Spain. It is because of those languages that in certain occasions I Identify myself as a proud and pacific Canadian, sometimes as a joyful and charismatic hispanic, and other times as an ambitious and knowledgeable American. Although I am conscious that my French isn't the exotic one from France or my English isn't from England, I find pride and beauty in the "versions" that I got to learn, similar to the child that makes its toy "Real" by using it over and over again. It might be different from its original state but it also makes it more personal and meaningful.

          Another point to notice on the painting is the fact that the Tower Bridge is by itself. This is to represent that English was for a longtime the hardest one to work on. In Quebec, although it is in Canada, there isn't a lot of opportunities to practice English. For that reason, that language felt strange and distant for a long time. Lastly, the white and blue overall tone of the picture is to represent which nationality I represent the most. Those colors are the colors of the Nicaraguayan flag. It represents that no matter what people know about me, in the end they see that I look just like any other hispanic — which I am okay with since it is the nationality that I am the most profound about.