Poor Nutrition

https://www.tes.com/lessons/TuuiUGOyBznf5w/

While most social issues are controversial and popular, poor nutrition is one of those subtle ones that we often forget about. And I am not talking about poor nutrition in terms of not having food to eat but rather to not pay attention to our own diet. For this reason, I decided to create a pedagogical list that will first inform its users and then invite them to see by themselves how problematic the issue is. The first two modules addresses what exactly a poor nutrition is and what are the negative consequences of such diet. The decision to use a slideshow for the first module "What is a Healthy Diet" is to provide a medium where the user can learn at its own pace to fully understand the concepts explained.
Additionally, I use simple websites throughout the list and invite the user to ponder and answer some questions. Typically, the questions are open to incite the user to think and realize by himself/herself that caring about our own diet is important. In the third module, I invite the user to take a food disorder test. The goal is to give the user a better idea about how a diet can impact someone's life. After taking the test, the user may or may not find anything problematic with its own diet but the process will certainly make him or her realize that other people do. The fourth module gives an extended experience about the user's own diet. With the help of a mobile application, the user is invited to track his/her diet for a few days and compare the results with what is recommended. The following modules push the user to act and make some modification to its own diet to improve it. The user reports then on some of the changes they have observed throughout their experience.
The whole idea is really to get the user to understand and experience what it means to care about his/her diet. For some, it might feel like its too much trouble. For others, they might realize that it is easier than than thought. Ultimately, the purpose is awareness and let the user decide what he or she wants to do about it.

YouTube Sculpting

          One of the first limitations that I noticed as I approached the "YouTube Sculpting" is that it was remarkably easy to not find what I was looking for. Even though I knew that the final product would be an assemblage of mostly random videos, I had pictured in my mind a lot of the sequences that I was hoping to find. I quickly realized that YouTube's Search engine has its own way of thinking. For instance, I would search "walking" in hope to find a person walking from "Point of View" but instead I would be find tons of Walking Dead clips. In most cases, I ended up finding completely random things but surprisingly many still applied to my theme of "Friendship". One instance is the videos of dancing. I originally had this idea of incorporating the different stages of a friendship but as I was digging upon the term Friendship I found out that activities with friends was a whole new subcategory to explore. From there, pillow fights, water gun fights, and many other videos came from. Although I was limited by what YouTube was offering up, I started to embrace that those random videos were simply giving me more ideas that I could think of and then take a couple of new directions. In the end, I concluded that the only limitation was my original idea. There is some creativity in embracing the virtual limits of YouTube results. 
  Another great thing about finding videos is that some videos would already be compilation of something that I was looking for. Finding smiling faces was particularly easy. For instance, some YouTuber decided to collected a bunch of videos from movies where actresses smile. I could then cut the video and select different of those as if I would have collected them all individually by myself. This not only added originality to my video but saved me a lot of time. One limitation to those findings on the other hand is that not every video was suitable for the final montage. Some of them had terrible quality. Others were so long (over an hour long) where it became complex to download the whole thing and edit it. It feels as if some videos were almost immediately disqualify because of their "digital" properties. Fortunately, YouTube filter options helped narrow my searches by selecting shorter videos. 

Twine Poetry

http://talentswat.com/Twine/Home.html

Originally, "A Message" by Coldplay talks about a man who loves a woman despite all the challenges she is going through in her life. The poem focuses more specifically on the fact that the woman has been struggling with personal experiences and the man wants her to know that she doesn't have to be alone, that he cares about her.
Based on such structure, I decided to create a game where the player would have to make a series of choices (where he or she would feel sort of alone) to finally be told that despite what the choices made, it is okay and he or she doesn't have to be alone in all of this.
To achieve such game, I first decided to alter some parts of the poem to enhance this sentiment of loneliness. The player is given the option then to change certain parts of the poem for something that he or she feels more comfortable with. All text options are either negative or neutral. This is once again to make an emphasis that the player is on its own. As the player gets to the end, the game takes a position of someone that cares for the player. The game rephrases some of the selections the player made and shows them on screen. The game tries to make the player understands that he (the game) understands what he or she player is going through. The games ends just like the original poem by telling the player that he or she just needs to come home so everything is okay.
The game is quite simple with only a few text options. To enhance the experience, I believe that the poem should be longer. The intention is really to have the game understand the player in his solitude, the same way the man cares about the woman.

GIF Cinema

Although stories are usually easier to tell chronologically,  I found out that GIF can do the same without necessarily having to conform to a specific order. This is possible only because of the very core feature of any given GIF: the loop. They don't necessarily have a start or end which allows them to tell stories in the order they want.
          As I was thinking of my story to share, I decided to entirely focus on this principle of loops. First, the story would't necessarily have a particular order. Just like any perfectly looped GIF, it doesn't really matter when it starts because once it comes back it to where it started, it all makes sense. With that in mind, I decided that my story wouldn't require a particular order. Out of all the GIFs that makes the story, any of them could be either the first or last.
          Second, I made sure that each GIF would entirely loop and come back to its original point. The objective being to make the loop feel as if it was inexistent. This is important because it allows the short story within the GIF to be isolated from any other GIF. If the loop is broken with a clear ending, the GIF becomes just one of possibly many parts of a greater story.
         Using cinemagraphs required each GIF to be looped perfectly otherwise things would look odd. For each GIF, I decided to incorporate elements that naturally loop in real life. Those elements would be the ones moving while everything else would remain still.
          As I was putting together each GIF, I realized that cinemagraphs, if they are well done, have the power to transports us into a moment of reflexion. A moment where it feels almost like everything has stopped but not entirely. This was an interesting realization because it supported the point that stories doesn't always have to be told chronologically to be understood. The narrative through a GIF is unique because it is not bound to a particular order.

Here's my story now: Me interacting with technology on any particular given day. 

I Believe

What made me really appreciate this assignment is the fact that the process of finding something that I believe in invited me to rethink what I personally describe as a belief. When we think about it, we use the word believe for so many things and in different contexts. One can believe in God while at the same time believe that his or her favorite sport team will make it to the playoffs this year. While both are beliefs, they are most likely to affect a person in possibly two completely different ways.
          Such analysis lead me to think that a true belief is an idea/principle that has a direct impact on the way I live my life. It is personal and possibly something that I am passionated about. It is the type of thing that could get me involved in an argument, something that I have a strong opinion about.
          The way men dress in general is where my fireside chat idea originated from. I strongly believe that we, men, have a hard time not only dressing well but also not dressing terribly. I still can't decide if it's a sort of curse, if it's in our genes, or if it has something to do with our North American culture but one thing sure is that most men that struggle dressing well aren't even aware of it. My belief is that there is power behind dressing well as a man. I have seen it, I have experienced it, and it makes a lot of sense to me.
          From that point, I started to think next on how to transmit the way I feel about this topic without necessarily imposing it to others. Since a belief is personal, I felt that it was more appropriate to share rather than trying to convince. Following that line of thoughts, I ended up creating a double presentation. Both would be identical except for one of them I would be dressed poorly while the other one I would make sure to wear some of my best clothes. That way, I would let the audience decide and make their own opinion if dressing better really has an impact on how they perceive people. I will let them decide if the way a man dresses directly affects what no only they think of him but what they expect from him.
          As simple as it may sound, this reminded me of what art is really all about. Art never really tries to force you to believe in what it represents. It's simply a creative representation of someone's belief(s). Its purpose is to invite us to ponder and think on our own. It sort of reminds me of a good movie where the end isn't entirely clear. Inception (2010) for instance never really tells us how it ends. We have to make our own decision and decide what we believe in.

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.