Reflections

Introduction

The goal of the Reflection unit was to dig a little deeper into who I am as a person and what I value in life.  In English, we wrote our Personal Statement that may be submitted to colleges. In Digital Media, we wrote, recorded, and edited a Perspective Piece, a short rant. In Animation, we had to uncover our core values through a physical object and then 3-D model .

Personal Statement

In English, I had to write a personal statement, a self-reflection piece, that would be sent to the colleges we were applying for, and in Digital Media, we had to record the essay and edit it using ProTools.

Why Is It Called a “Dis”ability?

Approaching Los Altos Hills, I leave behind the bustle of Silicon Valley. The bright green hills obscure signs of wildlife, from deer to coyotes. As I approach Westwind, a riding program for the handicapped, I slow to a stop, watching stallions and mares grazing. As I aApproaching the barn, gravel and dirt crunch beneath my feet as I brush the horses’ fur and saddle them up, preparing them for the afternoon.

The first time I came to Westwind, in 2016, I knew it would be a place for me to relax and spend time around my favorite four-legged friends. But I could not have guessed that Westwind would lead to me embrace a whole new community. As I got to know these riders over the course of hours spent in this intimate setting, I began to reflect on how disabled people are pictured, treated, and accomodated. The program itself was created to be simple and easy for the children to follow along, and I believed that the program not only helped them get more in touch with their thoughts and feelings, but it also helped them develop a sense of trust and communication that they can use outside the ranch. But, on a larger level, I began to worry about the often denigrating ways our society perceives and seeks to address disabilities.

This resolution led me to explore disability studies in my digital-media work. I made a short film and wrote a book dedicated to Westwind 4-H, in part because I wanted to explore the question of “fit” and the built environment. Wheelchairs, for instance, could not “fit” into the built environment until widespread changes were made. For example, the building design for staircases, sidewalks, even doors had to be reevaluated. I learned that only when these reassessments were made did planners, builders, and government officials begin to realize how profoundly the built environment could disable people.

These experiences eventually led me to Stanford’s Design the Future program. This summer, I met a ten-year-old girl named Charlotte, who has two clubfeet. An action as simple as shrugging a backpack on and off her shoulders was anything but for Charlotte. The ability to shift her weight and balance on one side to remove the backpack was often slow and tedious. Charlotte was also self-conscious: how long would it take? How would she look? Who would notice her struggle? What would they say about her?

In response to Charlotte’s needs, our group wanted to advocate for designs that did not distinguish between able-bodied and disabled, but in a way that made the wearer feel confident about themselves.

We began to brainstorm what assistive devices had already transcended their status to become fashion accessories. One idea that came to mind was Under Armour’s one-handed backpack zipper, but the best example was literally inches of my eyes: glasses. Eyewear is one market in which fashion and disability overlap—glasses are the exemplar of a product that addresses a disability yet with little or no social stigma attached. This positive image for disability has been achieved without invisibility.

The approach our group took was simple: we would design a detachable bag for her walker caddy so she could walk across campus easily carrying all her books, or detach the bag for other uses. We created several different prototypes of our design, starting with just paper, then cardboard, and eventually fabric. Seeing Charlotte’s face on the day we presented our final product to her made all our work worth it in the end.

Through all of these projects, I sought to create designs and images that challenged insulting ideas about “able-bodied” and the “dis-abled.” In the end, I came to believe that you can’t help people if they are “other” to you, which is why it is important to reach out to others, to walk around in their shoes and design solutions so you both access new worlds.

Perspective Piece

We were told to create a 1-2 minute rant video on any topic of our choice, and we has to use After Effects and ProTools to made our video. I chose to rant about school. School is a major part of all of our lives, including my own, and while it is important, that doesn’t mean that it’s without its flaws.

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What is School For?

Why do kids hate school? People always assume it’s such an easy answer. They don’t want to do homework or they just want to goof around all day, but it’s more than just that. Let’s go back to the beginning. Not to when school was first invented but to the creation of the dreaded thing known as homework.

School has been around for many years, but homework didn’t originate with it. Did you know that homework was originally created as a punishment? It is believed to be invented in 1095 by a school teacher in Italy named Roberto Nevilis. Now how is it that something created to be a “punishment,” a.k.a the imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense become so widespread and used today? Well, no wonder homework is the reason that students are stressed out of their minds, but it’s not just homework that is contributing to this stress.

Like for example, why does school have to start so early? Don’t lie to yourself, no one likes to get up at 7 am in the morning, and then attend class for six to eight hours. Many students have to stay up late studying for tests, no matter how badly their bodies need to rest. Then they wake up the next morning with only 5 hours of sleep, sometimes even less, while a normal human needs about 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. Students would benefit more from an extra hour of sleep than an extra hour of homework.

School doesn’t teach you how to get a job, or how to pay taxes. School doesn’t teach you how to vote, as it devoted that time to learning the pythagorean theorem. We know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but how does that help us overpower our fears and anxieties? Things that arise from all the pressure of not getting an A on that math final that could ruin your chances of being accepted to the college of our dreams. Let me list you the quadratic equation: negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac over 2a. For some reason, that’s what’s in my mind rather than knowing how to be an adult and make a difference in the world.

In fact, some kid out there may have the cure to cancer within their mind, but they’ll never be able to unlock it, all because they failed that English final and didn’t get admitted to college. Now all those patients all around the world will continue to suffer all because the education system has these flaws to prevent bright-minded individuals from reaching their full potential.

So tell me… if school isn’t to prepare us for our future, then what is it for?

Doodles

In animation, I was tasked to create three different doodles using Paint Tool Sai and Adobe Animate CC.

The first one was one of my name based on my personality. Being an animal lover, I placed each letter in a different color and surrounded it with a unique animal that I can relate to in some way. The only exception to this rule was the letter I, which instead I decided to put myself peeking out from the side of the letter.

A drawing spelling out the name "Hasmik" in each color of the rainbow. With each letter, there is an animal that starts with the same letter. The background is a blue color with white clouds in the four corners.

The second one was meant to be a Google logo. I found out that my birthday is also the same day as National Tattoo Day, so I decided to make a short gif of what a Google logo might look like on my birthday.

And the final one, similar to the Google logo, was made to celebrate National Tattoo Day, although this time it was done in the form of a loading screen.

3-D Production

In animation, I had to model an object in Maya that represents who we are as a person.

In Maya. A white and light blue turtle is standing on a wooden pedestal and holding a sword.

Firstly, I made drawings of my object from the front, side, and top before putting those images into Maya.

Drawings of a turtle holding a sword from the front, side, and top view.

Then, I created the object in maya,  but in order to do so, I broke up the final object into three pieces: the sword, the pedestal, and the turtle. I created the objects in that order using polygons and sculpting their shapes to match what I wanted to create. Once all the objects were complete, I placed them together and added lighting to create shadows.

In Maya. A white turtle is standing on a wooden pedestal and holding a sword.

I created UV maps for each of my objects, and then colored and textured them using Substance Painter. This allowed me to create more detailed designs on the turtle’s shell.

In Maya. On the left screen is a white turtle standing on a pedestal holding a sword. On the right screen are black pieces of the turtle's body cut up into smaller pieces.

In Substance Painter. On the left side, there is the full turtle model from the back with a light blue shell with spiral designs. On the right screen are the same pieces of the turtle from Maya except now they're colored.

After applying all those colors back to my object, the last step was that I had to record a short video of the object using the camera.

In Maya. There are four screens. The top right is the same as the main screen. The top left shows the camera up close to the turtle's face. The bottom left is looking at the turtle from the front. The bottom right is looking at the turtle from the side.

Reflection

Overall, this project helped me realize more about myself and created a wider spectrum for who I am as a person. It allowed me to better understand why this object is important to me and how it represents a part of me and my personality.