The following are a few examples of systems I’ve put in place into my life, each aiming to achieve normalcy, order, and maybe even some ounce of control,  and here’s how I did some of them wrong.

1. System: Dressing
Input: Need to be clothed
Output: Outfit
Feedback: Warmth

Doing it wrong: Perfect for a snowy cold day?

2. System: Eating
Input: Hunger
Output: Fullness
Feedback: Enjoyment/nutritional value

Doing it wrong: Nutritious dinner.

3. System: Exercise
Input: Desire to be fit
Output: fitness
Feedback: appearance, health
Doing it wrong: Exercise as a couch potato.

4. System: Studying
Input: Desire for good grades
Output: Grades
Feedback: GPA, scores, perceived success

Doing it wrong: These books won’t read themselves, nor will I.

5. System: Makeup
Input: Desire to be beautiful
Output: My second “face”
Feedback: Compliments, perceived beauty

Doing it wrong: #nofilter #no makeup

6. System: Work
Input: Desire for money
Output: Money
Feedback: Time, money
Doing it wrong: Don’t show up for work, win the “worst employee of the month” award

7. System: Art practice
Input: Passion for art
Output: artworks
Feedback: Self-satisfaction, quality, others’ remarks

Doing it wrong: One of my more conceptual pieces.

8. System: Human contact
Input: Desire for connectedness
Output: relationships
Feedback: Satisfaction
Doing it wrong: Don’t text back when I receive texts.

9. System: Dressing
Input: Desire to be beautiful
Output: Outfit
Feedback: Compliments, perceived beauty

Doing it wrong: I’ll turn plenty of heads in this shapeless men’s hoodie.

10. For the final system, I chose to analyze my sleep patterns. Like the majority of college students I consider myself quite a night owl; I can stay up until 5 AM with relative ease but if you ask me to wake up at 5 AM I’ll hit the snooze button for a few more hours. I chose to flip this system but taking an extreme view of a morning person, and tried out a new sleep schedule. I went to sleep at 7:30 PM with the help of my exhaustion and some natural sleep supplements, and set my alarm to wake me at 3:30 AM.

I thought that perhaps I would be able to get work done in the morning with a full 8 hours of sleep behind me (which I don’t usually achieve) but when I woke up I found that the number of hours made no difference to my feelings of rested-ness–I was just as tired as any other morning, but this morning I had 7 hours to kill before my first class. I ended up just sitting around for mot of the morning, and I even watched a movie over breakfast and my morning coffee but I was entirely unproductive. As the day progressed and I made it to the afternoon I had already had a full day and was entirely exhausted but unfortunately could not take a break from my daily responsibilities to nap. 22 hours after I had awoken in the morning I finally went back to sleep, and was able to resume my regular waking hour the next day.

1. Fashion
In: Clothing choices
Out: Social approval
Factors: Trends; Creativity; Price range
Feedback: Compliments; Staring
Leverage: Trends – Wear something that is a fashion trend now that is really impractical; Wear all the current trends at once

2. Communication
In: Gesture
Out: Recognition
Factors: Loneliness; Social norms; Distractions; Environment
Feedback: Response; Comfort/ Satisfaction
Leverage: Response – Respond inappropriately (yell or cry); Do not respond

3. Transportation
In: Body
Out: Body
Factors: Time; Access; Safety
Feedback: Word of mouth; Customer satisfaction
Leverage: Time – take an indirect route; Do not change position (not moving Point A to B)
*Note/Question: How does this affect/ critique the system?

4. Commerce
In: $ $ $
Out: Good/service
Factors: Want; Need; Access
Feedback: Customer satisfaction
Leverage: Access – Take too much for $ value; Affect others’ access

5. Eating
In: Food
Out: Energy (?)
Factors: Hunger; Availability
Feedback: Full/Satiated
Leverage: Hunger – Eat past ‘full’ or when not hungry; Food – Eat no food or eat ‘non-food’ material

6. Pet
In: Food; Care/Shelter
Out: Love
Factors: $$; Distractions; Time
Feedback: Pet shows affection/respect to owner; Pet wants to play; Pet allows petting/cuddling
Leverage: Time – Spend all day w/ pet instead of only feeding it.  Does pet get annoyed?

7. Education
In: Person; Attention
Out: Demonstrated Learning (Papers, Exams, Work, etc.); Knowledge
Factors: Time; $$; Availability; Resources
Feedback: Grades; Personal satisfaction
Leverage: Demonstrated – produce nothing

8. Personal Relationships
In: Person/Self
Out: Companionship
Factors: Time; Vulnerability; $
Feedback: Closeness
Leverage: Vulnerability – Don’t get vulnerable; Time – Do not be available

9. Artistic Production
In: Effort
Out: Product
Factors: Time; Materials; State of mind; Cultural demands
Feedback: Public reaction
Leverage: Materials – Create something out of nothing

10. Cleaning
In: Effort
Out: No mess; Clean sanitary surfaces
Factors: Time; Materials
Feedback: Space; Relief
Leverage: Effort – Spend time but make few changes to relieving mess.

The system I chose to reverse for 24 hours was the system I use to go to the bathroom. I decided that for one whole day, I would only pee outside (bowel movements would still be done indoors). This was a large inconvenience, especially being someone who drinks a lot of coffee. For example, I had to be careful about how much liquid I drank before bed, because I wanted to avoid having to go outside in the 20 degree weather at 2am.  I took a photo of where I relieved myself each time I went outdoors. and these four photos combine to make a visually interesting overall summary of my experience.

I chose to flip the system of how I got dressed and how I decided to what to wear for the day. One morning, I woke up when my alarm sounded, blindfolded myself, and dug through my closet and dresser drawers. This is the product, and this is what I wore for the remainder of the day.

10. Forgetting to look at emails

Problem: I seem to have developed a spam filter in my head, allowing me to glaze over emails I receive that do not particularly pertain to me. Although this is usually beneficial, I occasionally miss emails that were important because I did not read them thoroughly.

Solution: I decided to spend a day analyzing the text of every email I received. (Only 6 in total). I opened the email, read it, found the parts of the text that stood out to me as the most important and pulled them aside. I personally prefer when ideas are expressed visually, so I decided to create a visual representation of each email.  I googled the key phrases in the text, pulled the results off of  google images, and collaged the images together in photoshop to create a visual version of the email. I then replied to the email with this image.

Rent your CMU textbooks and save up to 90%

ART STUDENTS! VOLUNTEER for DRAW2014 by Jan 27 n go FREE

FW: Temperatures dropping

Crime Alert 2014-001

Most Exciting Job with High Earnings- Earn $75/hour

Post-Odyssey Survey

1. Getting out of bed

Input: Snooze Button

Output: Awake

Feedback: How long did it take me to get up?

Change: Set no alarm, stress of having no alarm got me out of bed right away.

2. Showering 

Input: Me (dirty)

Output: Me (clean)

Feedback: Do I feel clean/ do I look clean?

Change: No shower, use time for breakfast instead.

3. Getting dressed 

Input: Clothing, anxiety

Output: Me (with clothes on )

Feedback: How many times did I change in the process?

Change: Put on the first thing I see.

4. Making the Bed

Input: Messy bed

Output: Neat bed

Feedback: Did I come home to a neat bed?

Change: Make bed later, would rather be on time.

5. Doing Dishes

Input: Dirty dishes

Output: Clean dishes

Feedback: Do I have dishes to eat off of?

Change: Don’t do dishes, someone else can this time.

6. Forget Breakfast

Input: Poor time management and priorities

Output: I am hungry at school

Feedback: Do I need to buy something to eat at school?

Change: Make and eat breakfast.

7. Driving to School

Input: Lazy, $$$

Output: At school in 5 mins

Feedback: Did I get to class on time?

Change: Leave earlier, walk.

8. Cigarette on the way to school 

Input: Camel Blue

Output: Habit/ craving filled

Feedback: Does this make me feel good in the long run?

Change: Left cigarettes at home for the day.

9. Be a couple minutes late to class

Input: Poor time management

Output: Final grade in first class of the day drops due to lates

Feedback: Why am I late today?

Change: Wore a watch that was 5 minutes fast- no longer late.

10. Forget to check email

Input: 2 email addresses, so much junk mail

Output: Miss potentially important things

Feedback: How can I make sure I read my email?

Change: Spend a day responding to every email I get

I chose to basically become an animal for one day, or at least communicate like one. I realized that knowing how to speak in the same language as the person you’re talking to was a huge advantage. Sure, body language and gestures may get your point across, but it tends to lead to misunderstandings, frustrations, and awkward moments. My experience reminded me of the Tower of Babel affair and the reason the tower was never completed. Once all the laborers spoke different languages and couldn’t communicate with one another, the tower became a disaster. I found that not being able to talk meant I was often left out of conversations and I was able to slip away quickly and quietly without anyone noticing. If I wasn’t with a group of friends, I would go unnoticed. It was as if I had lost my “voice” in this world. And I basically did. With my voice removed, I learned from this exercise that if I didn’t speak my mind, get my ideas across, reach out to people, it’s really easy to be brushed aside.

Another side effect which I found interesting was that when I did make sounds, the sounds tended to be contagious. My friends around me would also start acting silly and bark or meow back and soon we would just become a band of animals.

After the whole experience, I thought it would be really funny if this way of communicating could really become another “language”. I created a spreadsheet/instructions manual to teach other people how to “talk in animal” so they would be able to understand my “language” as well.

1) Skating as transportation (I skate pretty much everywhere instead of walking)

Input: Need to go somewhere

Output: Arriving quickly

Feedback: Being able to skate faster, deal with obstacles

Change: Walk everywhere

2)Drinking coffee

Input: Being busy and an insomniac leading to lack of sleep

Output: Feeling like I can function much better

Feedback: Figuring out the optimal amount of coffee to have in a day

Change: Keep detailed records of my coffee consumption and plan exact times to consume it

3) Djing parties

Input: Wanting to make people dance and enjoy themselves/myself

Output: People enjoying the music/enjoying the music myself

Feedback: Improving music choice and mixing ability

Change: Mix only genres of music that I’ve never played live before

4) Working with spray paint

Input: Wanting to produce large spray paint pieces

Output: Making pieces I like

Feedback: Practicing can control, improving technique, letting medium dictate concepts

Change: Only spray paint with the can upside down

5) Dealing with stress/intense life events

Input: Feeling stressed or “bad”

Output: Feeling better

Feedback: Improving general mental wellness by letting go of things, not procrastinating

Change: Stop drinking, only deal with things using meditation

6) Dealing with insomnia

Input: Not being able to sleep

Output: Finally sleeping

Feedback: Figuring out better ways to fall asleep reliably

Change: Only use melatonin instead of other substances, shut off all electronics an hour before bed

7) Staying in touch with parents

Input: Parents want to talk fairly often

Output: Parents are happy, I get to not be separated from my family

Feedback: Plan certain times to talk

Change: Video chat with parents in the middle of the week (when I would normally least want to)

8) How I carry things I need

Input: Needing to transport items

Output: Having access to many things

Feedback: Getting better backpacks, carefully choosing what I bring with me when I leave my house

Change: Don’t use any kind of container, including pockets, only carry things in my hands

9) Doing class assignments

Input: Getting an assignment

Output: Completing assignment

Feedback: Improving how I work, doing things sooner

Change: Not let myself work on a piece the night before it’s due, it all has to be done before then

10) How I go to the bathroom

Input: Needing to pee

Output: Successfully peeing

Feedback: Not waiting until I really, REALLY need to pee

Change: Only peeing outside

Part II of the Systems Procedure was to choose an everyday procedure and turn it around, pushing it further in the opposite direction.  I decided to switch to using my left hand instead of my dominant right hand to go through a day.  This forced me to really focus on menial tasks which usually don’t take much thought such as dressing and eating.  Using my left hand, generally increased the effort for each and every task throughout the day.

1.  indoor v. outdoor

2. text v. in-person

3. digital time v. watch

4. careful v. careless

5. chopstick v. fork

6. lens v. glasses

7. typing v. writing

8. reusable v. disposable

9. traditional v. unconventional

10. Using left hand for all major functions throughout the day, to really focus on what I am doing, and putting more effort into each and every action.