The system I chose to target for 24 hours was Education.  In Part 1, I determined that one of the outputs of the Education system is ‘Demonstrated Learning.’   ‘Demonstrated Learning,’ I determined, usually comes in the forms of essay papers, artistic works, or grades on exams.  I selected ‘Demonstrated Learning’ as a Leverage point, and concluded that I could disrupt this system by producing nothing, showing no evidence of learning.

For 24 hours, I thought about various ways to complete this assignment and break systems of my daily life routines.  In the end, I attempted no new behaviors and produced nothing more than this blog post.  By making no changes to my daily routine, I did not complete the assignment for Concept III: Systems and Processes.

These drawings are the evidence of an experiment.  ‘Spending Free Time’ and ‘Observing Others’ were the primary systems affected by this work.

Instead of spending my free time on Facebook, I sketched the people around me.

Instead of observing others via Facebook, I took a closer look at how people were interacting in the physical world.

1. Spending Free Time
   Input: Free time/boredom
   Procedure: Kill time on internet/Observe world around me through computer
   Output: Information I’ve gathered from my time on the web (most often, nothing relevant)
   Feedback: Is the information obtained helpful to me
   Broken: I blocked facebook for a day.  With the time I normally spend on facebook, I was observed and sketched non-virtual people around me.
2. Artistic Expression
   Input: Desire to make some prints
   Procedure: Gather inks, generate content, screen print protocol
   Output: Prints/Editions
   Feedback: Am I pleased with the product based on the amount of work I put in
   Broken: I decided to try a method of printing that was entirely new to me, CMYK screen printing. Wasn’t entirely pleased with product, but am looking forward to making more CMYK prints in the future.
3. Grooming
   Input: Hair state in the morning
   Procedure: If hair is manageable, leave it down, else put it up
   Output: How I wear my hair for that day
   Feedback: Does the style I chose positively affect my day
   Broken: Instead of letting my hair decide how it would be worn, I decided the night before, and followed through with my plans 
4. Pupil Life
   Input: Prompt for class assignment
   Procedure: Generate ideas -> generate work -> submit for critique
   Output: Work to be critiqued
   Feedback: Literal feedback at critique & what I learned about my artistic process
   Broken: I am weary of creating work for critique. For the first time in a while, I disregarded my assignments and made some work for myself, a couple stuffed animals.
5. Stress Relief
   Input: Stress
   Procedure: ‘stress-relievers’, sleep, attempting to ignore stress
   Output: More stress
   Feedback: Are my stressful responsibilities resolved? Due to my poor stress management, no.
   Broken: I dropped a class which will allow me to spend more time on other responsibilities.
6. Family
   Input: Desire to remain close to family
   Procedure: Text/call family alerting them I want to skype. We begin to skype but when I hear that friends arrive outside of the room, make an excuse to end call and go hang out.
   Output: Guilt, less close with family
   Feedback: Am I happy with my relationships with my family.
   Broken: This weekend, I set aside an hour and a half to skye with my parents. I made sure that I did not make some excuse to leave the conversation early.
7. Capital
   Input: Need for funds
   Procedure: Work at the Miller Gallery
   Output: Money
   Feedback: Enough funding? Do I feel OK about the way that I’ve made money?
   Broken: I feel like a lazy individual at the Miller Gallery. So, I took an extra shift at the Children’s Museum this weekend. Next, I want to start selling prints/sewing works
8. Learning
   Input: Homework assignment
   Procedure: Wait until the last minute, don’t attend lecture, scramble to finish homework
   Output: Mediocre homework assignment turned in
   Feedback: Grade
   Broken: Took some more initiative in a group project, started early
9. Collecting
   Input: Everything
   Procedure: Hoard it
   Output: Messy room, too much stuff to handle
   Feedback: Can I even walk through my room anymore?
   Broken: Cleaned room, put a lot of things in a bag to bring to Makeshop
10. Sharing Space
    Input: Roommate’s mood
    Procedure: If stressed, avoid
    Output: Resentment
    Feedback: # of times we have a good time together vs. # of times we have a bad time
    Broken: Instead of avoiding her when she was stressed about a homework assignment, I helped her complete it.

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.

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FW: Temperatures dropping

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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.