What's the difference?

For our last unit of Rhetoric, we dove into the topic of uniting and what that looks like. We looked into the 13 U.S. colonies and made an emphasis on the reasoning behind the American revolution that soon led to U.S. independence. In order to make the United States of America the United States of America, there needed to be this sense of unity. We were able to go down to Marquette Park to look into an art piece by an organization, Inner City Muslim Action Network, which is known for being one of the largest Muslim organizations in the U.S. We visited their public art work that used rhetoric in order to display an image of the freedom march back in 1963. After seeing the impact art had to convey a certain message to the public, we decided to do the same. For this AP we used art to unite. My piece of art is focused on the Uighur muslims in China and the horrible circumstances they have been facing for years now in concentration camps. Learn more about my piece down below!

NB. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? (2019)

Artist Statement

I am a Mexican/Moroccan, Muslim, 17 year old living in Chicago. This piece is for the Uighur Muslims, who, according to Business Insider, have been held in concentration camps for the past two years. News has not been properly published, and it’s time for news stations to make a change. It’s not right that the current education system includes the Holocaust into their history curriculum, yet when it comes to Muslim concentration camps, no one speaks on that topic. CNBC Stated, “around 2,500 prisoners at the camp, ranging in age from 13 to 84, and from a variety of backgrounds, all subject to the brutality of the Chinese state.” Uighur Muslims are being held against their will. Business Insider stated that Uighurs in these camps face “horrific conditions during [their] detention, including inadequate health care, crowding, and almost nonexistent hygiene. Prisoners who were observant Muslims were forced to eat pork, a food that's considered haram, or forbidden, in Islam.” Another news source, Independent, stated “Muslim women whose husbands have been detained in Chinese internment camps are reportedly being forced to share beds with male government officials assigned to monitor them in their homes.” This just goes to prove that unless you look up the situation currently happening in China, you will not receive information like this on daily news. When people pass by this piece, I want them to feel a level of concern for the Muslims in China. I want them to feel that they need to post this, educate themselves, and educate others along the way. In order to unite, we need to make sure that we are educated on the topics that we are ignorant on. This is not the fault of the public, but of news stations that focus their time on political issues that have nothing to do with the public than human crisis around the world. I decided to present this piece through digital media. Digital media is a way to share quickly and easily, and it is a platform that almost everyone uses, especially news stations. People will be able to follow a link that leads to an article speaking more on the topic of Uighar Muslims and what they are experiencing, and afterwards they will be able to share the post on their story. Once they share, they can potentially tag a news station for the news station to receive the post. The only material that I needed for this art piece was my ipad. This also gave me an opportunity for me to understand how powerful social media truly is and how I can make not only a social, but global impact. By using images that focus on eye contact, you begin feeling some sympathy for the person you see through the piece. The whole piece is a simile. Comparing two different historical events, but finding union in one topic, what should be published? Ideally, I would love this digital piece to bring attention to different news channels that have decided to not pay attention to this issue like CNN, The New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, etc. This piece should be a sign for news stations to wake up and truly decide what they should have been publishing for the past two years.

In conclusion, this piece really gave me an opportunity to reflect on what kind of impact social media can have. Digital art can be shared throughout different platforms and reach attention to news stations directly. Uighur muslims are being put through the harshest situations, and I personally find no difference to this situation to the holocaust. The next time you hear about Uighur muslims on social media, share the information. We share in order to educate one another on topics that we are ignorant on. In order to unite, we need to make sure we are educated and see who are the people who are making history repeat itself.

Citations:
1. Baynes, Chris. “Muslim Women 'Forced to Share Beds' with Male Officials after Husbands Detained in Chinese Internment Camps.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 6 Nov. 2019, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/muslim-china-uighur-forced-share-beds-male-officials-detention-camps-a9185861.html.

2. Ioanes, Ellen. “Rape, Medical Experiments, and Forced Abortions: One Woman Describes Horrors of Xinjiang Concentration Camps.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 22 Oct. 2019, www.businessinsider.com/muslim-woman-describes-horrors-of-chinese-concentration-camp-2019-10.

3. Ma, Alexandra. “China Is Reportedly Sending Men to Sleep in the Same Beds as Uighur Muslim Women While Their Husbands Are in Prison Camps.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 4 Nov. 2019, www.businessinsider.com/china-uighur-monitor-home-shared-bed-report-2019-11.

No way! Did someone say heated bike wheels?

For the last unit of Design and Engineering, we decided to focus on the power of wheels and pulleys. We took a deeper look into how wheels can change the way transportation works around the world, and how wheels can lead to future designs and models. We looked into bikes and the parts that make up a bike. To get a closer look we visited Working Bikes on the southwest side of Chicago. We were able to disassemble some bikes that would later be sent to Jordan! This goes to show how important bikes are not only in cities in the states, but around the world. We also visited Earth Riders which was a small bike shop on the north side of Chicago where we got to try out some e-bikes and see how those worked. For our AP, we were asked to look into a persona of someone who had to ride their bikes to school and get a better idea of their commute. My partner and I got Karen who lives in Banff, Canada. From there we were able to assemble a bike for them and include parts of the bike that could be used to their benefit. Read more of my blogpost to learn about the ending result of our bike design and model!

Persona:

Karen
Age: 14
Distance from school: 3 miles
Situation: Banff is a beautiful place but Karen has to bike along large winding roads to get to school, meaning they have to watch out for cars and trucks speeding by. Additionally, it gets very cold and snowy or icy during the winter months, leading to a dangerous ride, especially when carrying their school books. Luckily they can keep their bike inside, but space is very limited in their garage.

Need

As you can see from our persona description, Karen's route isn't the fastest or the most efficient. We as designer's want to make sure that our designs are not only efficient, but work to make Karen's ride safer. For that reason, when we started the sketching process, we made sure to embolden those struggles they face on a daily basis. Banff's climate is pretty snowy and icy, so we can only imagine Karen going through those windy roads. Also, storing the bike is a huge thing for a biker, especially a child. We wanted our design to include a compact way for Karen to store their bike almost anywhere, and not just in their garage!

Benefit

We thought about ways that can prevent Karen's bike from slipping on the icy roads, and so we thought, how about heated wheels? Essentially, these wheels would be heated as Karen bikes around transferring kinetic energy to chemical energy to heat up the path ahead of them. As Karen cycles through, the ice or snow would melt, preventing Karen's bike from slipping and possibly harming them. My partner and I grew up in Chicago, a city where it could get pretty cold, icy, and snowy. We also know that not only are the streets bad, but they are also crowded with buses, trucks, cars, etc. We don't want a fourteen year old child to ever get harmed on their way to school, especially when they are riding a bike. We decided to protect Karen, if they ever do experience a bike crash, by including a "trailer" design for their upper body. The trailer would be covering them from the snow and protect them with airbags included on the sides are rear of the bike incase of an accident. Now many people do say that airbags are dangerous and could possibly harm the person rather than protecting them, but we'd rather have airbags and possibly end up saving someone's life than harming it. Lastly, we have made the bike collapsable by including clips on the bike where Karen can easily snap them and put the parts of the bike inside of the trailer frame not only for compactness, but for convenience as well!

Reason to believe

Throughout this unit we truly were able to get a better understanding of not only the anatomy of bikes, but why benefits are so beneficial. We are aware that around the world, not everyone has access to a car. We are also aware that the burning of these fossil fuels are having a bad effect on our environment, and the risk that we are putting our climate through when riding in a car, bus, or truck. We need to make bikes more convenient and in order for that to happen, we need to change the way these bikes are built. We as designers and engineers need make sure that the bikes that people are using are accommodating people's needs. By taking a look at Karen's struggles, we were able to identify the main problems and curate something that can change their future of biking. We need to make that change for each person in this world in order to lead our planet to a better, safer future!

Conclusion

In conclusion, this action project reflected what the possibilities of bikes can lead to. Biking can make a global impact that can put people in need in the position of a better future. By not only designing this bike, but actually constructing it, it got me thinking more about what engineers should do to make bikes more efficient. In order to change the way that people think about public transportation, engineers need to make their bike designs more convenient for everyone. There is a way to change people's mindsets about changing from cars to bikes, but it's all about accommodation!