#dataobjects

Today we began finalizing our data and started to think how we can change the aspects of the sweet to map our data to, as well as researching ways to actually make the food.

Most of my time today was compiling our data set on a spreadsheet, as well as trying to confirm as many of the numbers as possible.

A large majority of the data was taken from Chris’ original data set, but I also attempted to discover the dates that these events took place. From that I interpolated the data to show how long said war / epidemic lasted and a rough general estimate of how many fatalities there were/ would have been in a year. Not entirely sure if we’ll end up using that last one however, as it is pretty vague and is really just guesstimating.

Speaking of of guesstimating, we also decided that we should try to find out what disease has killed the most people. But that ended quickly as the numbers for both Cardiovascular Disease and Malaria were both very, very vague and the dates were equally as unclear. So that idea is pretty much scrapped for the time being. We tried to look at google scholar, however their data did not encompass the entire timeline we were looking for as we were trying to find out how many people were killed since the disease’s discovery.

Chris, Bel and Zhe did some brainstorming on what kind of sweets we should make and how we could map our data to them.

Bel’s ideas

Zhe’s ideas

Chris’ ideas

For the most part I didn’t take part in the brainstorming, but I did suggest that we could 3D print candy molds using Chris’ 3D printer. The problem with that is that we don’t know if the sweets would still be safe to eat after that. The plastic used is PLA which is supposed to be food safe, but we can’t be sure so we’re most likely gonna leave that idea behind. It’s a shame because if we 3D print candy molds we can make them any shape  we want.

Sticking with Pois.

11/04/19

Today was a little more disjointed as there was a photoshop tutorial taught by Charles at the front of class, and some group members joined it, including me. I left it early as I have done a bit of photoshop before, but afterwards felt it was hard to concentrate because I kept looking over to see what they were doing. The rest of the team were trying to find the best data set that we could for this project.  The name of the project is now called “Wear It Down” as that is what is happening with the soaps, as you use it to wash your hands it gets worn down. Laura wrote a good paragraph explaining the metaphor for mental health, which Ashton and I edited slightly. This is it: 

“The more you use soap, the more worn down it gets. The problem gets smaller and more overlooked the more it gets worn down. The soap represents an individual who has a mental health issue and the user of the soap is a metaphor for how people tend to treat people with mental health issues- they’re usually ignorant and focus on themselves. The food coloring which is eventually released, when the soap gets too worn down, is meant to represent someone with bad mental health when their problems are too big to be overlooked anymore and are exposed to people who had been oblivious to their problems previously. The juxtaposition of the light coloured soap to the colourful dye on the inside has an impact on the user of the soap, and shows how the more you use the soap the more your issues come to light. Using soap is a subconscious task with preconceived notions, we want to subvert that and bring attention to our underlying issues.”

We found some really good data, however it was so vague:

1 in 5 (or 43.8 million) adults experience mental illness in a given year.

1 in 25 (or 10 million) adults experience a serious mental illness.

2.6% (or 6.1 million) of Americans have bipolar disorder.

18.1% (or 42 million) live with an anxiety disorder.

90% of those who die by suicide have an underlying mental illness.

We wanted to have more accurate numbers, and a reputable source of these numbers. We wanted 4 to compare, and we got some good data but only 3 to compare, which were: 

Major Depression (US, 2017): https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression.shtml

Overall Mental Illness (US, 2017): https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness.shtml

Bipolar (US, 2017): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27618746 2.6% (or 6.1 million) of Americans have bipolar disorder http://fortune.com/2017/10/10/world-mental-health-day-2017-workplace-depression-anxiety/

We really wanted anxiety as well, because it is such a common mental illness that is often overlooked, however the only statistic we could find was from 2001-2003, and the rest of the statistics we had were from 2017. 

Anxiety (US, 2001-2003): https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder.shtml

Finally, after searching for a long time, we found a PDF with some really good data. 

This dataset shows United States data in comparison to NZ, surrounding the percentage of depressive disorders (depression), to anxiety disorders. This dataset is from a reputable source, also has the total number of cases and more. This is the dataset we are going to run with. 

After this was done we wanted to create another prototype of the soaps. Yesterday after class Ciara tried out one of the soaps again, a couple hours after creating it. Unfortunately the ink inside had dried, and so was not putting ink on her hands. To fix this today her and Patricia bought some gel dye instead, so that it wouldn’t dry down. They tested this out. Another issue came up with the soaps that we had bought. The ones that were not “Dove” did not melt down properly because they did not have cream in them like the Dove one did that we had used previously, and we could not use them. We need to buy some more Dove soaps to try. 

Wednesday 27th March

My idea for this data object was to create a bracelet that represented the statistics of the working conditions of workers in the Bangalore garment industry. I had the idea to make the bracelet multicoloured a section representing the percentage of women who had experienced physical and sexual assault in the workplace and that i would make multiple to represent different percentages of data. (however my prototype is missing the different colours mainly because I had no other material sources, but if i were to make the product I would use dye and a thinner material.) I was inspired to make a bracelet as they are often used to express a stance or orientation towards something, people often wear bracelets in support of a foundation, band or for an event being held. Additionally, bracelets are common in many countries to be sold at markets and on the street. Coming from Thailand, bracelets are easy to make and also have a cultural significance to the Akha people, so is true in many other countries. 

I had also been inspired by the following video, where SEQUENCE employs young men susceptible to the gang culture and violence that exists in El Salvador, to create bracelets that spread awareness and provide community for those men. 

The data set I was focusing on:

Working conditions in the Bangalore garment industry [1]

Several recent reports have documented working conditions in the Bangalore garment industry. All workers except tailors are classified as unskilled, and typically work for low wages just at or below the statutory minimum wage. These wages have risen only marginally over a period of several years, failing to keep pace with the high rates of inflation in the IT metropolis of Bangalore. A joint report by the Dutch Clean Clothes Campaign, the India Committee of the Netherlands and Cividep India found that one-third of workers interviewed in garment factories earned less than the legal mini- mum wage for unskilled workers, even if they held semi-skilled or skilled positions. [2] Labourers work overtime hours to support their families, sometimes without the legally required compensation, and occasionally under threat of termination. Harassment by supervisors and floor managers is common, not least because of the low scope for women to rise to positions of authority on the shop- floor. A recent report by the UK organisation Sisters for Change found that over 60% of the female garment workers interviewed had been intimidated or threatened with violence. One in fourteen women had experienced physical violence, while a startling one in seven had been forced to commit a sexual act or forced to have sexual intercourse at work. In most of the cases of harassment and violence against women, supervisors and floor-in-charge managers are the perpetrators. [3]

Figure 1. bracelet prototype

References:

[1] Miedema, C. (2018, May 17). Labour Without Liberty - Female Migrant Workers in Bangalore's Garment Industry (full report). Retrieved from https://cleanclothes.org/resources/publications/labour-without-liberty-2013-female-migrant-workers-in-bangalores-garment-industry-full-version-1/view

[2] Doing Dutch – A research into the state of pay for workers in garment factories in India working for Dutch fashion brands (India Committee of the Netherlands, Sep 2016); source: http://www.indi- anet.nl/pdf/DoingDutch.pdf

I walked into class today anxious, still unhappy with my prototype and its lack of that “spark” that I was after, I took my seat and was already racking my brain for new ideas. In comes a new activity. Finding people outside of our usual groups, and presenting our ideas and issues to eachother while each working to help resolve said issues. It turns out that this was exactly what I needed. I tend to work much better in a group environment than solo, and taking input and drawing comparisons between my concept and other peoples was extremely helpful. I was paired with Chris who’s concept was based around epidemics, and representing them through lollipops, and I had an idea that he could use sour as a variable for the severity of each epidemic. This was the first thing that happened that led to the creation of my new concept. After sitting back down, my frustration with my concept after seeing other peoples had only grown. There were so many good ideas I had seen, and all of them had some kind of impact when you saw them. They showed the significant effects of the data as well as the data itself, which mine didn’t. Having seen so many new ideas though, everybody was in a mood for discussion. It was at this point that I smelt a very welcome and familiar smell. It was curry. This was the second thing that led to my new concept.

I mentioned the smell, to which a small bit of curry based banter started. Being in the frame of mind we were currently in, some ideas of using curry as a data object were thrown around as a bit of fun. Maybe this is actually a viable concept though? (this is where my idea for chris’s concept came into play) Spice, one of the main variables in curry, is entirely changeable. But wouldnt it be strange to use curry as an object? its a very one time use thing. What is spicy but re-useable?.... Hot sauce.

Another short post today, for reasons I’ll explain later. To start things off, Krishner was in today so we asked him for help with our fillings. He showed us this stuff:

It’s supposed to be like gelatin, but it liquefies at around 85 degrees Celsius instead of around 50 degrees. He told us that it would take about 4 - 8% of the agar-agar powder and about 92-96% of the whatever liquid we’re using. This is great as would make filling the chocolates easier, something we’ve struggled with so far. It could also make measuring the filling easier too, as we just have to measure what we cut out if the jelly mold instead of measuring the liquid each time, making sure it doesn’t spill, etc.

So with that, we got to work. While I went out to buy the Agar-agar powder, Zhe, Bel and Kent started melting and placing the chocolate in their molds.

The picture above is what they had when I got back. I mixed the agar-agar with water and cayenne, I didn’t really measure, I guesstimated. That was a mistake that I did not realize until much later. My reasoning was that since these were still prototypes, we just wanted to see the agar-agar in action. I popped the mixture into the freezer and we waited.

And waited. And waited some more. We waited for over an hour, just like the instructions on the packet said. When we took it out this happened.

Yeah, not quite what we expected. Why did this happen? To be honest I have no idea. It could be that I didn’t place enough agar powder. It could be that we did not leave it long enough, maybe the cayenne was messing with the mixture? We couldn’t be sure. So we cut our losses, cleaned up and disbanded for the day. Everyone had to go somewhere and we didn’t wait to wait another hour just for jelly to dry.

So what can we learn from this? First thing is, we definitely need a proper kitchen with proper measuring tools. That can be easily fixed as we’re planning on meeting up at someone’s place to make high quality prototypes (maybe even the final prototypes) at least a couple of times over the mid-sem break.

Another thing is the realization that most of the chocolate making will actually be waiting, it’s not exactly difficult, but it is time consuming.

We also need to learn what ratios we’re going to have the agar powder in, more means a harder filling and less is a gooier, more watery filling. I guess we’d have to test this out, not sure if we’ll have enough time though.

Finally we also need to find a way to have whatever we’re adding to mix in properly with the agar-agar/ water solution. In the image above you can see that the cayenne didn’t really mix in properly, there is a pretty clear line where the cayenne has settled.

Warning! Super long monster post ahead!

Today’s blog, for the most part, is going to be a picture dump. I try to make slightly higher fidelity prototypes than what is possible with some paper, toothpicks and tape. Today’s activity is also about testing multiple things with one of the mediums we are using, chocolate. I’ve eaten chocolate before and I love the stuff, but I’ve never really attempted to work with this medium before so this is going to be a first.

This is also going to be interesting for me as I love to cook meals, but I generally try to avoid desserts/ sweets as that is normally my sister’s area of expertise. I’m kinda curious to see if I’ll add sweet stuff to my recipe making radar. 

Before I begin with pictures I want to point out some problems I had at the beginning:

One of which was the fact that I did not have a thermometer to check the temperature of the chocolate. While not a big deal by itself; chocolate is generally fine with temperatures a fair bit higher than its melting point, sugar on the other hand is not. Taking what I know from cooking it is extremely easy to burn sugar while attempting to caramelize it, so if we are going to create our own hard candies we definitely need a cooking thermometer and a reliable way to control the temperature of our cooking surface.

Another problem that the lack of a thermometer brought was when I tried to research what was an appropriate temperature to melt chocolate at. This journey through the internet revealed to me a term that I haven’t heard used alongside chocolate before; tempering. I did not know that chocolate could be tempered, and that in general chocolate buttons are already pre-tempered, I was lead to believe that melting them would cause them to lose their temper. Untempered chocolate melts easier and has a duller sheen than tempered chocolate, something that I’m pretty sure we don’t want in our final product.

With these two considerations, I accepted the fact that the chocolates I made today will most likely melt easier, take longer to harden and will most likely have a dull sheen.

I’m almost getting to the photo dump! I just have a few more things to add. Our current plan is to add pop rocks to the chocolates; as I stated in my previous post this version of the prototype has them replaced with crushed pretzels instead, mostly due to cost and the fact that it is very unlikely that the pop rocks would melt due to the low temperatures I was working with. ( I spilled chocolate straight from the warm bowl into my hand multiple times, the temperature was pretty low. )

I also used 2 different types of mold, I didn’t really have any appropriate molds on hand. So I used a small, paper cupcake mold and a slightly larger silicone cupcake mold. I guess this would also be a test to help see what a good material for a sweets mold would be.

Pictures time! It’s gonna be a long post cause of this but I want to keep these pictures as a sort of step by step guide through my process. ( and also as a starter guide for myself in the future. Just in case I want to make more chocolates (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧)

My ingredients, kept in the fridge for a bit just to make doubly sure that they didn’t melt. I’m using both milk and white chocolate buttons because I want to play around with them and see what I could do. I also wanted to see if there were any noticeable differences between the two types of chocolates.

A quick picture of the molds I’m using, the two piles on the right are the paper ones and the two piles on the left are the silicone ones.

The chocolates being melted in a double boiler, and the temperature being set to as low as the stove would allow.

The melted chocolate buttons.

The first chocolate I made. It’s actually the first half of one of the “centers”.

As seen in the previous post we had many ideas on how to place the poprocks on the chocolate. Here I am placing the “poprocks” on top of a half filled mold and am waiting for the chocolate to cool before pouring more on top of the “poprocks”.

I tested out a couple configurations:

Control: Just a straight up dollop of chocolate in the mold.

Center: The “poprocks” are in the center of the chocolate, ideally none of them should be visible from the outside.

Layered: I try to create layers of “poprock” then chocolate, repeat until mold is full.

Mixed: Where I mix the “poprocks” among the chocolate, giving a bumpy appearance.

Half n’ half: Where there is a bottom layer of milk chocolate and a top layer of white chocolate.

Covered (Milk Chocolate only): Where I cover a central core with alternating layers of “poprocks” and chocolate.

Button Center ( White Chocolate only): I have a central “pillar” of milk chocolate buttons surrounded by white chocolate. Was sort of a spur of the moment thing to see if it could work.

The core of our “Covered” prototype. My sister told me that my original plan of using a piece of broken pretzel was bad as the core would have been too small. Instead she glued (with melted chocolate) two of the buttons and a toothpick.

First coating of the “covered” prototype. My sister was demonstrating to me the idea for this.

Second coating of the “covered” prototype.

Third coating of the “covered” prototype. As you can see the core melted as I attempted to add more chocolate. This is why this prototype was only created with the milk. What was needed was a fairly large, non-melting center. Like a nut. Something I did not have on hand.

This did however got me thinking about allergies as there are people with lactose and nut allergies. This should affect our target audience and should have probably been something we thought about when starting out this project. I think nuts are going to be a big no-no as that could potentially kill someone and they are generally hidden inside the choco. Chocolate on the other hand? I think is straight forward as it’s pretty obvious that it is chocolate. Same with a hard candy. Still, it is something we have to think about.

This whole train of thought just reminded me that Chris wanted to try to put some kind of liquor in the sweets. It’s most likely the same kind of consideration we have to think about. We need to make sure people are ok (or in the case of alcohol, legal) to eat the stuff we’re giving them.

The mostly completed set of milk chocolates. There are 3 “centers” as I was generally not happy with the first one I created. The remains of the “covered” can be seen with the toothpick, and the “mixed”. I gave up and poured it into the “mixed” as to not waste anything. There are also three “controls” as one of them will have white chocolate poured on top later on.

The white chocolate being melted the same way the milk was. I did not notice anything substantial between the two when it came to melting.

With everything else pretty much the same for the white chocolate, here is a photo of the “button center”, the pillar of buttons stabbed with a toothpick so that they don’t shift about. I noticed that the milk buttons in the middle did melt a little, as the toothpick had a tendency to lean to one side or another. Though it did end up cooling fine in the fridge after some time. When cooled I removed the toothpick.

A photo of the completed white chocolates (excluding “half n’ half” I forgot to take a picture of that one)

The chocolates cooled, labelled and packaged. I’m planning on bringing them to my group on Monday so we can all see how they turned out. Should be much easier to communicate to the rest of the group with the actual physical objects instead of pictures. I’m just hoping they survive the journey to Uni.

So, what did I learn from this endeavor?

When working with sweets, such as candy or chocolate. Appropriate equipment is required.

Chocolate, albeit fairly messy to work with can be pretty easily molded.

Chocolate has a temper that affects its thermal properties and appearance.

Unset chocolate is difficult to work, with any sort of precision. Anything short of a mold can end up either being clunky and imprecise or messy and time consuming. 

You can use a piping bag to help shape melted chocolate. (My sister told me this AFTER I had finished pouring all of the chocolates into their molds with a spoon)

So far I think that we can map our data to chocolate with a fairly reasonable degree. It would just take time, patience and a thermometer if we want our chocolate to be tempered. As a medium I think chocolate is pretty good, it’s inexpensive; the two bags of buttons I got were around 5 dollars in total, with the right molding it can be shaped pretty accurately and is easy to work with (hard to burn, requires only low heat, etc.)