Archive for February 25th, 2010
Thesis Proposal- Why?
h.m.v
An interactive organic visualization tool that describes the progress of AIDS/HIV and Malaria, compared to the world history from a social economical point of view.
Introduction
Sicknesses like HIV and Malaria are very common in developing countries especially those in tropical climates. It kills millions each year and sets back progress in these regions. This is why I want to work on this issue for my thesis. I believe it is a problem too big to be ignored and there is still much awareness that needs to be created. For many years, I have worked on social issues through Art and it is only logical that this be the culmination of my Master’s degree. Throughout my work, I have always chosen regionalized social issues such as immigration and worked towards a more globalized point of view. This time though, I will be starting from a global perspective and working my way down to the specifics of the diseases in each region.
Why?
As conclusion for the last two years of hard work, it’s time to finish and do my thesis. A very big word, thesis…this is when the question “why?” appears. This is a question that is really upsetting me. I knew I really wanted to be working with visuals, play with color, experiment new techniques and tell stories. Sometimes the topics I choose are not the most uplifting. I’ve always been inspired by social issues, like unequal rights, language challenges, immigration, fumigation of illegal crops and drug consumption to name a few. So the fact that I can play with a screen, collecting data and do a visualization, fascinates me. It seemed very far at first considering my programming skills, but the fact of taking the risk and intuition, (which at first was not too clear) filled me with courage and curiosity.
In a few words, I know how much I wanted to do this visualization and seem to be the right path for me, now there must be a strong social reason. My problem at the beginning was there were too many reasons.
The overlapping of facts in mankind fascinates me like education, wars and wealth interlace with health and how they define our path and development. I’d like to recreate the history of AIDS/HIV and Malaria from the last ten years I would like to see the evolution from a social point of view. Are the governments democratic? Are they involved in any kind of war? What are the levels of education?
As a goal I would like to find a common point between the social issues that are behind the problems of AIDS and malaria and economical/political circumstances that are happening in the countries most affected by these diseases. By searching for the visual correlation of these elements, I want to find a different way to explore the political boundaries to preventing their transmission.
User Scenario
Connect each person (or every 1000) with a particle in a system and have then affected by the disease in the model.
The user will have the option of intervening in the model by changing different aspect like education, type of government and gender. as well as adding elements of positive change like donations, condoms and mosquito nets just to name a few.
I will be approaching it from an aesthetical point of view that will make it interesting not only at the scientific level, but also on a playful and captivating manner.
Screen visualization
When the user comes online or stand if front of the screen, they will be asked which model they want to run: HIV or Malaria. Once the model starts running, the user will first see historical data running against the disease and socioeconomic elements. The model will reach time 0 or today, when the user can begin making changes to the way we can cope with the disease. This will provide the rest of the simulation, along with the expected extrapolation of the socioeconomic data