EXERCISE 4: Put your most creative and unusual examples of people bridging the limitations of physical distance here! Add your name to the reference. PLEASE MAKE IT VISUAL, NO TEXTS! thank you!
EXERCISE 5: imagine a natural communication and circulation system: dandelion seed spread by the wind, bees pollinating and dancing, birds eating seeds and shit, seeds grabbing in the hair of animal, glow worms flashing, parasites in a host, etc. Post a picture here and add your name to it.
Chloé TD Ex 4.1
Imagine a natural communication and circulation system:
- The moon and the ocean currents
- We make CO2 which plants can take in and give us O2
- Migratory Birds and their Flyways
- Bats, Sharks, Whales using echolocation
- Aspen Trees and their “one brain” root system
- Earth’s lithosphere creating earthquakes
- Earthquakes creating tsunamis
- Regenerate Animals (animals that can regrow a limb or body part)
- Global Warminggggg
- Marijuana results in getting you “high”
Chloé TD Ex 4.2 Bridging the Distance
How are people interacting and meeting with each other during this social distancing?
- Bring back letters! I wish I sent letters more often, instead I usually send care packages or little objects that reminded me of people. However, now with lovely Rona taking over our social lives, I feel the need to send a physical letter to someone rather than always relying on technology. Don’t get me wrong, virtually connecting with people at the moment is simpler and the most effective way people stay connected. I definitely know more of my friends instagram handle than I do their addresses. Not thinking virtually, I have thought about trying to send my neighbours across the street an airplane letter. We have become more friendly with each other. We have the casual wave during our window smoke breaks, taking turns being the street dj, clapping together at 20hr for the nurses and people helping to fight covid, and grieving with them when they lose at their video games. The only thing is I do not know their names yet, and they always have their beautiful glass windows open. I have estimated that they are about 15 meters away from us, and with the right breeze I think it would be very manageable to send them a paper airplane letter introducing myself finally. I will keep everyone updated with my trials for a successful introduction.
-Meeting for an almost in-person meal. I saw my friend post an instagram live video about a week ago where she had a “picnic” with a few classmates. She lives in Indonesia, and contacted some friends to meet up in a local open space not too far from them. They each brought their own lunch, a little blanket, homemade masks, and of course disinfectant wipes. Staying a safe distance away from each other, they were able to finally physically see one another, speaking loudly, enjoying their lunch, without going against the covid regulations put in place. I thought this a great loophole, but I felt like this wasn’t possible for every country, it all depends on the covid regulations enforced in one's region. So, an obvious alternative in my eyes would be to have a virtual picnic. Sure one doesn't get to physically see their comrades, but they still get to interact with them. Picking a date and time to video chat with friends over lunch, or dinner. One can even create shared calendar events, where friends can all see the designated times and days picked to meet up. I am planning a lunch with some friends for this weekend! I will take pictures and add it to my wall for updates.
Chloé TD Ex 4.3 Invent a Performative Action
- Hosting a virtual game night! For example, a week ago I was reminiscing about the times my friends and I would all get together to have some drinks or make music, knit, paint, play games, go biking or just enjoy a glass with each other and laugh. We would subconsciously pull away from our realities and into our own worlds. I actually decided to make an engaging interactive drinking board game. I used some extra A3 papers that I had for water colour and taped them together. I then drew out all my lines and squares, tried to come up with fun activities to distract us from our current social lives, and coloured everything in. It took a lot longer than planned to colour in all the squares and make it nice and clean, but what else did I have to do? I was pleased with the outcome. The real challenge was to find little items to be used as the player pons. The result is a very efficient way to get you and your friends to disconnect while being connected. We were drunk and laughing at a safe distance.
For pictures click this box and scroll down my page!
Sterre Baaima
Exercise 4.1
- A squirell hides his food, like nuts, under the ground. Sometimes the squirell forgets the place of his food, causing the nut to grow in to a tree.
- A mosquito can sting an animal who is sick. The same mosquito can sting another animal as well, causing this animal to get the same disease as the other animal.
- A bumblebee flies from a flower to another. He gets pullon on his body, arms and legs. When this bumblebee flies away, these pullon will get loose from his body and will drop on the ground. Causing these fallen pollen to turn in to flowers.
- The Kopi Luwak eats special coffee beans. After he poops the beans out people collect these beans again. People make the most expensive coffee out of this.
Sterre Baaima
Exercise 4.2
- Going out for dinner through Skype.
A friend of mine told me that his sister and her husband ordered some food for him and sent it to him. They all Skyped during this dinner.
- Visiting your grandparents with a platform (hoogwerker).
A friend of mine has a uncle who works on a platform. So when my friend wanted to visit his grandmother in her nursing home (on the 8th floor) he went with the platform to her window.
- A bear hunt.
- I saw that people have put teddy bears in front of the window, so that children can keep a so-called bear hunt.
Elize Roukens
Exercise 4.1
- Bullfrogs croak to attract female frogs as mates. In some frog species, the sounds can be heard up to a mile away.
- Water, like air, can carry sound waves, and marine animals also use sound to communicate. Dolphins, for instance, produce various noises—including whistles, chirps, and clicks—and arrange them in complex patterns. The idea that this might represent a form of language is intriguing but controversial.
- In some species of monkeys, the skin around a female’s reproductive organs becomes brightly colored when the female is in the fertile stage of her reproductive cycle. The color change signals that the female can be approached by suitors.
- A honeybee forager that's found a food source will perform an intricate series of motions called a waggle dance to indicate the location of the food. Since this dance is done in darkness inside the nest, the other bees interpret it largely through touch
- Tactile stimuli also play a role in the survival of very young organisms. For instance, newborn puppies will instinctively knead at their mother's mammary glands, causing the release of the hormone oxytocin and production of milk
- The Magnificent Riflebird, isn’t afraid to let loose on the . . . tree branch. He stretches his elegant black wings and then dramatically whips his head from side to side to display his blue iridescent throat. If a female approaches, he will continue dancing on his own, flicking his wings more strenuously while hopping toward her. Then, the choice is hers: to copulate with him and then raise the brood by herself, or wait for a better show. The dance can be seen on the video below
Elize Roukens
Exercise 4.2
- Quarantaine concert is a group of musicians who travel across the country to make music for those who need it. On the instagram account of the group, requests can be made for people who need it. The group travels to this person's house and plays his or her favorite song.
- "The Lockdowners" is the name of an Instagram account created by a friend of mine and his roommates. Every day they make a video with each other. These videos are funny and depict quarantined situations in a funny way. For them it is a nice daytime activity and for the followers it's very entertaining to see.
- The poster you see below in the picture hangs on almost every window in Utrecht. It is a variant of a poster that the Utrecht-based Dick Bruna designed in the 1980s.
The poster gives the inhabitants of the city a feeling that we support each other and stand together. A great initiative and that so many people participate in it makes it even more beautiful and the message stronger.
Eva Schets
Exercise 4.1
- Ants bring back seeds to their colonies and feed on the elaisome (fleshy structure attached to seed). The ants then discard the seeds in a nutrient-rich area, for the plants to grow again.
- Frugivorous fish, such as Pacus, consume fallen fruits and diperse the seeds in flooded habitats. Trees, especially in the Amazon, have evolved to make their fruit float and be more attractive, making it easier for fishes to find.
- Maple trees have fruits with wing-like parts that allow these seeds to be carried away by the wind.
- Trees found on tropical beaches often have their seeds (such as coconuts) carried there by the sea. They have woody, waterproof coverings which enable them to float in the salty water for long periods washing up on other tropical beaches.
Eva Schets
Exercise 4.2
- Chat-boxes at nursing homes and group homes for disabled people so family can visit while staying at a safe distance and behind glass windows.
https://www.ed.nl/geldrop-mierlo-nuenen/babbelboxen-maken-verpleeghuis-bezoek-in-geldrop-en-heeze-toch-mogelijk~a2932d83/?referrer=https://www.google.com/
https://www.heeze24.nl/home/artikel/16723/Zie-en-Zwaaibezoek-bij-Kempenhaeghe
- Doublesided poster that you can put up on your windows to communicate to your neighbours that you would like some help or that you would like to help someone else.
https://www.heeze24.nl/home/artikel/16487/Nieuw-initiatief-voor-lokale-verbroedering
Jonna van Mourik
Exercise 4 & 5
A friend of mine hired musicians to give her grandmother a concert at her doorstep. With this initiative she wants to give both elderly and unemployed musicians a helping hand. She has gathered a group of musicians and now she arranges concerts at the door for others.
- Flowers or trees don't move around by themselves, their evolution moves onwards with the help of, for example the wind or birds, they eat their fruits or seads. Once digested they lose the seads with their feces. And the evolution of life with planting new treas or plants starts once again in a different place.
- One mosquito can transmit disease from one to another
- Plants that breathe in oxygen and breathe out CO2.
- In addition to the natural processes, an artificial process is the reuse of plastic. Because we have realized that linear processes do not mean progress. With this circular process it will always remain a goal.
EXERCISE 4.1 : FORMS OF CIRCULATION AND COMMUNICATION FOUND IN NATURE
- The way animals adapt their skin and furs to their surroundings to better hide from predators. Disappearing is also a way of communicating. There was a question I saw online that I found really interesting : how many more years will it take for animals to start evolving camouflage based on man-made materials? And if so what materials would it be? (Concrete, steel, etc.)
- Cats have evolved the way they use their meows. The way they ‘speak’ to fellow cats is different from the way they meow at humans. They rarely meow at other cats, and if they do their voices are low and sound more like a grumble, the high-pitched meows are exclusively used to humans as it’s the sound kittens make to get their mother’s attention and receive care.
- Fungal network : trees secretly ‘talking' to each other in the forrest through exchanging information in the form of carbon and nutrients through an underground fungal network. For example when one plant is attacked by pests or other external disturbances, they send signals to neighboring plants so they can start their defense mechanisms accordingly. Or when one plant doesn't get enough sunlight to properly accomplish photosynthesis, other plants will provide them with extra sugar that they transfer via the network.
HONEY SIMATUPANG
EXERCISE 4.2 : EXAMPLES OF WORKAROUNDS DURING QUARANTINE
- Squid scientist who’s communicating with their neighborhood via writing with chalk on the shared pavement.
🦑
Carla Arcos Mathon
Exercise 4.1
--> Feeding plants with period blood → “It is also a way to offer something back to those plants that I depend on. It could theoretically become a closed-loop system - the practice should be considered for use by astronauts if it is not already.”
https://plantfever.com/Blood-pact-by-M-Wingren
--> Vampyroteuthis infernalis can regenerate tentacles, like spiders can grow legs or lady bugs can regenerate organs.
--> Parasites that control their hosts' minds in order to reproduce/survive. For example the "zombie ant fungus".
--> Other crazy exemple: Wasps injecting a virus and eggs into larva so that the larva will carry the eggs until they mature and brake through it. Adding to that, the virus makes the larva protect the baby wasps until it dies.
Exercise 4.2
--> Stripclub converts to a food delivery!
--> Zoombooming
--> Tel Aviv social distancing protest
https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/israelis-practice-social-distancing-at-tel-aviv-protest/
--> Initiative from a teacher at EUC: a collaborative hotglue page during lockdown. Really cool stuff has been added!
--> ASMR Corona edition
Exercise 4.1
The Gulf Stream is an example of natural circulation. Warm water from off the coast of West Africa to the Caribbean Sea from where it heads eastward along the eastern seaboard of the U.S and Canada towards Western Europe. In the East Atlantic it forks into two with one part heading north towards the Arctic and the other heading back down towards the coast of West Africa to begin the circulation again.
Animals use the current for migration. Loggerhead sea turtles make use of the Gulf Stream to migrate from the Gulf of Mexico to the Eastern Atlantic, where there are less predators. They stay there for 10 to 15 years before returning home to lay their eggs on the same beach where they were born. It is thought they do this because they have evolved to think that “ if this was a safe place for me to be born, it must be safe enough for my children too”.
The current also influences humans. The current coincides and thus combines with the so called “trade winds”. It allowed European countries faster transport to the newly "discovered" Caribbean from the already explored West African coast. This combination allowed for fast transport of slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean and the U.S. Goods like sugarcane and cotton could then be easily brought to Europe by ships using the Northern Trade Winds and Gulf Stream in combination.
Conor Croasdell
Gulf stream and related currents (left), Trade winds (above)
Exercise 4.2
Doortraits - Initiative started by a photographer in Ireland to take photos in your doorway. A positive thing to do in the lockdown, a memory of being together with those in your household and a feeling of solidarity with others in when you see their doortraits on social media.
Nadja Monster
exercise 4.1
-Rhinos can communicate with each other via their poo. It is like they leave a message for each other. Rhinos can determine from the smell wether it came from a female ready to mate or a male who is seeking more territory.
-The caterpillar of the Alcon blue butterfly can imitate the sound of a red ant queen. It does this so that the ants come and protect the caterpillar.
-Just like humans, chimpansees like to have their back scratched. They even use gestures to show an other chimp where on their back they want to be groomed.
exercise 4.2
Dating each other whilst social distancing:https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremycohen/video/6808200545535380741
A lot of people all over the country put teddy bears in their windows. They do this for children who are now stuck at home. They can go around the neighbourhood and count the teddy bears. This creates a sort of scavenger hunt. https://nos.nl/collectie/13839/artikel/2328591-nederland-op-teddyberenjacht-welkome-afleiding-voor-kinderen
4.1
Animals use different kinds of ways to communicate:
Pheromones — chemicals
Auditory cues — sounds
Visual cues — looking
Tactile cues — touch
Here are two examples:
A lot of animals can communicate with the smells they give off. they release pheromones (airborne chemicals) to send messages to others.
Bees dance when they have found nectar. The scout bee will dance in the hive, and the dance directs other bees to the location of the nectar.
Some animals have even found ways to communicate with humans. Like ape-likes like chimpanzees and gorillas. But also cat's and dogs have developed ways to communicate with humans differently.
Alexandra Reunis
Peter Wojakowski
Exercise 4.1
Ants:
They use pheromone trails, laid by themselves to direct the other ants where to go to, or where the food source is rich. When the food source runs out, the ants will stop putting pheromone on the exciting trails.
Elephants:
Use infrasounds (Below 20 hrtz). We cannot really hear them as humans, but elephants can. They can reach the length of 285 km. It's a way of communicating where different elephant groups are, so they can potential adjust their route.
Rhino's:
Not a way of communication but, rhino's poop is important for all animals around them. Other animals can sleep on it, eat it or wash themselves.
Peter Wojakowski
Exercise 4.2
Photo 1.
Silent disco in our flats. My neighbours designed flyers to promote this event. It was a lot of fun and free!
Photo 2.
A lot of friends of mine are getting back too the old days with omegle and chatroulette.
Photo 3.
Tinder is more popping then ever, A lot of users are active now.
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Smila Rooseman - Exercise 4.1
honden bakenen hun territorium af door tegen paaltjes, fietsen, bomen en muurtjes te piesen. hun manier van zeggen: ik ben hier geweest. Wolven doen dit ook. Door te 'huilen' laten ze andere roedels ook weten waar hun territorium is.
iets circulair dat me blijft fascineren: bloemen en bijtjes. De boom maakt bloemen, de bij vind de bloemen lekker zoet. De bij bevrucht de bloem en de boom krijgt vruchten. De vruchten vallen op de grond of worden gegeten. De pitjes gaan de grond in en daaruit komt een babyplantje. Die krijgt bloemen en er komt een bijtje van snoepen. cirkel rond.
Smila Rooseman - Exercise 4.2
op koningsdag hielden de bewoners van een straat verderop een silent disco feestje. Ze hielden zich jammer genoeg totaal niet aan de 1,5 meter en de politie kwam met 4 busjes de boel afblazen.
10 voor het idee, een 3 voor de uitvoering. (3 punten naar de decoratie en hapjes)
veel artiesten geven live shows via streaming apps en geven een virtueel feestje in je woonkamer.
houseparty is een app waar je kunt videobellen met grote groepen vrienden en vrienden van vrienden. Toch vind ik het vaak maar ongemakkelijk. Wat wel goed werkt is een koffie date plannen met een vriend(in) om samen wakker te worden en de dag op te starten. Ik heb veel mensen in mijn omgeving die dit ook doen met bijv. sportgroepjes of familie of collega's.
Cycle 2 /
Ceciel Haenen - Exercise 4.1
__________________________
- Biologists say that in the night giraffes make humming sounds (it is an organized sound) to signal the other giraffes in the dark.
- Chimps extend their feet to alert another chimp (usually a younger chimp) to climb on them to travel.
- Gorillas are able to use/learn sign language. Koko the gorilla was taught sign language to communicate with humans. She learned over 1000 words.
- Baby chickens can be heard peeping in the egg (24 hours before it hatched). The mother hen will cluck back to reassure the chick.
Cycle 2 /
Ceciel Haenen - Exercise 4.2
__________________________
- Live performances on social media, other platforms or in real life while keeping distance!
- People organize online classes to work out together. It can be a specific work out like: Zumba, Yoga, meditation and so on. This is very helpful! I also exercised a couple times with my friend on Discord together. It was also very motivating for both of us, instead of doing it alone.
- Matthew McConaughey organized a virtual bingo game for elders! I thought this cute, but also important for the elders. Especially during this time, it can be very lonely for them.
Karoline Cladrowa // Exercise 4.1
Some plants, corn for example, communicate with other plants by sending specific chemicals through leaves or roots. They send messages if they are touched by plants around, meaning that it is getting crowded and they must grow somewhere else.
Rhino's leave their poop behind for others to get information from. This information includes for example age, sex, health and fertility status.
Herrings send messages by farting sounds. They can produce a broad range of sounds and ar also able to fart for about 7 seconds straight.
Karoline Cladrowa // Exercise 4.2
WdkA students made an instragam page (se_t_up) which hosted an online festival featuring various students playing their sets.
In my area I saw a lot of chalk drawings and messages on the ground for people living around. They range from "Happy birthday" to positive mantras to "I miss you".
We also made a workaround when we wanted to do a picknick. We cut fabric strings at a length of 1,7m and arranged our space in the park by pinning them to the ground with toothpicks. The police appreciated that so we reused the strings after that.
MING STOTIJN. Excercise 4.1 and 4.2
Growth rings have always fascinated me by their ancient wisdom that's hidden beneath the surface. You can
only figure out and research the lifespan of a tree if you cut it down, thus ending the recording of data.
It reminds me of time capsules, where you save certain information or objects for someone else to discover
and look into at a later time. Reburying a time capsule could be done, but it kind of defeats the purpose. It
is the mystery of the transmission of knowledge that draws me into these information cycles.
Recently, in front of the church where I live there have been organized meetings. It is a very neat affair
where everyone follows the restrictions, yet still manages to shape the community around it. They sing and
light candles, and there's pamphlets on the round around the happening so you can read into it from a safe
distance.
It's to raise awareness and love to the people living around the small square the church is built on. It's a
sweet thought, but sometimes I wish they would tone it down just a little bit. It can be a little bit of a
hassle to sleep though all that sound in the morning.
Suelae Robinson
4.1 - Natural Communication and Circulation Methods
Mahogany trees have pods filled with seeds that spin though the air like helicopter blades. One side is heeavy the other is very light, once the pod opens the seeds fall out and spin at high speeds through the air, helping them to be carried away from the mother tree
4.2 Interaction
>>>I've seen lots of stickers at traffic lights that say positive messages like "you are not alone" or just a funny image to make someone smile
>>>>Instagram lives, where people sing, exercise, talk, tell stories
>>>Meeting on HouseParty to play guessing or drawing games
4.3 Action
A performative action I would like to create is a weekly support group. It would be a small group of people who come together to do art and heal themselves of the stress, trauma, anxiety, bordeom etc of the current times
ioana turla- 4.1-4.2- bridging the distance
4.1
For this exercise what came to mind was the 'trichinosis' parasyte. I always found it's spreading cycle to be very interesting and complex.
For a more detailed explanation, here is the wiki entry:
4.2
For this exercise i did not have to look far, as my neighbours have become quite well versed in hanging out without haning out; What they do is go to the roof and make a barbeque, while other people from buildings close by do the same thing. It is like an extended, elevated neighbourhood barbeque. I am not sure how it started and i don't thnk all these people knew eachother beforehand, but they seem to have formed a habit that would last after the pandemic is over too.
oh, and quarantine post from friends who live in the neighborhood
These are some interesting examples I found of social distancing.
Tatevik Martirosyan: 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3
4.1
1. Fish eggs sticking stick to bird legs, who then move to the next pond
2. The waves bringing food to the coastline
3. The mountain water that caused rocks corrosion
4. Squirrels hide there nuts. When they forget a tree will grow
4.2
1. The ‘’berenjacht’’ where people put teddy bears in front of there windows so the local kids have something to do.
2. A stay at home bingo night for elderly. You could only win coupons so you didn’t have to pick up what you won.
3. Some people in my neighborhood wrote street texts for the quarantined people.
4.3
To show the power of the working class I will place a quite big rock. (there are some rock-textured materials that need some tools
and labor to be engraved) The text: ‘’We don’t need a CEO to move mountains’’will be engraved. Tools will be provided.
Everyone can break of a part of the rock. Inside the rock is a statue that can be freed by work of a group of people.
I grouped with Maya for the resit period. After all these months of isolation it was refreshing to work together again.
Since the lockdown was basically over for her, while I was already back in Armenia in a full quarantine, we couldn’t relate the COVID isolation of April anymore. First, we had the idea of doing a projection mapping and sharing thoughts of people on buildings, so basically having the contrast of small bits of personal thoughts on big, uncomfortable spaces. This took us to a conversation about our current situations, and we realized that, in a way, we have similarities in our background: some current political heat, the socialist past, a lot of abandoned spaces.
We thought it’s more relevant and more open (educational, why not) to combine our current situations, common historical past and connect our project to it.
Also, we noticed how the quarantine detached people from the world, as everyone was literally interacting with their own close, small environment (room, laptop screen), so we wanted to create a space where people could just share simple images from their lives and see, learn what life is like in other parts of the world.
We thought of making collages with all these scenes/buildings and distribute it as posters around with short texts about human survival/class struggle/social conditions, however, not in a very sophisticated way.
For collecting images and sharing with people, we thought opening an Instagram and taking people’s submissions of places they live in, or just images from their city that mean something to them. This could be an Instagram page for instance. That would also allow to create a network and share personal images of scenery, to make these collective images (collages) and talk about really simple, human actions and encourage humans to share their visual environments with each other and think about questions, especially after/during a pandemic that has made us question a lot.
Our audience is every citizen, every person who evern walks around or just wonders how people further than they are living.