Evolve Research Document

R E S E A R C H

D O C U M E N T

R E S E A R C H

D O C U M E N T

N am e St u d ent I D E- m ail Co ll ab o rative Unit Universit y o f t h e A r ts Lon d on Co urs e

S op hia Tai TA I13396142 s.t ai1@ ar ts.a c.uk A d aptive M ut ation G ro up B Lon d on Co ll e g e o f Communication G rap hic an d M e dia D e sign

Table of Contents 06 Brief Adaptive Mutation Group B

07 Research

13 Design

Initial research Field trip Interview Survey

Idea generation Design proposal Design elements Final outcome

42 Evaluation Critical reflection

45 Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix

B1 B2 B3 C

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Brief Our brief is to use biomimicry by implementing the progress of Adaptive Mutation into a design solution that will help the environment or human wellbeing in a chosen place.

Group: Adaptive Mutation Group B Team members: Beth Doherty, Jenelle Law, Pei Tong and Sophia Tai

Project 03 Project info Start date: Wednesday 26th Nov 2014

Course Unit: Collaborative Project

Summative Deadline: Monday February 9th 2015 11.00am

Unit Credit: 20 Co-ordinating Tutors: Karl Foster k.foster@lcc.arts.ac.uk Timothy Metcalf t.metcalf@lcc.arts.ac.uk

Project Aims

Project Brief

Design by Nature / Urban Bio-hack

You will choose three natural processes/ strategies to research (see Page 3 Part 1).

They are examples of how the ecosystem handles/solves various situations. We would like you to research your process/strategy by co-design methods to develop a field of enquiry and experimentation that will give you new insight.

Exploring nature and its positive impact on the built environment and human wellbeing.

Get your lab coats on and read up about Citizen Science! This project asks you to fuse design and biology, to apply natural science processes to help solve problems – a process know as biomimicry. By creatively exploring natural processes, you will be inspired to innovate and create in unexpected ways that will improve the environment and could benefit human wellbeing.

Collaboration is at the heart of this project – working together in groups, with experts, organisations and the local community during your research. Nature is highly collaborative: ‘In Nature, as well as the ecosystems logic, competition and cooperation thrive in balance.’

Before the end of term you will form into a collaborative group of four. We would like you to consider ways to collide an agreed ‘nature process’ with a location (see Page 3 Part 2) and contemporary challenge that you will decide in January.

In December you will be expected to undertake at least two field-trips/visits. (see suggested list). Listening and observing the living world will inform and encourage you to experiment and invent. Nature has 3.8 billion years of research and development to offer you – unpick this and you could solve some of the challenges and complexities of our modern world!

Follow these stages – 1 / Following the formation of your group, (via the selection of one nature process from the three you have investigated), you will co-research your process with various experts and stakeholders. Collate and share your findings via a group blog.

2 / You will then choose an urban space/ location to investigate, explore and improve, through the lens of your bio-process. Collate and share your findings on your group blog.

3 / Play, experiment and brainstorm ideas.

Consider audiences, medium and location.

4 / Prototype and test your design, media and communication iterations. Demonstrate them to others (the public and experts). Interview, collect reactions and evaluate your design.

5 / Document the process (via a group research blog) and outcome (via photography, writing and film).

6 / Present your group outcome and submit an individual report (1,000 word printed and designed, reflective and evaluative document including an interview) for assessment.

You have text, imagery, actions, performance, technology and materials at your disposal – make your invention(s) accessible yet inspiring and look to be experimental and provoking. Allow leaps of imagination to occur, push for your own ‘Eureka’ moment, link the specialised vocabularies of science with art/design creativity and transform your ideas into something new, tangible and unexpected.

Remember you are not simply visually explaining science in relation to location, but bio-utilising!

‘Man’s engineering can imitate many inventions. However, he will never make them more beautiful, more simple or better adapted than those of nature because, in its inventions, nothing is missing and nothing is unnecessary.’ Leonardo Da Vinci (1493)

BA GMD 2014/15

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Page 1

Hand In Method: All work to be submitted for assessment by hand in to the studio D110a/b by 11:00am

Research After forming a team we decided to select books and journals from the library and read them during winter break. Unfortunately, none of my sources mentioned Adaptive Mutation, so I decided to focus my individual research on our topic. My main area of research included Darwin’s theory of evolution, human’s role in evolution, the evolutionary theory of adaptive mutation, and mutation as a general topic.

Because Adaptive Mutation is a new topic, there are limited amount of sources, such as books and articles, available to us. This process has been reported in bacteria, and experiments with yeast and lactose starvation have been conducted to prove its existence. I was however curious, whether Adaptive Mutation exists in humans, and set out to search for potential examples that could represent our project. My findings included lactose tolerance, yeast digestion, fighting off viruses and diseases.

Dr. Katherine Pollard ‘What Makes Us Human?’ on FORA.tv DNA, genes and evolution.

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On a field trip to the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, we explored and learned much about genes and DNA, the definining factors of our survival.

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We also interviewed two volunteers in Darwin Centre who are currently graduates in Biology at Open University. We discovered that mutations are generated by luck and can be inherited later, however mutations can serve as advantage and disadvantage based on the environment. Adaptive mutation could perhaps be viewed as a pre-adaptation technique to survive.

I asked them if they could think of any possible examples for Adaptive Mutation. They suggested to look at butterflies, immune systems, Ebola and viruses. After this interview I was inspired to look into animal domestication, resistance to pesticides (in cockroaches) and mutations caused by radiation.

(See transcripted interview in Appendix B1)

Our interviewees, Rosemary and Rehemat, at the Natural History Museum.

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t gene or n occa - cla - co diffe In the Attenborough Studio, we experienced an interactive film titled ‘Who Do You Think You Really Are?’ The film talked about the commonalities and differences between Homo Sapiens and Chimpanzee as well as our common traits with mammals, fish, worms, prehistoric creatures and bananas.

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omputer coding uman behaviour omputer games these have erations (editions next meeting asion, etc.) ass systems ountries evolving in erent directions

After our field trips, Pei and I compared our research findings to discuss conflicting and common information.

We agreed on the following: - Adaptive Mutation is an evolutionary theory, which goes against Darwin’s theory of evolution - The mutations in Adaptive Mutation are non-random and it happens as a reaction to environmental stresses (change in temperature, population, etc.)

- It takes several generations for Adaptive Mutation to happen - Darwin’s theory = random mutation + natural selection - Adaptive Mutation = precautions against natural selection

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would all be t. would change all me. world would op in a slower would build the environment n stability and e.

I have found two very interesting examples on mutation caused by radiation: the Chernobyl disaster and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Both of these cases were studied by Dr. Timothy A. Mousseau whom I interviewed in order to gain sufficient knowledge on mutations and our topic.

Highlights from the professor’s answers: - The theory of Adaptive Mutation does not work and there are no examples for this process in nature.

- In our own biochemistry, mutations occur all the time and are repaired to avoid damage. Radiation does not cause mutation, it only adds to the mutational load.

- Artificial designs and biological evolution have the following differences: strictness of variety, predictability of outcomes.

(See full interview in Appendix B2)

We decided to focus our projects on improving human well-being and looked more into bad habits and what methods can be used to change these.

According to lifehack.com, it is advised to keep a routine for at least 3-4 weeks time on a daily basis, while keeping consistency at the same time and place. I set up a survey to find out about the bad habits of our peers.

Here is my analysis on the results: The most dominating problem is time planning with procrastination as first choice of bad habit, followed by several types of addictions. These are unresolved problems mostly due to lack of motivation. Addictions seem to be the easiest for people to change by themselves, while being lazy and time planning problems seem to be harder to dodge alone. Most popular method used for improvement are replacement of habit or self-control and persistence.

(See survey results in Appendix B3)

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Design

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Our group started falling behind on creating a final idea and design solution.

In our LCC Timeline project last year, I took up the project manager role and received positive feedback from tutors, so I was hoping that some of my managing skills could help our team progress in a faster pace. I asked everyone to create an idea/mockup and bring it to class the next morning.

My concept was based on the humour of Achievement Unlocked game and functionality of Finish time planning app.

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In class, we proposed our ideas to each other and discussed possible future developments. Here is my proposal: Aim: To help improve time planning skills with the modes of gamification.

Survey results have shown that most people struggle from bad time planning and lack of motivation is the main reason they haven’t changed these habits. To tackle this problem I have implemented gamification, with the focus on implementing a reward system and levels.

“Gamification is the application of digital game design techniques to non-game contexts, such as business, education, and social impact challenges. Video games are the dominant entertainment form of modern times because they powerfully motivate behaviour. Game mechanics can be applied outside the immersive environments of games themselves, to create engaging experiences as well as assign rewards and recognition.”

Audience: Young adults who want to improve their time planning skills Most busy time of our life is young adulthood and parenthood when good time planning skills are crucial. I decided to focus on young adults, because I am of the same generation/ age group, and so may be able to relate to some of the issues that arise.

Place: Internet.

Experts we have interviewed stated that adaptive mutation doesn’t exist. Setting out to find parallels to the fictional aspect of Adaptive Mutation, I chose for a virtual place, the internet, which is easily accessible to the world. With this creating the possibility to solve real-life problems.

How does it help the environment or human well-being?

Although effective time planning does not directly improve human well-being, it has direct effect on the factors measured in human well-being. Above all, I believe that the improvement of human well-being will consequently improve our environment as well. Using this method also reflects the process in Adaptive Mutation, which works like a chain effect starting from environment to altering or mutating DNA to inheritance in changing how the DNA works.

How is it inspired by Adaptive Mutation?

I chose for the overall design to reflect our topic in real-time interactivity. Depending on the user’s engagement, the colours would become more bright and happy as the user is more involved or they would become grey and dull when neglected.

The colours in the website adapt to the user, and the user may adapt to these responses. The change in colours as well as the change in the user’s time management skills could be considered a form of mutation.

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Our group subsequently agreed on bringing this idea further, as this was the most realistic approach and solution to our problem. We then had a couple of hours to develop this idea further before a feedback session. I delegated Beth to work on logo design, Pei to pick a colour palette and Jenelle to choose typefaces to start our branding process. I was working on the layout and functions for other pages on this website. We called it PlanJoy: A solution to procrastination and bad time planning for students.

As feedback, our tutors and peers suggested using an app. In contrary to our laptop, phone is always with us. The coins in the reward system confused many, as they thought real money could be earned through this website, however they liked the funny aspect in the commentary and encouraged us to put more emphasis on it. We then changed our coins to bananas, to put emphasis on the funny surprise element, and refined our target audience to 12-25 year old students. Levels were split into 4 stages: egg, monkey, human and robot. We added gamifying features such as avatar customisation and optional timer.

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Because I already had a rough idea in mind, it became my task to map out the exact functions and the reward system of the website. Beth had to finish logo design, Jenelle had the task to explore possible designs for the timer and Pei was responsible for researching and sketching avatar customisations.

Next meeting, we set up the brand guidelines (see Appendix C). It was my responsibility these were kept and the overall design was consistent and balanced. Because Pei wasn’t as advanced in photoshop,I gave her the role of the illustrator, creating all avatars and icons, Jenelle’s task was to finalise typeface choice and create designs for our timer and Beth was set to finish her logo and create the app design. I have created the gamifying elements, such as daily reward, wheel of fortune and inventory. Later I moved onto creating the homepage layout, profile, overview page, calendar, and finished the logo design.

0x

100x

300x

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EVOLVE

Typographic logo wth curved edges created from Futura typepface.

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Daily reward pop-up design inspired by Minion Rush app game.

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Wheel of fortune sketches were inspired by Burrito Bison game and Garfield comic.

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Inventory iterations inspired

by Burrito Bison game upgrades.

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I used Google calendar and iCal as examples for our design.

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User interface, profile and calendar design.

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Various ideas on expansion of process overview.

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Between meetings we actively fedback each other’s works and kept the blog updated. I wanted to ensure my team members were both challenged, but also not overloaded with work. Jenelle finished the timer design and routine page, Pei created all icons and avatars and customisation tools and I have created the login page and desaturation feature, which was inspired by our chosen topic. After another feedback session, Jenelle fixed up the app design and Pei started to work on the presentation outline while I started planning for the final outcome.

As a finishing touch to our web and app designs we combined all of our work into a presentation file to see an overview of our vast amount of work created in the last 2 weeks.

Flat javascript design examples.

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Our Login page is putting emphasis on the Sign up feature as well as targeting facebook users/ procrastinators.

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Adding new colour palettes for saturation feature.

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Basic desaturation of colours with call to action on profile.

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Final outcome After consulting many ideas for final outcome, we decided on a video which demonstrates and advertises all functions of our service. This seemed to be the most effective way to practice our motion graphic skills as well as engage the audience while taking up less of their precious time and energy. I trusted Pei with creating the script for both the presentation and the final outcome, while Beth created some additional pages to the app and Jenelle and I finished off the designs with a couple of final tweaks. I then asked Jenelle to record the voiceover to the video and Pei to search for music and sound effects while I created the storyboard from the script. I have also seeked feedback from peers of many other groups as well as a professional animator friend of mine to gain invaluable advice on creating our final piece.

Meanwhile, I have also proposed to our team, if they would like to enter a competition with our final work and we agreed to search for opportunities and enter competitions after our deadline. I’m really excited!

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Evaluation I found this project very interesting, because it was challenging in many aspects. As I have studied mainly science in my secondary education, it was refreshing to implement a biological process into a design outcome. I loved developing the idea for our concept, as my current field of interests are moving image, interactive design and user experience. I also had the chance to use my knowledge on game design, which I gained during previous term in our theory classes. By taking up the project manager role, I could implement my knowledge gained from 6 months industry experience at a fashion retail brand marketing team. Our group was very hard working and I’ve learnt that each individual prefers to work in very different ways. While one person liked to work by themselves, the other needed constant feedback and reassurance.

I realised how different behaviours affected my work and found a way to stabilise my workflow. This was an amazing experience working in an effective team, creating a more detailed design piece.

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Appendix B1 - Transcript of interview with Natural History Museum volunteers Rosemary and Rehemat are both graduates in Biology at Open University. At the time of the interview, they were volunteering at the National History Museum.

1. What do you think about Adaptive Mutation?

In our opinion, adaptation and mutation are both separate things. Adaptation happens in every single generation, while mutation is generated by luck, which can be inherited by the individual’s offspring.

Mutations can also be a disadvantage depending on the environment. It is possible that an animal mutated and then landed in a different environment where this new trait is absolutely useless, thereby becomes a burden. That’s why it is always better to have average traits. Mutation is a form of intervention which takes generations, a longer amount of time to be implemented. A good example for this is the changing surface of the ocean.

2. What are the factors that can influence our survival or extinction?

Animals which are more mobile have a bigger chance of survival. For example, plants are very restricted in mobility, so if there is a climate change, they can easily go extinct, while animals have to option to migrate to a new place. Quickly adapting to the new place is also vital, because animals can also go extinct if they can’t find a new place to live. This happened to many species in the ice age.

3. Is there a scientific field which measures the likeliness of extinction in certain species?

Unfortunately, we can’t remember the name of this scientific field, however they are sure it exists. Climate change and migration are definitely very important, as well as camouflaging yourself or traits like running fast. These all influence whether a certain species can survive. It’s the survival of the fittest.

4. Can you think of any potential examples in nature that would reflect Adaptive Mutation?

We haven’t learnt much about Adaptive Mutation on our course, but maybe you can take a look at butterflies. They are very sensitive to their environment and change their physical attributes to the small impulses. That’s why butterflies are so diverse in nature. It might also help to look at Ebola or other viruses and how our immune systems fight off diseases.

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Appendix B2 - Interview with dr. Timothy A. Mousseau Mutations caused by the Chernobyl disaster and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster were investigated by Dr. Timothy A. Mousseau, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Hi Sophia et al., These are interesting questions that many folks have thought about a fair bit (including me!).

It is important to remember that adaptive responses to selection require some sort of genetically derived variation for the trait under selection within the population that is under selection. Most people seem to think that the source of this genetic variation are “mutations” but it seems likely that this is not the case in most contemporary populations as most mutations are either neutral or deleterious in their effects on the individuals that carry them. De novo mutations may have been more important in the distant past but are not likely to play much of an adaptive role now. The reason is that mutations that are beneficial, or have been beneficial at some point during evolutionary history, have been selected for and are either fixed in the genome already, or occur at some frequency in a population with the frequency dependent upon the costs or benefits of the variant. Given the billions of years of evolutionary history, beneficial mutations are likely to have come up before and to have been captured by the genome. Most organisms are really quite good at what they do and any change that might be generated by a de novo mutation is likely to be neutral or deleterious.

Another misconception is that radiation is a major source of mutations. Mutations are generated all the time by our own biochemistry (e.g. some folks have estimated that at least 50 chromosome breaks occur with every cell division!), but are usually repaired so that they cant do too much damage. Mutations due to radiation just add to the already very active process of mutagenesis and DNA repair that our cells undergo all the time. Radiation can certainly add to the mutational load that an individual experiences, and if the load is too high, the individual will suffer reduced performance and die younger than it might have in the absence of radiation although some folks might argue that much of what we call aging is the result of the cumulative effects of these mutations that aren’t repaired, most of which are the result of normal biochemical activities in our bodies. This is one reason why the process known as hormesis makes no biological sense.

I think there is a lot of confusion by what is meant by the term “mutation”. I think a lot of people confuse mutation with genetic variability. Genetic variability, or some related process that can generate heritable variation in phenotypic expression, is needed for adaptive evolutionary responses. But this genetic variability that provides the raw material for adaptive evolutionary responses tends to already be contained within individuals, populations, and species, although often it is “hidden”, occurring at very low frequencies when not needed, but available for evolution should environmental conditions change (e.g.

Climate change). Much of this genetic variation is contained in adjacent populations and only “arrives” and has an effect as a result of “gene flow” stemming from immigration/emigration among populations.

Indeed, sometimes the genetic variation arrives from other species via hybridization (e.g. Many birds, including Darwin’s finches) or “horizontal gene transfer” (e.g. Transfer of genes among bacteria, and even from bacteria to more complex organisms).

I have added a few short responses below.

1. Adaptive Mutation is an evolutionary theory, where mutations are considered less random and more purposeful as a response to specific stresses. What is your opinion on the theory of Adaptive Mutation?

Doesn’t work.

2. Would you consider mutations caused by the radiation to be a form of adaptive mutation?

No. 3. Have you encountered any other examples during your research career, that could be seen as a process of Adaptive Mutation?

Theres no such thing.

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4. In what ways would you suggest to implement Adaptive Mutation into a design solution?

This is a different question and not homologous to biological evolution. When we design variation and selection into our computer programs or other related processes we, by definition, restrict the range of variation. This is not to say that such a process is not useful! Au contraire, an evolutionary approach provides a mechanism for screening outcomes that might not be predictable by standard optimization approaches. One might draw comparison to the difference between natural and artificial selection. In artificial selection (e.g. Plant and animal breeding for agriculture), the geneticist selects from a range of variants that already exists and puts them together prior to imposing selection for the desired phenotype.

Often hybridization is used as a means to generate the range of genetic variation needed. Sex (i.e.

Recombination) is another important mechanism for generating variation from existing genetic variability as it reshuffles the genome to create new combinations of different genes.

5. If the radioactivity were persistent, would mutation caused by radiation serve as an advantage to survival?

No. Most de novo mutations have no effect or have negative effects. Most combinations of genetic variation have already been tried over evolutionary time and the ones with beneficial effects have already been incorporated in the genomes. It is certainly possible that an occasional de novo mutation might have some positive fitness effect but it seems unlikely that these occur very often any more.

OK, I have to run‌ I would be happy to chat more!

Good luck with your project.

Tim

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Appendix B3 - Survey results

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Appendix C - Brand guidelines Typefaces Futura medium Type sizes Buttons – 10 Fields – 12 Main title – 25 Title – 12 Descriptions – 6 Description Title – 8 Shapes rounded rectangles (normally: 40px – elements within calendar: 20px) and circles no squares or pointy edges lines/strokes with rounded ends no prominent borders, but dividers (grey) allowed flat design: no shading or shadow or shine or gradients (these are not for avatars/mascots and customization items, they are valid for icons) Colours no black dark turquoise #009a93 light turquoise #89ccca dark grey #575756 light grey #dcdcdc white #ffffff (this is not for avatars/illustrations) combinations: white on dark-turquoise and dark-grey dark-turquiose on light-turquiose dark-grey on white NO turquiose on grey NO white on ligh-turquoise or light-grey Avatars & Customization no outlines shine allowed no gradient, shadows or shading more colours allowed white outline in context: 5px

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