wrriting 2nd-trimester

Designing Long distance language

Introduction

The ideal pattern of family has changed. People who lived in the large family became minority in recent years. Living apart from near relatives became general. Greater numbers of people than ever before are living on their own, the amount of single people is on the rise. It is the result of change of people’s value and the increasing of mobile society.
By virtue of popularization of the Internet, people have got tools to communicate with each other regardless of the sense of time and distance. It is possibly said locations where people live are not important for them staying away geographically from their families any longer. People belong to where they live physically, but also who used to live with emotionally.
The thesis focuses on the issue of people who live alone and apart from their family and home that now is regarded as global phenomenon. The goal of this study is to explore how design can support emotional connection between people living apart through the sense of belonging. How family can create a situation that they can feel mental distance closely in the physical distance.
By the way, can you tell the direction of your home?


Changing family form

Living alone and apart from family member and home has become a global phenomenon, and the number of years that people spend living single is growing. Its relevancy is broad, as most of us will be at several places in our lives, most of us will live alone, possibly more than one time, whether temporarily or permanently.
The globalizing, market-led world is increasingly mobile, and single people are the most mobile of all, already less likely to be homeowners than couples, more likely to move home frequently, more likely to migrate abroad, more likely to travel.
In reality, some studies predict that a third of people in developed countries will be living alone by 2026. This demographic trend seems indisputable.
In demography, family change is largely theorized in terms of two demographic transitions: a long-term change (from about 1870 to 1950), which brought smaller families; and second change (from about 1960 to the present), which involved increased flexibility in family relationships (Lesthaeghe, 1995; Beaujot, 2000: 85-96).
This second phase is being passed across the developed world as single living, becomes the criteria. In the UK, the number of people living alone has quadrupled in the last 40 years; by 2021 singletons are expected to account for 37 per cent of all households. In Japan the single-person household is now the most common type.
And in the five years before 2006, countries recording over 20 per cent growth in numbers of single living included Vietnam, India, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand and China.
In China, demographic change, as with so much else, is happening at a startling rate. According to the Chinese Research Center on Ageing, 30 percent of China’s urban senior citizens lived alone in 2004 and the number is expected to increase to 80 percent as soon as 2010.
In such newly industrialized countries, rapid urbanization plays a greater role: as hundreds of millions of young workers leave their families for better opportunities in the city, even other country. And the number of households multiplies.
What is the reason for the phenomenon in single living person?
According to the answers from many young people in developed country, it is wealth and personal freedom: they live alone because they are capable, like and make a choice.
Changing value has promoted individual rights along with less regulation of the private lives of individuals by the larger community. Diversity is valued, in living arrangements and in family forms.
Where do people want to live at the end of their life? For some, staying with their children and family is not an option: their priority is to keep independence, and there is a significant preference for remaining in their own homes –increasingly, alone.
In Germany and Switzerland, people over 50-years old will account for around half of the population by the middle of the century. And the proportion of elderly people living alone is also increasing: nearly half of Swiss women aged 65-74 are now in single-person living. In Britain, the number of older persons living alone has risen by a fifth in just the last two years. With China’s population both growing and ageing, it is expected to have 400 million citizens over the age of 60 by 2050.

Loneliness

Loneliness is a major factor for people living alone, especially the old who tend to spend a far higher proportion of their time within their own four walls.
For many people living alone, loneliness is a crucial concern. From many of the studies, it emerges that loneliness does pose a significant risk, especially to mental health. People living on their own are significantly more possibly to experience a depressive episode or suffer obsessive compulsive disorder and panic disorders. According to Britain’s Office of National Statistics, and twice as many single women take their own lives as married women.
In their growth as individuals, humans start a separation process at birth, which continues with growing independence towards adulthood. As such, feeling alone can be a healthy emotion and, indeed, choosing to be alone for a period of solitude can be enriching.

Transition of Long distance communication in the mobile society

There are numerous ways in which people have changed the way they communicate over greater distances in the last 50 years; the Internet is most certainly one of them.
Traditionally, social interaction in the local community was the basis for communication face-to-face. Yet, today face-to-face meetings are no longer the primary way to communicate as one can use a landline telephone or any number of the computer mediated communications such as email and Skype.
The earliest forms of sending messages over great distances are runners (where does the marathon come from?), horse relays homing pigeons, smoke signals, torch signaling, heliographs (flashing mirrors), signal flags (especially in the Navy) and letter.
In recent years, the world has seen an explosion in the growth of information and communication technologies, and particularly mobile communications. 2002 marked a turning point in the history of telecommunications in that the number of mobile subscribers overtook the number of fixed-line subscribers on a global scale, and mobile became the dominant technology for voice communications. Indeed, the mobile phone has moved beyond being a mere technological object to become a key "social object" present in every aspect of our daily lives.
Informal communication between friends and family is crucial to personal relations. We are enthusiastic about e-mail and its benefits, in long distance contact with our relatives. Videoconferencing (commonly called Skype) is still used between people separately geographically, almost exclusively for professional reasons. Such tools can be developed to provide greater emotional support (than phone and e-mail) for people staying away from their families.

The other day, my friend (she is a Korean studying in the Netherlands) told me very inspiring story about talk with her father over phone, at the moment, there was a day of new year in Korea (about one month later from first of January), so he asked her to bow towards Korea (it is a traditional new year’s ritual that she used to do), after all she didn’t do as asked, however, fascinating thing from this episode is that she actually did not know the direction of her home.
After this story, I made some interviews to several people, expectantly or unexpectedly, all most of them could not tell which direction is their home or country. Honestly, until this inspiration, I had never considered that which direction my country is.
By the technology of communication tools such as phone and Skype, you can sense voice(sound) and even face(sight) through computer screen. But there is no clue to recognize that how far (distance) away your partner who you are talking to and which direction your facing to communicate with. Those are what missing senses in long distance communication what we have currently.

Cultural ritual in terms of direction

A universal Muslim ritual

The prayer ritual, which is over 1400 years old, is repeated five times a day by hundreds of millions of people all round the world. Carrying it out is not only highly spiritual, but connects each Muslim to all others around the world, and to all those who have uttered the same words and made the same movements at different times in Islamic history.
Muslim praying salat with his head and hands touching the ground. There are set positions and movements for prayer.
Salat is the obligatory Muslim prayers, performed five times each day by every good Muslim. God ordered Muslims to pray at five set times of day: dawn, before sunrise, midday, after the sun passes its highest, the late part of the afternoon, just after sunset, between sunset and midnight. Every Muslim, male or female, try to do this includes Muslim children as young as seven are encouraged to pray. Muslims have prayer timetable which has accurate calendars telling the time of each prayer gives Muslims the pattern of their day.
Muslims make sure that they are in the right frame of mind before they pray; they put aside all everyday cares and thoughts so that they can concentrate exclusively on God.
Muslims pray because God has told them that they are to do this, and because they believe that they obtain great benefit in doing so.
Muslims can pray anywhere, but it is especially good to pray with others in a mosque. Praying together in a congregation helps Muslims to realize that all humanity is one, and all are equal in the sight of Allah.
If it is not available for some Muslims to go to Mecca practically, they pray at distance. When time for praying, they need to be directed in the direction of Mecca. In that case, Mecca direction telling compass helps such Muslims to guess the direction of Mecca at prayer times. Wherever they go, they take it with them. Whether they are moving to a new place or going on a holiday, this is a must have.

Bowing

Bowing (also called stooping) is the act of lowering the torso and head as a social gesture in direction to another person or symbol. It is most prominent in Oriental cultures but it is also typical of nobility and aristocracy in many countries and distinctively in Europe. Sometimes the gesture may be limited to lowering the head. It is especially prominent in China, Korea, India, and Japan where it may be executed standing or kneeling.
Bows are the traditional greeting in East Asia, more so in Korea and Japan than anywhere else. However, bowing is not reserved only for greetings. Bowing is a gesture of respect. Different bows are used for apologies and gratitude, to express different emotions, humility, sincerity, remorse, or deference, and in various traditional arts and religious ceremonies.
Bows are commonly used in greeting, both when meeting and when parting. Bows almost automatically accompany the greeting phrases, but generally are no longer used among the immediate family unless addressing a family member after or in anticipation of a long absence or separation.
Bows also replace speaking under certain circumstances. For example, when encountering again a person to whom one has already spoken that day, a silent bow replaces such phrases as "hello" or "hi."
When dealing with non-East Asians, many East Asians will shake hands. Since many non-East Asians are familiar with the custom of bowing, this often leads to a combined bow and handshake which can be quite complicated to execute. Bows may be combined with handshakes or performed before or after shaking hands. Generally when bowing in proximity to another, as necessitated when combining bowing and shaking hands, people turn slightly to one side (usually the left) to avoid bumping heads.
Bowing in Japan is distinct [citation needed] from other East Asian cultures when done in more traditional settings such as during a tea ceremony or during the beginning and end of a traditional martial arts match.

Frontality

Frontality is the representation of the front view of figures or objects in a work of art. Scholar Julius Lange in Denmark presents "Law of the frontality" in his book in 1899, and it seems that the conception "Frontality" began to spread from that moment. If the statue is seen from the front for the side where the sculpture is seen "Law of the frontality" is assumed for an ancient sculpture (human body image including the god) to be carved for "It is opposite from the front" way symmetrically for the person who stand infront of the sculpture, and it becomes possible to obtain the sense of looking to symmetry, and opposite from the front.

Frontality in Japanese culture

Ikebana

Ikebana (arranged flower) is the Japanese art of flower arrangement, also known as kado (the "way of flowers").
More than simply putting flowers in a container, ikebana is a disciplined art form in which nature and humanity are brought together.
Traditional styles of Ikebana are designed to be viewed only from the front. It is because the space of Tokonoma where Ikebana would be placed is an alcove.(as you see the image)
When Buddhism was introduced to Japan in about 538A.D, monks started to arrange flowers to decorate the altars of temples. In the Heian period (794-1192), appreciating flowers in a vase unrelated to religious worship also became popular. There are number of novels, essays and poems of that time which describe the aristocracy enjoying flower arranging and admiring arrangements of flowers.
In the Kamakura period (1192-1333), the Samurai (elite warrior class) wrested the power of government from the aristocrats and brought great lifestyle and fashion changes into the whole of Japanese society.
At this time it became fashionable to create a Tokonoma, a small sacred alcove, in a zashiki (Japanese room). The Tokonoma would contain a flower arrangement, incense and a candle.

Frontality in exterior of architecture

There is mostly the "Door" which is called "Main entrance" for the building. On the site where architectures built, fences and walls are placed around it, and the gate arranged between those elements becomes front gate. From the recognition that the building faces and welcome visitors who pass the gate, it is important that which direction of the building is "Front", and how exterior is designed as a face of the door and other elements of building.

Frontality in interior of architecture

Sometimes "the side shown to the person who enters room" be fixed for the room in the building. "Front/face in the room" might be fixed and "Frontality" will be created by the alcove(Tokonoma), the fireplace and so on, and "Frontality" will be created.

Conclusion

Despite the demographic transformations that have swept the world, some things will never change. People will always love family, home and country where they were born. Home is not simply shelter but the place where daily life is performed, the container of memories, and the setting to a period of existence that should still be more about positive than negative. The issues are raised when there is profound family change: what is holding families together and what are the links between individuals and families? And even individuals and place where he or she used to belong.
To enrich the long distance communication between people who live apart and families, what is possible in this mobile society?
Home is the place that you were born and grew, your memories are stored there emotionally and there are people who you spend your life together. It is what identify yourself when you live abroad or somewhere far from home. When you feel lonely or anxiety mentally, you would contact with your family by phone or Skype to ease yourself. Thus, what if you can recognize the direction of your home that is missing sense in long distance communication? Like Muslims do, by realizing the direction of people that you want to contact, long distance communication would be more valuable moment in everyday life. And casual behavior you do everyday life, for instance, sending e-mail, having meal and so on, would be more taken care and respectful as if facing each other at distance.