Rest Of Us
IAT
I took the IAT, Implicit Association's Test to read how my mind understands skin tones. This comes from a culturally rooted mindset being an Indian, that fair skin seems to be a more aesthetically pleasing skin colour compared to having dark skin. As much as I believe that it is not true and in my mind I find that the skin-tone has by far never distorted my judgement based on preferences, this was an interesting test for me to comprehend.
My result said that I had a moderate preference over light skinned people than dark skinned.
This was an interesting result. Almost got me defensive for a second there.
I had questions like:
Am I racist?
Is the algorithm reading my mind correctly?
Am I implicitly racist and did not know (aghhh this gets me so angry)?
Then it got me thinking of my culture. Maybe, subconsciously I could be embedded with the assumption of having preference towards light skinned. But I do not want that to be true!!!
Can a machine really read my subconscious and decide what I feel even though I absolutely detest the conclusion? I would hate to prefer light skin over dark skin or even vice versa. THIS IS SO NOT TRUEEE😞
For the IAT, I was asked how I associate good and bad with dark and light skin. My challenge was to quickly press on keys E or I depending on what picture is shown in front of me. The pictures could be the face of a person with light/ dark skin and words that are associated with bad/good connotations. I had to keep pressing on keys E and I as fast as I could to see how my mind reacts to the pictures shown to me.
Now there are a few things that made me wonder about the reliability of the test:
What if one's brain and muscle coordination is weak
Is awakening subconscious always got to do with speed?
If someone is asked to constantly shift the way their brain reacts, there is bound to be human error
Statistically that is what I am shown, but I know that a few questions with human errors, judgement errors, speed, confusing algorithm could probably do a little to come to such a conclusion. I am emotional towards all sections of skin tone, being in a culture where they have a preference, I am bound to empathise towards all groups. Collecting a few answers could bring a conclusion almost obviously, but how accurate it is, that could be impossible to say.
Experts designing this program could have a list of questions that could bring them such a conclusion, but how the inclusion of a machine error could distort their test could may/may not be accounted for. For eg, one example was to characterise good with dark and bad with light, but how the machine displays these randomly at different speeds for judgement could be faulty.
If I had to design an IAT test, I would probably think of different shades of fairness and darkness and not just outright dark skinned and light skinned. Because the first test I would want to conduct is what someone thinks of when they think of a dark/light skin. Everyone's judgement would be different, and then based off of that I could conduct other tests to see how the user reacts to the shade that they have understood to be dark and light.
Meditation Project
For my first project, I was keen on focusing on my breathing, meditation, using my consciousness and unconsciousness. My aim was to see the correlation between the both. How the unconscious controls the consciousness and vice versa. I blended in the 3 weeks projects together to see what the patterns tell me about my breathing, my consciousness (thoughts), and my unconsciousness (heart-rate).
To track my unconscious, I used the heart rate sensor while using the CALM application for a guided mediation. Using an app was my way of talking to the elephant, to see how externally I am influencing my internal mind and emotions. Using the heart-rate sensor gave me a lot insight into the final readings. I realised that the data I collected was not timed for perfection:
There could be a time lag between the data recorded and data shown
There could be movements of the finger that could give inaccurate reading
The data shown could track differently at different breathing sessions
To understand the correlation between my breathing and the heart rate, I conducted the breathing experiment 7 times to see how the data varies each time. Sometimes it shows a change, sometimes it does not. But on an average, one could tell the change in BPM (beat per minute) due to the various external factors.
To track my thoughts I used the APDS9600 gesture sensor to track the number of thoughts that are coming my way. There was a solid correlation between the number of thoughts and BPM, however, these could be the factors that could affect the data collected:
Not every gesture could be recorded (sometimes the sensor did not test the gesture)
The experiment could have started with a different state of BPM, which was then altered because of the thought count
In the end the thought count had no influence over avg BPM.
The idea of swiping every time a thought came was intrusive and could have disturbed the breathing cycle
CALM application was another factor that had to be accounted for the experiment. It was a guided breathing that was visually triggering the experience. While I was looking at the application, the breathing rhythm became involuntary however, external factors like ambulance noise, sniffing, change in position etc, could also have played as an external factor to alter my BPM.
As I spoke to my unconscious, I knew I had to pay attention to my conscious. Am I listening correctly? Is listening also a form of distraction? I was being aware of being aware. And that played a significant role in my breathing and BPM.
As I revisit ROY, I understand that my meditation if not largely, could affect my BPM in some manner. My anxiety does have some visual number to show that it is affected. The breathing could calm my anxiety partially, if not fully.
Below, is a video that explains the exercise in a visual manner.
