This scholarly inquiry undertakes an exploration of the paradigm of ‘Adult Play Equity’, challenging prevailing notions that restrict play to the domain of childhood. Through an analysis of its definition, importance, and inherent characteristics, the paper illuminates the profound advantages that play confers upon adults, spanning realms such as mental health, physical vigor, and social-emotional development. The investigation extends across varied dimensions, from individual wellness to the broader arenas of society and urban landscapes, offering nuanced perspectives on the promotion, sustenance, and integration of ‘Play Equity’ into communal frameworks as a strategic design intervention for future cities. The paper culminates by underscoring the potential transformative impact of ‘Play Equity’ on adult lives and fervently advocating for its formal acknowledgment as an inalienable human right. Moreover, it underscores a notable gap in research concerning the significance of play in the context of adults, emphasizing the abundance of existing research in this domain specifically tailored to children. Consequently, this research study advocates for the imperative necessity of further scholarly investigations and practical design interventions aimed at fostering equitable opportunities for play for all ages.

Advisors: Karen Janosky and Belinda Tato, Harvard University

"Fluid Memory" emerges as an alchemy of artistic expression curated by Elizabeth Ulanova with the gracious patronage of the Industry Lab. This art exhibition serves as the ecological culmination of Ulanova's growth as an artist morphotically, academically, and deeply within introspection. Fluid Memory stands as a wayfarer to Ulanova's journey of deep love and heartbreaking loss, unrelenting death and small moments of everyday courage - transposing those intangibles, those wistful moments of a surprised laugh or the silent pause of a gazing breath into a tangible artwork. This odyssey became a psychological bridge within the 'play' of art-making, etching the realms of self-discovery, discordantly resonating with the surrounding cosmos, and intricately binding the experienced sensory.

Curated by Justice Mcdaniel, Industry Lab

alchemy: a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.
 

Inspired by the traditional craftsmanship of Chinese artistry, “Alchemy: Between the Past and Magic” embeds the ancient philosophies of the intellectual sisters of painting, poetry, and landscape.

Through contemporary compositions between the magical realism of nature and the organic connections of timeless materiality, “Alchemy” probes its own conceptual process through inquisitive methodology and visual abstraction.

Advisors: Ed Eigen, Gary Hilderbrand, Harvard University

 For my theses at Columbia University, I created original short films and installations that showcased alternative universes set in the immediate future. These storylines were centered around the modification or mediation of human behavior through fictional technology. For example, “Voices” critiqued the nature of internal transparency and surveillance within society, through the lens of a fictionalized world that mandates its citizens to wear telepathic brain microchips. Likewise, “Remember” focused on the subjective role of memory through the apparatus of glasses that record and playback every one of life’s moments. The goal of these projects was to present the sociological questions that inevitably arise when technology and culture overlap. Hence, I wanted audiences to digest my hypotheses in an engaging, visceral manner (through media) while I visually critiqued our human behavioral and cultural patterns. In my last thesis film “Connection," I focused on social interactivity and the role of self-medication through the framework of bioengineered pills that induce apathy. Live installations that included the utilization of video projection, sculpture, and paintings, such as “Cracked”, “Screens”, and “Body”, were also produced as tangible mixed collages that sought to create said dialogue in the physical sphere. In conclusion, I did not seek to predict the future, but rather to continually analyze and synthesize the influence of technology-inspired-cultures and culture-inspired-technology.

Advisors: Nicola Lopez, Serra Bothwell Fels, Matthew Buckingham, Sondra Perry, Columbia University

Exhibition: Leroy Neiman Gallery, December 2018, Manhattan, New York.