Theresa Utanto

Music is so closely tied to culture and history, often it’s an expression or response to such. A universal language, music is the common tie by which different countries record stories of their society. These are the stories we want to tell you. So lend your ear and listen to the what the world has to say. www.lendyourear.com

Experiencing different cultures can be hugely impactful in empowering young students to develop a worldly perspective. The Pan Pal Project seeks to bring this experience into the classroom through the lens of food. Based on the pen pal concept, students are paired up with another student from a different country to exchange food culture. At three different times of the year, they will not only learn about their Pan Pal’s food culture, but also immerse themselves in their partner's world through cooking and eating their food. The curriculum is centered around a kit that includes a field guide to each Pal’s country, a set of prompted postcards, and interactive recipe booklets. Each component seeks to engage students in critical self-reflection, perspective taking, and dynamic collaboration.

This interactive data visualization attempts to illustrate the silent moments in famous speeches and explore how the world's best public speakers employ silence to elevate their speeches. The visualization uses five speeches from various context and speakers, ranging from an Oscar Acceptance speech to an SNL Monologue. The colored marks are where the speakers paused while a subtle grey mark indicates the entirety of the speech. Programmed using Processing, the visualization allows users to see or un-see any of the speeches to easily compare them as well as play and scrub each audio clips to start listening to those silences.

A full redesign centered around the large commuter base of the popular public transportation app, OneBusAway. The redesign puts an emphasis on the bookmarks function, which allows users to cater and simplify the content they need for their daily commute.