Blueprint’s mission states, “To make beautiful engineering accessible and useful for those who create communities and promote public welfare.” In an age of algorithms, what is truly considered to be aesthetically beautiful?
Barbara Yang is a senior at UC Berkeley and a project developer for the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) project at Blueprint. She is passionate about the aesthetic parts of technologies that help communities in need.
How has your background shaped your values?
Growing up, I went to art classes on Saturday afternoons, and years of art education have made me a super visually driven person. So, on a very concrete and surface level I think I value visual beauty more than most developers do.
Another influential part of my upbringing was attending church with my family. Growing up in a Christian church with a homogeneously Chinese membership resulted in an intersection of conservative social and political values. What people point out as “wholesomeness” can be attributed to those learned social habits. But I also disagree with a lot of their conservative political stances.
How have you integrated your art-centric values, especially in a STEM-heavy environment like Berkeley?
I’ve learned to embrace the duality of my interests, even though it can be hard to find ways art and STEM can perfectly intersect. My dream used to be working for Pixar’s engineering department, pushing the boundaries of both filmmaking and technology.
Instead of trying to find places and avenues that are a perfect overlap of all my interests, I think it’s more interesting (if not just more feasible) to find ways to use one value to improve another. For me, that’s building web interfaces that look and feel good, or it could even be creating an art piece using a lot of geometry.
How do you think your creative work reflects your values?
When I work on projects that provide some creative freedom, I sink time into making them look good. The motivation is partly intrinsic — I want my work to look good — but another part of the motivation feels like I’m trying to uphold my personal brand or reputation of creating and putting out beautiful work. For example, I was building a simple web app for a take-home code challenge. I spent half of the time making it work and the other half styling and designing the interface. But at this point, I think that’s the expectation I’ve set for everything I do: I try not to compromise on function or form.
What kind of art have you found yourself appreciating the most?
I definitely appreciate abstract art more than realistic art. For one, it’s more visually interesting to look at something not trying to depict anything in the real world. You could point to the advent of photography and how it basically ruined the game of realism for artists, because what’s the point when you could just take a photo?
I think something important about abstract art is that it’s open to interpretation and isn’t something your brain can immediately latch onto like a bowl of fruit. There’s abstract expressionism with artists like Jackson Pollock who make art that looks really wild, which is different from geometric art which involves more colors and basic forms. You just have to keep staring at it as your brain tries to make sense of what you’re looking at, and that makes it more like a game and in turn much more interesting.
What can you talk about for hours and not get tired of?
Contemporary art. I could ask someone what they think it means for something to be art, how something can be considered art, or why something would be in a museum. I probably have a much wider definition of art than the average person does. At the same time, there’s a line between art, illustration, and commercialized pieces. For example, I wouldn’t consider an advertisement mural as art, but it’s hard to articulate why it isn’t. I think a big part of it is the artist’s intent — it’s important to ask what conversation the artist is trying to start through a piece.
What drew you to Blueprint?
The mission is definitely something that I think is super important. All the places I worked at had tangible missions that impact people’s lives, which is something really important to me. I think building with purpose and intention is also really important.
It’s not necessarily products in particular that I’m drawn to, but rather the communities they serve. It’s really hard to find products that are inherently interesting, so I look more for whom I’m serving, what problems I’m trying to solve, and the space I’m working in. For example, the premise of DREAM (one of Blueprint’s projects 2017–2018), was basically making an attendance tracker, which may seem inherently simple. But the fact that you’re working in the space of education for teachers and students in the Dominican Republic is the most interesting part of the project.
What’s one thing you think a lot of people don’t know about you?
I’m extremely self conscious but I think I became good at hiding it (*nervous laughter*). I took a Big Five “OCEAN” Personality Test for a personality psych class — it gave me pretty low ratings for anger and anxiety (which didn’t surprise me), but I had a pretty high rating for self-consciousness (which also didn’t surprise me).
I think I also stand somewhere between ambition and complacency. Some of my friends seem extremely ambitious and know exactly what they want, so they work really hard to accomplish whatever goals they have. On the other hand, I have friends who are lazy or easily content. I usually can’t stand either extremes.
What’s one thing you wish people understood more about the world?
It frustrates me when people assume, by default, that the world is against them, or that random strangers are trying to make their lives harder, or waiting for them to mess up to judge and belittle them. Once I realized that wasn’t true, and that actually no one is watching — that was really freeing.
I also wish people were more compassionate. I think probably everyone knows this on an intellectual level, even if they don’t take it to heart, but every person I see in a classroom, at work, and on a street — they’re all going through some difficulty, and I never know what battles they’re fighting. We can all be more kind to each other.
