https://youtu.be/IMdvqPbq6w0

This short film was so unique and heart-wrenching, not only in the subject matter, but also in the logistics of filming and so on. I feel like the topic of deciding to keep loved ones on breathing machines or letting them die naturally is usually seen through the lens of fiction within television. Personally, I’ve watched a lot of hospital shows that cover this topic. To see it as a documentary style film really solidifies how deeply sad and human this experience is. While watching “Extremis”, I was curious how the filmmaker was able to gain access to this hospital and the patients and family members being filmed. I can’t imagine going through an experience as painful as this and agreeing to let a camera crew film everything. Not to say that it isn’t an important subject that should be covered, I just am surprised at the openness of the people being interviewed and filmed.

https://vimeo.com/646185849

For my video assignment I plan to cover the emergence of co-living in New York City. This is when people either share bedrooms or apartments with others who are typically placed there with them. It is typically temporary and is common for international students or those just visiting the city for an extended time.

Co-living wasn’t ideal during the pandemic, but now that Covid is somewhat under control in NYC, this way of living is returning. There are plenty of co-living companies across the city. I plan to interview Gemma Moss, a manger/events coordinator from Outpost Club. They recently opened several houses in Brooklyn, Jersey City, and even Philadelphia.

Although Moss is my main interview, I’m going to speak with others who live there and see what it’s like to be a part of co-living. What are the upsides and downsides, how much it costs, and so on.

HOST INTRO: As the trend of environmentally conscious apparel sweeps the nation, one industry model has come under fire in recent years. Fast fashion brands like Zara and SHEIN are keeping consumers on their toes with new collections every few months, making them leading contributors to global waste, pollution, and poor working conditions. Baruch Journalist Mira Ciganek met with designer Peggy Chiang to learn what it’s like to work with SHEIN and their reaction to recent criticism of the fast fashion model.

AMBI: Pouring coffee sound fades.

TRACK: I’m sitting here with Peggy Chiang in her Brooklyn apartment. She just finished pouring herself a cup of coffee and is now sitting on a chair shaped and upholstered to look like a red bottom heel. It is evident this is the home of a designer. The 24 year old is an assistant designer for DKNY, but she was recently approached to design a collection for the fashion ecommerce giant SHEIN.

ACT: CHIANG: Recently this year… I received a message from someone at SHEIN.com, and they said that they saw my portfolio and they thought I’d be a really good fit for their designer program called SHEIN X.

TRACK: SHEIN X was created to bring attention to young designers. It is one of the company’s initiatives to garner good press amongst the recent wave of criticism. The program handles the production and sales side of the operation and grants people like Chiang the opportunity to design a collection.

ACT: CHIANG: Basically what I made was something very feminine and floral… Then it’s layers of different types of fabrics and very soft gardeny kind of colors like pink, purple, and green. 

TRACK: Chiang describes the experience as a complete deviation from the typical world of corporate fashion she is accustomed to at DKNY.

ACT: CHIANG: It’s just a lot faster than normal and less people are involved. I designed it, they approved it, it went into production, there weren’t ten other people who got to critique or say their opinions.

TRACK: As SHEIN works at a much quicker pace than industry standards, they have become a poster boy for fast fashion. But by keeping up with the latest trends in apparel they are sacrificing sustainable practices. Anna Cortese, an associate designer for One Step Up, discusses the controversy surrounding fast fashion.

ACT: CORTESE: Fast fashion could be defined as clothing produced at faulty speed to meet consumer demand. Fast fashion will soon surpass food as the world’s leading industry in waste. The more demand for fast fashion from the consumer shopping at Zara, H&M, SHEIN, Forever 21, and so on, the more waste is produced. 

TRACK: But the fast fashion model isn’t the only culprit in unsustainable practices. The fashion industry as a whole is one of the leading contributors to pollution and waste worldwide. BBC explains the industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions and 20% of wastewater.

ACT: CHIANG: The reason why there is an environmental impact is because fashion as a whole is a huge environmental impact. The only reason why fast fashion is considered worse than the regular one is because you can make more, making more uses more energy.

TRACK: Immediate change is being called for, starting at the top. Corporations hold a lot of the responsibility in ensuring ethical and environmentally conscious practices.

ACT: CHIANG: You can do fast fashion with really good factories that use clean water than don’t dump waste into the water system. And you can work with factories that turn off their lights for a certain percentage to save electricity. 

TRACK: There is certainly personal responsibility as the consumer, as well.

ACT: CORTESE: If we can switch gears and realize the value of high quality well made garments, maybe we can slow down the build up of waste. Finding an alternative to fast fashion doesn’t just mean buying only new luxury pieces. It also includes more affordable  options like vintage shopping, participating in clothing swaps, and upcycling.

TRACK: And for those whose only viable option is to buy fast fashion, either for financial or practical reasons, there are ways to go about it that leaves less of an environmental impact.

ACT: PEGGY: You buying one shirt from a fast fashion place and wearing it over and over again is still going to be more sustainable than you buying ten to twenty shirts from a really reputable, sustainable brand. Taking care of your own goods, and not creating your own waste, is more of an impact than only shopping sustainable brands.

TRACK: While SHEIN is one of the leading contributors to the fast fashion industry, they are attempting to make strides in the right direction. Their SHEIN X program is opening up the stage to young designers and adapting more ethical working conditions. Hopefully, environmental awareness is next up on the docket. For Baruch College, I’m Mira Ciganek.

HOST INTRO: As the trend of environmentally conscious apparel sweeps the nation, one industry model has come under fire in recent years. Fast fashion, a hot button topic for corporations and consumers alike, isn’t exactly what we think it is. Baruch journalist, Mira Ciganek, sat down to speak with designer Peggy Chiang on what it’s like to work in the fashion industry and the misconceptions behind fast fashion.

ABMI: Nat sounds of apartment fade out.

TRACK: I’m sitting here with fashion designer Peggy Chiang in her New York City apartment. Chiang was recently selected to design a collection for the fashion e-commerce giant SHEIN, a company often tied to fast fashion.

ACT: PEGGY: The SHEIN X program was created very recently, I’m not actually sure when. But it’s meant to give, to use their power as a big ecommerce site to help young designers get exposure and to sell products. They’re really good at manufacturing and so to invite other designers to come and create a collection it’s a win-win for both the designer and the site.

TRACK: Chiang has noticed immense differences working with SHEIN compared to working for companies with a more traditional production model.

ACT: PEGGY: It’s been this kind of structure where a designer creates a collection and it goes back and forth between designers, merchandisers, buyers, all the people on the front end. And then it will go into production and take six months to be shipped to a store.

TRACK: For companies like SHEIN, however, things move a lot faster. From the initial design to the time a product is on the shelves takes about two to three months. 

ACT: PEGGY: This newer fashion, fast fashion, has popped up and basically one of the things it does is eliminate the middleman. It goes straight from a designer or a brand and goes straight to the consumer.

TRACK: Despite the misconception behind the term itself, there is validity behind the concerns many have of fast fashion and industry as a whole. SHEIN and many others aren’t exempt from criticism based on the pure mass of products they create.

ACT: PEGGY: Say SHEIN makes 100 million different products, whereas a slow fashion company makes only 15. That’s the only way to be truly sustainable is to make a handful of different things. The numbers just have to be really really small to truly have a clean system.

TRACK: The fashion industry as a whole struggles immensely with environmental issues. As one of the leading contributors to emissions and waste, even slow fashion isn’t always the answer.

ACT: PEGGY: You buying one shirt from a fast fashion place and wearing it over and over again is still going to be more sustainable than you buying 10 shirts from a really reputable brand. Taking care of your own goods and not creating your own waste is more of an impact than only shopping sustainable brands.

TRACK: Integrating sustainable practices into ones like and understanding what really goes on behind the scenes of certain industry practices like fast fashion are the first steps in making a difference, as Chiang concludes. For Baruch College, I’m Mira Ciganek.

 

“Signs of Your Identity”

I visited the Photoville exhibit located in Brookfield Place’s Winter Forrest. The exhibit was titled “Signs of Your Identity” and was created to exemplify the forced assimilation of Indigenous people into western boarding schools. It featured a number of brightly colored portraits of members of the Indigenous community.

One portrait included above was of a man named Peter Atchak. He was sent to St. Mary’s Mission School because his family “understood western culture was coming.” They wanted someone in the family to learn to speak English and be able to do well for themselves. Atchak spoke of his initial disdain towards the school. Eventually, however, he grew used to it, explaining how the nuns took good care of him and he made friends.

It was very enlightening to learn about the various perspectives on this issue. Atchak’s story was one of the more positive experiences. Because the exhibit was created to draw attention to the hardships faced during periods of assimilation, many of the accounts were honestly very upsetting. I think artistic expression like this, especially through multimedia mediums, are a moving way of capturing such an often overlooked part of history. The eye catching portraits are bound to grab the attention of passerbys. 

HOST INTRO: Passive incomes and the tech industry as a whole have taken the economy by storm in recent years. New York City data scientist, Marco Santos, is utilizing his knowledge on machine learning and his ability as a writer to create a pseudo-passive stream of income for himself. Baruch journalist, Mira Ciganek, spoke with him today to get the full story.

AMBI: Nat sounds of the street and cars passing by (FADE AS TRACK BEGINS)

TRACK: I’m sitting here with Marco Santos in his Williamsburg apartment, as he takes a break from editing his most recent article. He is the back end developer of a startup, but he has also taken up a lucrative side gig: technical writing for Medium.

ACT: MARCO: Medium started as a side project for my current, or at my previous school. One of the required assignments was to publish to Medium and use that as a way to display or showcase our skillset in programming. 

TRACK: Since then he has gained a lot of traction from his articles. He now has over a thousand followers on Medium and makes roughly $200 a month from his writing alone.

ACT: MARCO: Basically I used that and gained a lot of success from that, compared at least to an average writer. From then, I just decided to keep at it even during my normal employment, I still write.

TRACK: Santos has written pieces on everything from step-by-step guides on building matchmaking programs to his journey getting a job after going to a coding bootcamp.

ACT: MARCO: Hopefully it turns into something bigger, and a really great source of side income or basically a main job eventually down the line. That would be the ideal so eventually I could just lean back and have my writing generate money for me.

TRACK: Santos is open to leaving his job as a data scientist and utilizing technical writing as his main source of income. I hesitate to say a full time job, as that doesn’t seem to be the goal. This trend of embracing passive income has grown more popular in recent years and is closely tied to the tech industry. For Baruch College, this is Mira Ciganek.

ABMI: FADES BACK IN AT THE END

LINK

https://soundcloud.com/mira-ciganek/audio-practice-assignment?si=4f52e42389644277b1980ff5a0ded62f

For my audio assignment I plan to interview the film score composer Chris Hajian. He has worked on movies like The Infiltrator and Critical Thinking to come up with original soundtracks. He recently released a new album and offered to have me come in to his studio for an interview and to audio record some of his music. Hajian’s charismatic and upbeat attitude and the nature of his profession would lend itself well to an audio essay.