#non-zero sum

[uke-bruise]

non-zero sum • 논 제로섬

[a-h-l]

In the face of widening social inequality, democratic decline and a basic erosion of the ecological health of the planet, many sections of design and the social sciences appear poised to take a critical turn. Emerging debates around "speculative design", "re-directive practices", "discursive design", "adversarial design" and "transitional design" all indicate an deep impatience with the status quo, a desire to challenge social and environmental injustices and a growing sense that things need to change and change quickly. Many currents of the social sciences would appear to be keen to move from endless deconstruction to reconstruction.

This expanded creative dialectic gives us choice not just between win and lose, but also beyond win and lose, as a win/win or lose/lose. It expands the meaning and value of these terms. This strategy challenges us to consider not just how to get what we want, but why we want what we want, which is to say, what makes it meaningful to win or lose.

[dlartistanon]

Alright, so… I've gone and wrote up some basic info for my OCs, which you can read under the break! If you don’t want to see any of my original stuff, I’m sorry for wasting your time! You can just blacklist "non-zero sum" so you don't have to see them. 

Lynne: A jack-of-all-trades when it comes to the working world, she jumps between jobs a lot because she has no idea where she wants to go or what she wants to accomplish in her lifetime. Currently, she works as a hostess in a mixed-gender host club and moonlights as whatever other job she can find to help pay the rent of the apartment she shares with her roommate and coworker. She’s hedonistic, but at the same time believes that life has no purpose. She has a penchant for crossdressing (or at least wearing male/gender-neutral clothing), her reasons being "it's practical and to cater to that crowd". 8 times out of 10, expect a cheesy pickup line. Non-confrontational, she would much rather get beaten up or flee than fight back--if she does, she'll normally use mundane objects like mops or beer bottles.

Jeannie: A senior in high school who also works part-time as an office gofer at a small firm. She’s not a native of where the story takes place; she was adopted as a child by Jerard. She is easily fascinated with learning new things about new cultures and with her thoughts sometimes running off-track, often recites obscure trivia about random things. She is very much family-oriented and while she latched onto Jerard quite easily, Jeannie is still devoted to her blood relatives. Her biological parents have been declared MIA after the war and she’s been working to find and reunite with them. 

Braxton: He is Jeannie’s childhood friend who helped her adjust to living in a new country. Always upbeat and cheerful, he possesses a heart of gold and would gladly give the shirt off his back to help someone in need. He wants to believe that everyone has good in them, which makes him incredibly naive in the real world. He loves making new friends and working with kids; in addition to going to college, he sometimes takes up babysitting for the neighbors. He spends a lot of his free time as a volunteer for local efforts. He and Jeannie share a mutual love of geeky cosplay. 

Jerard: A bodyguard-for-hire who had previously been in the military. Having been adopted as well, he took pity on Jeannie and decided to adopt her after his tour ended and he was discharged. He enjoys gardening and spending time with his family. He is diagnosed with narcolepsy and oftentimes just falls asleep in the middle of doing something if he hasn't taken his medication or required scheduled naps. Underneath his seemingly unapproachable exterior, he's actually a big softy who loves flowers and cuddling. He's got quite the odd friendship with Tory, which started a few weeks after she tried to mug him. However, while he is somewhat aware of the level of attachment Tory has to him, he is not privy to her actions behind the scenes for his sake; instead, he's trying to get her to be open with other people, so that she doesn't rely on him too much. 

Tory: Basically a homeless crazy person whom you really wouldn't want to run into alone at night. She loves to troll the hell out of people; the only one exempt is Jerard, and by extension, Jeannie. She now sometimes crashes at their place instead of on the streets. While she does care about him, she is also extremely possessive because he is her first real friend who helped her when she was at her lowest. Unfortunately, this unhealthy attachment manifests itself by intimidating and/or inflicting bodily harm on anyone whom she deems as a threat to his safety--think of a guard dog. She can normally be seen carrying around a lead pipe (sometimes hidden inside a golf bag) and a box cutter for protection and participation in street fights to sate her inherent violent tendencies. 

Aisha: Works as a maid/personal assistant to whoever hires her at the time. Coming from a rather uptight and conservative family, Aisha is a proud individual yet also a perfectionist, and won't be satisfied unless things go her way or adhere to the rules. She frequently butts heads with both Lynne and Tory because of lax conduct and lack of standards/morals respectively. However, aside from her haughtiness lies a girl who was denied a childhood like all the other kids, forced to grow up too fast. Her family places a lot of pressure on her to succeed, and as a result, Aisha has trouble getting close to others because of a lack of social warmth. She puts more trust in inanimate objects than people, believing that they will never harm you unless mishandled, unlike humans who consciously do so.

Van: A middle-aged businessman who is in a familial dispute with a few of his siblings over who gets to inherit their father's company. He can be quite generous with his money, often spending it on lavish parties and other expenditures, doing so to fill in the void that was left when his father passed away without ever fully recognizing Van was his son (he was born in the same year that the eldest son died; Van's father, in his grief, believed it to be an ill omen). Because of this, he has little self-esteem and is mainly working in the memory of his father and not himself. Due to his wealth, he is uncertain of the motives people have for hanging around him, not knowing if they really enjoy his company or just his money. In any case, he doesn't outwardly voice his concerns, thinking this may be the only way to socialize with other people instead of family members. 

Zedekiah: An up-and-coming researcher, he distances himself from what he calls troublesome human emotions and puts all of his focus and effort into cold, hard logic. Because of this, Zed’s interpersonal relationships suffer as a result and, unbeknownst to him, his work. He gets all of his social skills from books and the like; when put into practice, just makes him sound creepy and robotic. He inherited his pointy ears from his mother and has heterochromia of the brown and blue variety. His build is unnaturally thin to the point where you can see the rib cage, practically skin and bones, with long spider fingers. Sometimes forgetting to feed himself, he is very much weak in terms of physical capabilities (even less so than Jeannie). 

So yeah, just some real basic stuff to get to know them better (when I'm not drawing them doing stuff, haha). I doubt anybody cares, but it's nice to post about them