Jenny Xie

• [Q&A] PEW REPORT ON TEENS AND SOCIAL MEDIA LOOKS AT PRIVACY, RACE, AND ‘SOCIAL MEDIA DIVIDE’
• [Q&A] NOWTHISNEWS’ ED O’KEEFE: MAKING VIDEO NEWS FOR MOBILE ‘CHANGES EVERYTHING’
• WHAT’S HOLDING BACK RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN? ADVERTISING
  
• TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS STILL SUBJECT TO DIGITAL, INCOME DIVIDES
• TUMBLR TO PUBLISHED BOOK? TUMBLR ITSELF NOW NURTURING AUTHORS
• [STORIFY] THE STORY OF #ELECTION2012 TOLD THROUGH TWITTER
• HOW STARTUP MAGAZINES CROWDFUND, CROWDSOURCE, AND HOLD ONTO PRINT 
• HOW NEW INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES CAN SHAKE UP YOUR WEB-BROWSING EXPERIENCE
• [STORIFY] THE BEST WIT, WISDOM AND INSIDE DIRT FROM #OLYMPICS ATHLETES ON TWITTER 
• [STORIFY] BIGGEST OLYMPIC GRIPES ON SOCIAL MEDIA: LOLO JONES, #NBCFAIL, DOPING, EMPTY SEATS

• [Q&A] ARCHITECTURE@MIT: MORE THAN OBJECTS - PART I, PART II 
• [FILM REVIEW] ONE DAY DEXTER MET EMMA…And Lone Scherfig takes charge of the uncharted future that follows 
• [FEATURE] SCHOOL HOUSE BRINGS ETHICAL FASHION TO MIT 
• [FILM REVIEW] RED CLIFF - AN EPIC OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 
• [FILM REVIEW] (UNTITLED) IS A PLEASANT CACOPHONY - But is it Art?  

• HOW MIT STUDENTS ARE TRYING TO CHANGE EDUCATION
• FALLING IN LOVE WITH A LANGUAGE AT MIT
• THE UNLIKELY CANDIDATE
• I CAME, I SAW, I STIRFRIED
• 3 THINGS WE DON’T REMEMBER ENOUGH
• BE YOURSELF OR CREATE YOURSELF?
• A PLOT TWIST
• THE WAY WE LIVE
• THE POST-MIT TRAJECTORY
• WE ARE ARTISTS AND WRITERS
• OUR HOMEWORK IS TO GO CAMPING
• THAT FEAR OF FALLING BEHIND 
• CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
• THEY SAY YOU LEARN MORE BY LIVING ABROAD 
• LIGHTS
• ACCOUNTABILITY
• FACT: ARCHITECTURE MAJORS HAVE TO CODE
• DIARY OF AN ALL-NIGHTER
• STORY OF A LIFESTYLE
• MIT GOES APE 
• 10 THINGS I LEARNED FIRST SEMESTER 
• AFTERMATH

[COMPLETE ARCHIVES]

• [FALL 2011] BEIJING’S SUBURBAN EXPANSION: CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF A CLASHING ARCHITECTURAL AND SOCIAL LANDSCAPE 

Spring 2012 | This design for an elementary school in East Boston is a mat system of interconnected, elevated spaces that peak up for intra-school programmatic needs and plunge down to engage with the greater community. 

Spring 2011 | Project Partner: Angela Wang | This goal of this project is to produce a field system capable of transformations and self-assembly through the aggregation of oscillating units. 

Spring 2011 | Through manual Rhinoceros modeling and Python scripting, this project models the fundamental feedback mechanism in oscillating chemical reactions, which is when one process proceeds until reaching a critical point, thereby kickstarting a second and  opposite process. Taking bounding boxes of various geometries as external stimulants, this system describes how a single object can grow in a spatial oscillating reaction, creating planar and structural patterns in the process.  

March 2013 | 35 mm print 

c-mart | March 2013 | 35 mm print 

Rayogram Dreamscapes | February 2013 | Rayogram prints 

(Images are adapted from these dreamlog sketches.) 

Into the Light (2011) | Beijing, China | Digital Photograph 

“Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? “- 21st Century China. ll digital photograph 

Schizophrenic in Paris ll color pencils & markers 

Controversy 2008 ll color pencils & markers 

The Golden Years ll watercolor 

Untamed Beast ll oil paint 

No Words to Say ll pencils & color pencils 

To Burgeon Anew ll markers 

Not Quite Déjà Vu ll watercolor & oil pastel 

Palpable Tension ll color pencil

How to Read the New Yorker if You’re as Backlogged As Me 

I blame spring-break-final-projects-graduation-apartmenthunting-having-fun for basically not reading any of the weekly issues of The New Yorker since late-March.

That’s a lot of issues. Paid for by my precious money. Filled with precious knowledge and experiences. I want to read everything, but I can’t even decide where to start.

I brought the stack all the way from MIT to home, where it continued to gather dust. This week, I sat with the stack in the middle of my living room and made some executive decisions.  

1. Go through each issue’s contents page
2. Find articles of interest, dog-ear articles
3. Read dog-eared articles issue by issue
4. Rip out either pieces I want to keep or relevant pieces to pass along
5. Feel better about the situation (although it’s still hard to actually dispose of the already read issues - oh the amazing covers! *tearjerker*)

I’m going to classify this as a “done is better than perfect” solution.

Anyone have other suggestions? 

I see more and more engagements and weddings…and births

and more and more deaths and RIPs…of people from childhood 

I think this is the clearest sign of “growing up” so far — the scenes I’m getting used to these days are vastly different from those of just 4 or 5 years ago, and it’s hard to imagine I was ever back there. 

From now on, it’s just watching life come full circle, over and over… 

Andrew and I are sitting at the table eating some strawberries.

Andrew: Jenny, can you search up how to eat a strawberry?

Me: I’m pretty sure you put it your mouth and bite.

But I search anyway and we come to this

“So Apparently, We’ve Been Eating Strawberries All Wrong” 

Me: How did you know there was another way? 

Andrew: ‘Cause there’s always a better way on the Internet!

#LessonsForLife

Today was the first truly free Saturday I had in a long time. No lingering obligations and just before big time apprehension of the next adventure sets in. 

I had little idea that it was going to be such a Great (enjoyable, relaxing, fulfilling) day while the hours unfolded - otherwise, I would’ve begun devising a way to Instagram the whole freaking thing, to panorama it minute-to-minute if you will. 

Just kidding, there was social media involved. In fact, a highlight was when I introduced my brother to Vine, and he was instantly coming up ways to do magic with it.

Anyways, I woke up at 9:30, a lukewarm hour somewhere between “I go went to MIT” and “I’m in the real world (for a Saturday, anyway)”. Showered. Ate breakfast, Nutella included. Read a few pieces in an old-ish issue of The New Yorker, clipped one out because I’m planning to mail it to a friend; reviving old-school-ness makes me happy I guess. Disguised escaping-to-the-track-field-a-5-minute-walk-away-and-reading-my-Kindle-under-the-sun as “going outside for fresh air”, and came home just in time for my dad’s homemade wontons. My brother finally comes back from Chinese school, and we proceed to use our respective iDevices. I somehow went from watching haul videos on Youtube to showing Andrew Vine. Social media doesn’t quite clench onto my brother as it does to me; he drags me out again to play frisbee. We stay an hour. Once home and refreshened, it was time for a fundraiser dinner at the high school cafeteria; Andrew would be serving as waiter for the first 2.5 hours and playing in the middle school jazz ensemble for the last half. After a 4-course meal and a most comprehensive sampling of this town’s young musical talent, we returned home and decided it’s movie night and the movie will be Matilda (always the best).

Now that’s all over and I’m sitting here, trying to remember this day forever. The levity. Comfort. Family. Community. Going through a day with not much planned and coming to realize near the end that, actually, very many pieces of Good Things happened.

So now really, at the end of the day, those Good Things are afloat and swirling in my mind, which at the same time, is moving onto bigger-picture things like I really love my brother and maybe life in suburbia is what I would like after all. But before those pieces of Good Things turn into fears, worries, stress about the future again, I’ll just conclude by saying Praise the Lord. 

i need to read.

a lot.

and KNOW STUFF.

and THINK.

THINKING IS THE HARDEST PART.

always.

I only have room for things in my life that feel great and have purpose. No matter how cool something is, if it doesn’t pass my checklist I’m running the other way. 

- Pharrell Williams | Fast Company December 2012/January 2013

inmexico:

Observing inverse relationships

Chloé 

(via Garance Doré)

Leaving Boston … :(

Whoa studio

These maps of how Americans speak English differently are super interesting. I completely match central Jersey norms. 

Gonna miss this view :( #boston

toumin:

itscarororo:

htfcuddles:

WANT

this is a classy fucking coffee table

floppy table

uh……YES PLEASE.

#boston

someone pimp my ride like this — seen at Kendall

Empty campus post-storm #lonelysenior

wired:

shortformblog:

laughingsquid:

A Tweet of a Vine of an Instagram of a Tumblr Post of a Facebook Post of a Tweet

And here’s a reblog of that same tweet of a vine of an Instagram of a Tumblr Post of a Facebook Post of a Tweet. No big deal.

That moment when social media makes your head exploooooode.

I’m losing it.