Ametrica!: An Interview With Amy Wang

Amy Wang's graduate thesis project, Ametrica!, was recently honored as a winner in the Adobe Design Achievement Awards. Amy is a recent graduate from the School of Visual Arts MFA Designer as Author program. She discusses her process of discover and her intention to spread the message that the U.S. should adopt the metric system.

Hunt: First, what is "Ametrica!"?

Wang: "Ametrica!" is an awareness campaign to help convert the United States to the metric system. No one thinks about an act as routine as measuring, much less the impact it can have on education, economy, and health. Through bold numbers and subtle humor, viewers are initially invited to interact with the pieces and their environment such that they experience metric units directly, rather than through comparison with customary units (which perpetuates the problem of dependency on the old units). Those intrigued by the issue are then directed to visit the Ametrica! website for more information, interactive components, and motion graphics experiences.

Hunt: What led you to pursue the tremendous task of changing a country's measurement system?

Wang: My class was asked to turn in thesis ideas even before the fall of our thesis year. Throughout the entire summer, I hurt my brain trying to find meaningful topics in everyday life, but I couldn't come up with anything. So I ended up submitting the idea I had at the beginning of the summer, one I blurted out in a moment of jest. Many of my classmates are international students. They're from Norway, Mexico, Venezuela, Turkey, Korea. All of those countries work in the metric system, so when these guys came to the States they struggled with the units here. On my part, I found it extremely aggravating that I couldn't hold simple conversations with them sometimes--not because of any language barriers, but because  in fact we couldn't find numerical equivalents! Numbers are numbers. There's not the leeway we have when translating words; we can almost always go around words with other ones. But we check the forecast everyday, and note a difference of even one degree. How could my friends and I, sitting in a bar, be expected to whip out calculators to figure out what we mean when someone says, yes, it was so hot, it went up to forty degrees! In one such moment of aggravation, I growled, someone should convert the U.S. to the metric system. It seems impossible, it seems over-the-top ambitious, and rather insane. But really, I stuck to it because I couldn't come up with another idea.

Hunt: The project evolved out of a real experience. There's what seems to be one of those inevitable happy accidents in the name of your project, Ametrica! Can you explain the process of how you came to that name?

Wang: I wanted the name to be very self-explanatory, but for a while didn't work very hard on it because the right name wasn't coming along naturally. I figured I'd know when it came along, and that's how it happened. One day a classmate suggested that there must be a way to combine the idea of the meter and the name of our country, and started playing with some combinations. The light bulb went off in my head immediately, and Ametrica! was born. I'm sure if it had been her project she would have figured out the name right from the beginning. I then wavered with the exclamation point, but only a bit--it says everything you need to know about the tone of the campaign. And that light-hearted, winking aspect is quite central to Ametrica!

Hunt: What has winning the Adobe Design Achievement Award meant to you? Has it opened in new doors?

Wang: It was so recent, and so unexpected, that I haven't figured out the extent of its significance. People say it's a great thing to list on the resume; I guess I'll find out soon enough when I start looking for my first full-time job as a designer. Winning an award such as this one could also be the kind of accomplishment that really boosts one's self-confidence, but being who I am, it just makes me extra wary about keeping up with expectations (others', and my own) in the future.

What has meant quite a lot me, and has been an experience I can call one the most wonderful in my life, was meeting the other Adobe finalists and having the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel three weeks with them. After an awards ceremony held in Toronto this year, Adobe invited us to continue traveling at their expense to attend the Siggraph conference in Boston and the ZeroOne conference in San Jose. At Siggraph, we interned for Guerilla Studio and were asked to design them a signage system in two days. Lyn Bishop from Guerilla Studio said to me, didn't you win the Environmental Design category? Well then, you can be in charge of the group! I looked sheepishly at my fellow finalists as she kept introducing me to other members of the Guerilla Studio as Amy Wang, environmental designer, while these extremely talented designers grinned back, fortunately in understanding. In the end we plopped ourselves down on the carpet right in the hallway and brainstormed for an hour, using whatever pens and scraps of paper we could find. Rather guerilla style. You could feel the cheerful humming of our minds. The discussion went beautifully, with the best idea floating effortlessly to consensus. In the end we came up with not only a concept for their signage, but also a new logo for Guerilla Studio.

Working together under an extremely tight deadline allowed us to become closer because we had to rely on each other's strengths, often so different from our own. At the same time it allowed us to admire these strengths, which we had perceived only indirectly through the exhibits of our work at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. In our free time, which wasn't much after helping out at the conference during the day, we played lots of soccer--incidentally, my peers were once again quite international, and they, of course, found Ametrica! a sensible idea. We cooked many meals together, we got up the next morning at 7 together. We breathed together. In California the soccer was replaced by beach volleyball, and by that time I couldn't imagine existing any other way. Pack mentality, someone called it. But of course it ended. One by one, we caught our flights home, and we sang each other off the same way we'd sung to greet each other earlier during the trip. It was so, so hard. Just by being with them, I've learned much about collaborating; become more aware of my strengths and my weaknesses; and gained a tiny bit more understanding of design concerns, emphases, and approaches across the globe. I'd like to think all of this will help me become a better designer.

Hunt: Certainly the whole experience will coalesce and inform your future work. What do you see as the next step in the Ametrcia! project?

Wang: While in San Jose, I got a call from Sappi--I'm receiving the grant I applied for to print and distribute the Ametrica! pitch book. So for the next six months, I will be working to get this book out. With any luck I will also have a job to pay for a roof over my head and a few meals here and there!

Hunt: I doubt that will be a problem. Congrats!

Comments

[Tom]

haha lazy foreigners. Learn both systems. Suck it up. I have sets of wrenches, sockets, etc. in both systems. I sometimes work in metric. I also sometimes work in picas and points. Learn the language, learn the system, and for the love of God drive on the right side of the road! =) (yes I've seen that) IF I went to another country, I'd be expected to learn their laws, unit system, and language. I like this "campaign" as a design piece. I think the idea is interesting for education. I think it is also a slap in American culture's face. We give awards for this? (I'm not a mean person and I don't mean to be rude here, but you wouldn't want me coming into your home and start moving your furniture around and painting your walls a different color)

[Amy]

Hi Tom,

Through your comments you indirectly raise a good point: because I completed it in design school, the Ametrica! project has been viewed primarily in terms of design, and not so much in terms of the economic, educational, and other implications for choosing one system, or the other, or both. Also, because I submitted only one aspect of the campaign to a specific category in the Adobe competition, it's hard for you to see why it may be beneficial for the U.S. to consider converting—information that would appear in campaign mediums such as a website or printed matter that allow more in-depth explanations.

In the research I did half a year before designing the campaign, I found many—astonishingly many—reasons compelling me to go ahead with this project. The fact I wasn't familiar with the data only convinced me more that what we need an awarenes campaign. Without regurgitating my entire thesis right here on this blog, I will attempt to summarize some of the points:

1. The measurement system we use isn't American; it's a legacy of British colonialism. If you look through world history for other countries that used the English system, you find countries such as India, South Africa, Jamaica, Australia, Canada, to name a few. I say "used" because all of these countries have since decided to go with the metric system instead—including Britain. If you look through American history, you'll find many U.S. leaders favoring the metric system as well. John Quincy Adams called metric conversion a change "devoutly to be wished"; Lincoln went ahead and legalized the metric system; Thomas Jefferson wanted to at least redefine 1 foot to equal 10 inches. In more recent history you have both Democrat Carter and Republican Bush (Sr.) taking legislative action to further the metric system.

2. Having two measurement systems in the world is inefficient and costly. The entire world uses one numeral system, so it's easy to make mistakes when we see numbers and assume they're in a particular unit when they're not. In 1999 the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed precisely because NASA scientists assumed they were in metric units, while Lockheed Martin had built the spacecraft thinking something else. On a more personal scale, it doesn't make sense for you, Tom, to have to pay twice for the tools you own, or to spend your valuable free time studying up on a second measurement system. Manufacturers encounter the same problem, multiplied to an enormous scale. Same for American students, who typically have to struggle with both systems throughout school. In an era where U.S. students are scoring below the international average in math and science, and more and more frequently our news headlines pointing out that the U.S. is losing its technological edge over other countries because of a poor math and science foundation, is having to learn an extra system of measurement a good way to get ahead?

3. Fine, you say, so let's be efficient and streamlined and get rid of one system. Why not the metric one?

The first reason would be, because the U.S., Liberia, and Myanmar are the only three countries left in the world that still haven't committed to changing to the metric system. Everyone else trades in metric—goods, services, information. We're the ones at a disadvantage. Of course, the U.S. wields great economic power, but we can see where other economic superpowers exist, and can imagine that they'd want to protect their interests. The European Union, for example, has signed an agreement to ban all dually labeled products in 2010. Even the U.S. Department of Commerce admits that by not converting, "we are imposing a trade barrier on our own goods."

The second reason is that many sectors already use the metric system as an international standard, from science to medicine to the military to the auto industry (yes, the auto industry), and more: you are undoubtedly familiar with 35 mm film, or 750 mL wine bottles. If you've ever skied, the skis are measured in centimeters, while pen and pencil nibs are measured in millimeter widths. The watts of your lightbulb are also metric. The U.S. Army went metric after supplying allies in WWII with incompatible shells. Since it has little direct dealing with the public, the problem was resolved then, but for a field such as medicine, the fact that the public uses a different measure from doctors and pharmacists continues to cause dangerous situations such as overdosage. Conforming to an international standard can help avoid these mistakes.

My "lazy foreigner" friends struggle, but they're not the ones telling me to convert the U.S. I am the one behind the campaign. I'm simply sharing what I've learned over the course of my research, which had the power to convince me that metric conversion is to our country's benefit. I believe in this sincerely, and would not have spent my master's degree designing a slap on your or anyone else's face.

[Sam]

Just because we live with and accept our current measurement system doesn't make it the best. It is American stubbornness (and laziness) that causes us to be less efficient at home and at work. Forcing ourselves to make tedious conversions is a waste of time and money. Why should we "do things our own way", and force ourselves to learn more than one system? Is it a slap in American culture's face to call for a higher standard and a more efficient way of living? Amy is taking on a task that most other Americans are too complacent to face, and is deservedly awarded for doing so.

[Rebeca Fiallo]

We would be very interested to know how to contact Ms Amy Wang. We have an educational newspaper.

[Randy J. Hunt]

Amy can be contacted at awang(at)sva.edu

Replace (at) with @.

[JLH]

maybe the wearing of a button and/or a t-shirt and/or a graphic that can be posted on people's blogs/websites/myspaces on international metric day? all over the USA along with meetups/films/et. al.

[topher]

I don't understand why that bag is labeled with a measurement of mass instead of volume. Is it explained in the subtext? Could you show/tell us what the subtext says?

[Team]

I like this "campaign" as a design piece. I think the idea is interesting for education. I think it is also a slap in American culture's face. We give awards for this? (I'm not a mean person and I don't mean to be rude here, but you wouldn't want me coming into your home and start moving your furniture around and painting your walls a different color)

More like a slap in the face of hypocrisy and self-absorption. I suppose designers should ignore the issue of the death penalty, too, lest they offend the "leader of the free world" and it's main ally, Saudi Arabia?

In any case, the ADA's are design awards, not a political convention. Ametrica won because it was a well designed and effective campaign, not because Adobe loves the Metric system.

Amy should be commended for tackling otherwise boring and utilitarian subject matter in such a way that is both beautiful and informative.

[Ross]

topher: I imagine that since paper is a flexible material, but of course liable to rip under too much force, then the mass is a more crucial limit than the volume. Indeed, a quick Google search finds that many paper bag manufacturers sell their product by the mass they can safely hold, rather than by volume.

[Diorist]

Next, she can go to England, where she can spearhead the "Drive Right!" campaign to get those pesky British drivers to switch lanes for good. Followed by the, "Speak English, Damn You!" campaign that (finally) teaches Eastern European peasants to give intelligible directions to the nearest pub, like they do in all other civilized countries.

Like it's really that difficult to multiply by 5/9ths.