(2/10) Meetings, drawing, writing, and introspection
What did I do this week?
Met with Ahmed and Dan for my thesis meetings
Finished writing Chapter 2 of 4 for my autoethnography
Had an introspection session on what I want to create, for whom, and why
Thesis Advisor Meetings
This week I met with 2/3 of my thesis advisors: Ahmed and Dan. Most of my discussions centered around what design artifact I wanted to create, which is easier said than done. I’m the kind of person who feels like I have more ideas than directions, but at the same time, I feel as if nothing I make will be useful to the community. What else can I contribute to a cultural festival that is over 3000 years old? I also have a fear that since a lot of my thesis is based on my own experience, making something just for myself would be a little selfish. So anyway, there’s a lot of apprehensions there. But I found my chat with Dan about these concerns to be super helpful. It’s nice to be reminded that culture and the experience of culture are inherently selfish since it is always through the experience of a single person. It was also nice to hear that even if I make something specifically for myself, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that it would also be exactly what someone else might need. Because what I want to make is for a type of experience and not a specific individual (immigrants and children of immigrants), it is more than likely that someone else might want to use it. So…yeah
Dan’s biggest comment was to think about who the artifact will be for and really think about what they need. Also, since I already know some people like these I can just think of a bunch of ideas and ask them. Another thing that stuck with me from that meeting was his story of a party he went to. The party had a raffle, but instead of gifts some of the raffle prizes were gifts of time. I found that really impactful because it’s a way to bring people together and start conversations — which is something I would also like my artifact to do. Lastly, since I am basing this around my experience, another good idea is to think about what is the best version of Lunar New Year for me and how do I get there? Once I have that image, I would just work backward.
My meeting with Ahmed was a little less emotional and more strategic. I presented my current ideas to him and asked for his opinion on which he liked best. My planning tool idea was kind of struck down immediately, which I kind of expected. But my card game idea has some good feedback. Not for the card game element itself, but the fact that it was something that could bring people together. Ahmed then introduced me to the concept of focal(? - not actually sure if that’s what it’s called) artifacts. Essentially, these are artifacts that are specifically created to require energy and time to upkeep from a community of people, thus bringing them together. The example he gave was of a Nest thermostat and a fireplace. With modern thermostats, you just set it and forget about it. The thermostat when autonomously heats up your entire home. The fireplace on the other side requires someone to go out and get wood, in some cases chop it up and someone to start the fire and maintain it. Not only that, it only keeps one room warm and thus forces everyone to huddle together in the same room. Because of the required proximity, other activities such as stories and smores making are created from this one designed artifact, the fireplace. I find that kind of beautiful. And I hope whatever I create has such an effect.
Some other things we talked about were the nature of the Lunar New Year celebration itself — its connection with the Chinese zodiac, how it is repeated in a sense every 12 years but also how it is repeated every 60 years, how many small rituals in Chinese New Year is connected to a much larger thing, and so on and so forth. What was funny to me during the meeting was when Ahmed mentioned how so much of the rituals in CNY seemed to be for the dead and not the living. I actually laughed out loud, I had never thought of that before. Ahmed ended the meeting by emphasizing that no matter what I make, it is made from my perspective — an insider into Thai-Chinese culture. Thus, whatever I make, it will provide valuable insight to whoever reads it because they are not me.
Finished writing Chapter 2 of my autoethnography and planned illustrations
I finished writing chapter 2 of my autoethnography about วันจ่าย. It’s the day you buy all the things needed for Chinese New Year. It’s technically the first day of Chinese New Year celebrations in Thailand,d but I have never found anyone who does everyone in one day. That would be wildly impractical. Anyways, I focused less on what to buy and more on what the process of buying and preparation looks like. I think the shopping list is best introduced to the readers as an illustration instead. The research for this section was fun. Mostly because it wasn’t something I’m really familiar with, so it was a lot of back and forth messaging on LINE with my aunt in Thailand. She is very enthusiastic about my project and has been a lot of help. As part of my writing, I also took notes of subjects and scenes that will do well in illustration. So I have a bunch of ideas for illustrations planned out for chapter 2.
Introspection Session
Following meetings with Dan and Ahmed, I sat down and had a long introspection session with myself. It was more of a free-writing hour to help me get started. Questions I asked included: Who am I making this for? What do they feel? What would 18-year old me want? What questions will I have in my mind when I look over my research. And etc. I found this writing session really useful and it helped me ask more questions that I didn’t think of before. After writing this on paper, I digitized it on to FigJam so that I could expand on my ideas and have the space to ask myself more questions.
Next steps:
Decide on design direction
Make information architecture and mood board for design artifact
Write Chapter 3 of autoethnography
Meet with Benedetta
Analyze survey and probes I have received so far