(3/10) Prototyping and more writing
What did I do this week:
Met with Benedetta
Wrote most of Chapter 3 for my autoethnography
Made prototypes of my zine
Made prototypes of my Chinese New Year Cards
Met with Benedetta
Finally met with my secondary advisor, Benedetta, this week. I started by giving a brief summary of what my thesis is about what I am planning on doing. From there she gave me some advice that I found useful.
If having a party is the end goal, having a test party after making all of my artifacts will help to determine if the created artifacts work well in a party setting
Since Chinese New Year is about coming together, it would be a good idea to have the party be a potluck style so people can participate in organizing the party. This will make them feel like they have a stake in it and might even encourage them to research a little more about it.
Wrote most of Chapter 3 for my autoethnography
The majority of my work last week was in writing my autoethnography. This chapter is about the offering rites and rituals we conduct around the time of Chinese New Year. It’s the part of the festival that I am the least familiar with and also the one that contains the most rules. I did a lot of research, again, by texting my family and asking about what specific things they do. It was a fulfilling and curious thing to learn, but what I feel like I will do now is never do them. It has made me really reflect a lot about what I want to bring with me forward into the future, and I don’t think Chinese god worship will follow. I know I would like to pay my respects to my ancestors, but perhaps not in the way that it’s currently being done.
Made prototypes of my zine
The other 50% of my time for thesis last week went into prototyping my zine. The file was a quick mockup on Figma, which I do not recommend anyone do if they are actually going to do when they print out the final. This prototype was mostly to mock up what it might look like in the end, decide if I want to do volumes or all in one, and the size of the overall zine. I found it really helpful to do, but also it made me realize there was a bunch of stuff I was confused about. Most of Friday was spent watching Youtube videos of how to set up a risograph zine. But I did come to a few key decisions:
The size of the zine will be 5’’x7.5’’
I will most likely have 3 volumes: intro and chapter 1, chapter 2 & 3, and chapter 4
I will need to play around with the illustration files and layout for a long time
Made prototypes of my Chinese New Year Cards
Lastly, in my spare time, I worked on my conversation card idea. These would be used in the party or sent to guests as little prompt cards. I’m hoping to be able to use them for a variety of different uses such as planning, aiding conversation, education, and spreading awareness. I have chosen them to be standard taro card size, but I’m not sure yet what they will look like. A vague idea I have is for them to function similarly with tarot cards where you put down as many cards are you like under a specific category so that you can try out a new ritual each year.