Gaining insights and ideas

What I did this week

Tested more screenprinting with the risograph machine
Interviewed more people about their relationship with Chinese New Year
Finished Reading Boys will be Boys
Reviewed outline that my mom helped finish and resources my mom gave me about Thai-Chinese New Year celebrations
Reflections on what type of things I would want to make next semester

Risograph

This week, I was able to book more time on the risograph machine to work out some color mixing issues I had during my previous test run. The main issue I was having issues on paper alignment and working the color mixing on the paper. After a few tries, I was able to get the colors to mix the way that I wanted them to! Success! Now onto the harder part of designing what I want to actually print on the machine.

To get started, I researched how different artists designed their riso prints. Essentially, everyone does it a little differently. However, the main point of conversion was that everyone eventually turns their different layers in their digital artwork into grayscale. This is because the risograph only prints one color at a time and the difference in opacity is how different color values are printed on the paper. The color mixing is created by combining the different colors layers (each a different grayscale layer) and printing them on top of another. Traditionally, this is done in Photoshop. After watching Sha’an d'Anthes’ Instagram highlight about her riso making process, I was able to reverse engineer her file layering and color overlay blending mode. This will allow me to do a fake riso print right on my computer and I would be able to see the color printing digitally before I take it to the printer.

However, I don’t really like to use Photoshop for illustrating. I find it quite clunky. I knew I wanted to try to create my illustrations on my iPad using the Procreate software. However, Procreate doesn’t have the same color overlay options as Photoshop does, so I did some research and found some promising videos with instructions on how to do this color overlay option.

Lastly, one thing that only occurred to me for the first time was the plastic waste that riso printing created. I didn’t realize there was so much until I saw the TA clearing out the master print bin. It made me feel bad that I had wasted so much plastic doing my little experiments when it could have been used to print more meaningful things. Moving forward, I am going to keep in mind the amount of waste generated through each new print and make sure that each time I create a new print is it the most efficiently least-wasteful as possible.

Interviews

I was able to interview three more people this week and it’s become clearer to me now that this is the correct step to head in. I feel like with each new person I interview, I learn so much more than by reading and the subject that I am studying becomes more nuanced each time. For example, I have learned a lot about how people view the same festival. How each person has a different meaning attached to the holiday and different levels of importance on different things. These interviews have definitely helped me be the most insightful so far and are helping me generate a lot of different ideas about what I would like to do to address different problems I am hearing about so far. I also really liked hearing about all the different ways people celebrate based on where they came from. I had always known the celebrations were different, but I didn’t realize that they were so diverse. There were also some talks among the people I talked to about how they wanted to change the name to be Lunar New Year as to be more inclusive of other Asian cultures that celebrate Lunar New Year, which is what Chinese New Year essentially is. There were concerns expressed that by keeping the festival to be known as Chinese New Year would further perpetuate the American stereotype that all Asians in the United States are Chinese when that’s not true.

Since I’ve only been able to do four people, I don’t feel comfortable starting analyzing my data quite yet. I think I would like to do at least twenty interviews first before I start dissecting the data and coming up with themes and large central problems. However, already from the few people I have started interviewing, I am learning about big pain points people have which include:

The immigrant identity colliding with the cultural identity and creating a pressure (usually from the parent) to assimilate
Lack of time off to properly celebrate the holiday
Important and absence of family during Chinese New Year

Boys will be Boys by Sara Suleri Goodyear

I finished reading Boys will be Boys. I think the biggest thing I learned about writing autoethnographies from this book is how personal it was. For example, she used familial vocabulary with little explanation. These are family words that are added throughout one’s lifetime resulting from little events or inside jokes. It was interesting to watch it grow and be used throughout the book and made me feel like I was a part of the family. I also noticed how she wrote about remembering people differently than I would have expected. Instead of remembering people through the big things they did, or big events, it was all through small things. Whether it was a small ritual they had or an object that defines a person’s character, she remembered people through their little actions and things; which I felt like that gave a truly personal touch to the story and it drew me in.

After reading Boys will be Boys, I’m not sure if I will need to read Meatless Days. I think it might be better for me to read Borderlands and Blankets to expose myself to the different styles of autoethnographies rather than reading another book by the same author.

Reviewing outline and mom’s resources

My mom was able to help me fill out the outline I created for Thai-Chinese New Years. True to form, she was very succinct and didn’t provide much written help. Instead, she linked to a bunch of different websites that she approved of and said were accurate depictions of Thai-Chinese New Year rituals. I plan on reviewing them more in-depth this week and making notes on each of the things that I missed.

With this outline created, I will start writing my autoethnography. I think I will first approach this as a stream of consciousness piece of writing and edit it down later. I also think I really should interview my mom and my aunts about Chinese New Year. Because of how short her reply was, I think and talk to her to try to tease more things out of her memory.

Reflections about projects going forward

This week has definitely been the most insightful week for me so far. I feel like I learned a lot of things this week that moved me in the right direction. That being said, I now have a lot of different ideas on where I can focus further. I also have a lot of ideas of what my design work can be next semester that I’m not really sure which I want to do quite yet. Here are some ideas that I have so far

Focusing on Chinese New Year foods: How are they the same and different among different Chinese diasporic communities? Overlaying this with information about where their ancestors descended from and when. Creating some sort of website that would allow someone to learn about Chinese/Lunar New Year through food and create their own menu based on different regions
Focusing on how a single individual or small group of friends can celebrate Lunar New Year meaningfully without family
Creating an online Chinese Lunar calendar that would tell people when different festivals were coming up and what things they needs to do if they want to participate (since many young people don’t know how to read lunar calendars)
Creating a “build your own” Lunar New Year celebration kit. The user would enter a region they are from (or want to celebrate) and they can use a “easy”/normal/intensive mode. The toolkit would then output steps they can follow so that they can celebrate the festival in their own way.
An interactive Lunar New Year celebration toolkit that would also educate people as they celebrate each ritual

Next Steps

Look up more resources on designing a riso print
Test out the color overlay options on Procreate
Sketch ideas of what to include in the illustrated autoethnography
Conduct more interviews of young adult Chinese diasporic community members
Interview my mom and my aunts about their relationship to Chinese New Year
Start reading Borderland and Blankets
Review resources my mom sent me