Networking

In DIR this week we discussed how to establish credibility. Tom suggested to give "seeds" to people by allowing them to find out about you from more than one direction. I think this is could be difficult to accomplish. I suppose it might mean just giving yourself every opportunity to be seen, and then hoping that word of mouth will play its part. It may also mean being strategic in choosing the right people to speak to. It all goes back to selling yourself, which means making sure anything which represents you, does so as you wish it to.

In relation to the project Tom said it was important to actually sell our idea in the presentation, as they are more likely to be convinced to back the project if we believe in it ourselves.

The Price Is Right

On Tuesday morning our DIR group had a meeting with Tom to discuss our idea in a bit more depth. One of the key words he mentioned was legacy. This was in terms of what we wanted the outcomes of our research to lead to i.e. what it would mean for the community in the long run, or what it could mean for other communities.

It seems that for this project he is really wanting us to work out the mechanics of conducting a research project, and really consider how much time things take and what the costs of various tasks may be. My first reaction is that I'm not great at doing this, and I agreed with Brandi in that I was always pretty terrible when playing along to The Price Is Right. Attempting to guess the price of things often requires a bit of knowledge on the matter, so I suppose doing research into the area will help this.

Nice to see you, to see you... nice

Hopefully I'll be better suited to help out in other areas of the proposal. However we were also encouraged to find out for ourselves how much it would cost for different tasks, for instance enquiring how much it would cost to include a documentary filmmaker in the process. As Tom put it at the end "it's not rocket science" as these things can all be worked out.

Ethnography and Architectural Design

While browsing the Anthrodesign group for examples of ethnographic fieldwork used in an urban/public space environment I came across a few interesting questions which led to suggested reading and links. I found a link to this Space and Place listserv as well, and I've tried signing up to it although it seems a bit complicated.

At Peter Merholz's blog peterme.com I found an old post, which talks about the value that anthropological thought can bring to the design world. In the post he mentioned an architectural firm MKThink, who had used an anthropologist to help them "move beyond standard architectural practice and consider ethnography as a method toward constructing better built environments". I think they might be worth contacting in relation to my project, possibly just to gain a better sense of the role that ethnography could play in urban design.

MKThink designed the new AT&T Park concourse

I think I'd like to explore this idea in the Summer. I'm keen to see how ethnography can be used to help design the environments we live in - from public parks to city centres.

Creative collaboration in the community

Our group in the DIR module have been shaping our research proposal. We had originally been looking at the idea of a neighbourhood swap shop, where communities would share and trade skills etc.

Yesterday the idea altered slightly, we are still looking at engaging a community in collaboration however I think it is now more concerned with creativity, and looking at ways to rejuvenate a community through social networks.

I think we are all a happier with this angle, the passion was somewhat down on last week for the skill swapping idea, plus we felt it would be difficult to find an innovative approach as there are already quite a few examples along the same lines.

From doing a bit of research into this new idea, and combined with the general research I've been doing for my 3rd semester project I'm beginning to find some research fields that I'm really interested in. I think it could be really valuable to use design thinking in contexts such as urban/community planning, and also utilise the methods available to involve the people of that community within the process.

I think through community participation and inclusion people can really get a sense of ownership of a space, and this has great potential for expansion into a variety of contexts.

Butterfly Minded

This week in DIR we critiqued the list of research proposals we had come up with by putting them through a framework. The point Tom made about the sheets being a form of knowledge management was useful. As he said, a mind map can be a good way of brainstorming, but is less useful at recording the ideas. A week later the data might not still make sense. Even if filling in the sheets can be tedious at times.

Our group went through the sheets and seemed to gravitate towards the community swap shop idea. Although some of the other ideas that might be just as good are rejected, Tom said that these can be put away in a box of "future projects". This could be useful for me as I often find that during a project I come across other really interesting subjects, and I have to refrain from going off on a tangent. Catriona described this likely trait in ethnographers as being "butterfly minded". I suppose it's my habitually curious nature that led me to study design ethnography in the first place.

I'm still not sure if it's a strength or weakness yet. I like the fact that I am inquisitive and try to learn about everything, and when researching a subject I look around for all the connections and related material. However sometimes I feel it might prevent me from understanding a specific subject in any depth, and at other times it will lead me away from the route I should be following.