Final Week!

Most of the CRD site is completed at this stage, thankfully! I think I've documented my project quite well and am happy with the extent of research that I've completed. I'm starting to make a portfolio of all the collected material, in the form of a book with a few pages explaining each item and then the actual materials- postcards, photos, cultural probe books, posters and journey.

I thought this would be the easiest way of containing a lot of loose bits of paper and photos and should be easy enough to flick through. Just a few more days of polishing final material..

Progress

I 've completed my website design and am doing to tedious task of organising the content for it. I've tried to keep on top of documenting information the whole way through but still have a backlog of unwritten material that explains my process and reasoning.

Last week I took a a few photos of an arm with a sort of mind map of fears on it. I wanted to show a part of a person to represent the participants but more importantly show the connections between fears that I've discovered. This worked out really well and the image will be used on my site and probably for my final piece, in some form.

It is coming close to the time when I'll have to make a decision on my final outcome for the project. I'm coming closer to achieving what I wanted to but am still unsure of what physical form the outcome will take. I'd like it to be an interacitve piece to communicate fears and their relationship with each other and people.

Documentation

I carried another another small experiment to find out more about different environments. I made a open fronted box with two lanes for people to add to when they pass by. One lane is for anxiety and the other contentedness and I've asked for people to add a ball to a lane depending on how they feel at that time. I really just wanted to see what reaction this would have, it's a bit of a prototype for something that could be digital and a tool for sharing information. IT was quite successful in that people did participate but I'm not sure how realistic the results were..

That will be the last research method that I use, there are 3 weeks before I have to present my project in the CRD website and I'd like to spend that time making sure I clearly portray the project, it's intentions and the outcomes. I think I'll have to take some time to read over the collected material very thoroughly and figure out exactly what I have learned form it.

Representing participants

How to represent participants in the final outcome? My plan is to portray the fears of participants in a visual way, maybe showing connections between their fears or where they stem from. I've got some quite in-depth material and not sure how this will fit into this idea. I need to find a strong image that shows what my project is about and to create an aesthetic that I can use to relate all my work together.

I'd like to this to include a person of some sort but anonymously.. I don't really know how to show a persons fear or anxiety through an image so will have to think a bit more about what fears are common and how this could maybe be shown.

CRD

The website submission for this project has to show the process from start to end in a concise manner. I think it's going to be difficult to communicate a lot of the work that I have done because the only way is by writing about it. This could prove to be repetitive and a bit boring, I'm going to start trying to document lots of visual material of the experiments that I've done and their locations.

I'll have to tell the process like a story to show the progression and development. I htink it's most important to get accross the approach of the project and what I aim to gain from this. I'm trying to discover the ways in which anxiety is restrictive in society especially in public situations.

I'd like to think I'm investigating social interactions by challenging how people reveal personal things in public.

Posters

I've designed posters to put up in confined spaces. I made them a bit tongue n cheek because I plan to put some up in toilet cubicles and think that poeple probably won't take part if they think take it too seriously. I'm also thinking of puting them in lifts and narrow corridors to gauge the feelings of the public passing through.

I've completed the 'journey' documenting places of anxiousness and how people around affect this. I didn't make it too personal by adding my own thoughts, I just laid out photos and maps with the information on. I like the way this has worked it, it shows a lot of information. clearly.

Focus group

I've arranged another focus group for Wednesday of this week with four people. I've written questions on cards and will use them to prompt an informal discussion about different environments and situations that cause anxiety. Also a few questions about communicating in public places and how this affects anxious feelings.

I did a bit of a brainstorm last week to come up with other ways to get information from the public in busy or claustrophobic areas.. I'd still like all the methods to be anonymous and so was thinking along the lines of posters or another way to record thoughts when passing by. I 'd also like to get some video footage of participants talking about their thoughts.