Whakatinana Moment Week 7 & Seb Mclauchlan's Talk
Whakatinana Moment:
Today we were all involved in our first Whakatinana moment, an exercise to generate discussion with our peers from all of the design disciplines and to provide opportunities to encounter new ideas and perspectives about our major projects.
We were told we had to bring three words (mine were 'Empathy, Storytelling, Education') which would help dictate which group we would be in.
We also had to bring a 'thing' to show our peers that might represent where we're at, help generate discussion, or show where we would like critique.
Karl
As our group was getting to know each other after being placed together by Mark, Karl came over and asked us what each of our projects were about. His advice to me was that instead of diving straight into talking about the specifics of my project I should introduce myself as an empathetic designer who is questioning/proposing; "How can design... influence social change?".
Josie
After the introductions our group of four split into pairs to chat more in depth about each of our projects. I talked to Josie, a textiles student, first. Overall she thought my idea was great and she didn't have much to add apart from wondering how I will get the info/message/product to the intended audience. She suggested that if it was a book about horse behaviour and stories from horses' points of view then only horsey people would want to read it, so could it be something that people had to be tested on forcing them to read it (which I'm not sure I agree with as although this is an issue that needs to be addressed I think giving it its own test is going a bit overboard). She then also had the idea that the book could have a sticker/tear out that people who own the book can use to promote/show their support for the campaign, perhaps sticking it on their vehicle or horse float, which I thought was an awesome idea and something I had definitely not considered.
Maisie
I paired up with Maisie, a photography student, next. She thought my topic was very strong as she rides horses and knows from personal experience how much of a problem this is in New Zealand, so she was excited to see someone addressing the issue. She loved that I was using horse behaviour to explain to the audience why they need to change the way they interact with horse riders on the road rather than just coming at the issue finger shaking, using scare tactics, or being too serious, as she thinks that's what turns people right off. She agrees with me that what I need to work on now is deciding how to get the information to the people in a way they will engage with, but she didn't really have any good ideas of how to do this apart from perhaps videos. The challenge is trying to get non-horsey people interested in a horse issue.
Molly
Lastly I spoke with Molly, a spacial student. This conversation frustrated me and left me feeling down about my project a bit as Molly just really didn't understand why my topic might be an issue. She thought that I should focus on cyclists as she believes that would be a more useful project, whereas I believe there is already plenty being done in New Zealand to address cyclist safety, but nothing is being done for horse riders' safety. I guess in a way this just showed me that there is a need for my project though as there are so many people in New Zealand (the majority) who are completely blind to the troubles of horse riders and don't have any empathy for them, so would probably pass them dangerously. Coming from her spacial background, another idea she had was that maybe I should be addressing the idea of road infrastructure and why horse riders need to be on the road in the first place. When I asked for her opinion of how to disseminate my message she though maybe I could look into using local governments.
Ashleigh & Sam
Our group finished early so Mark added each of us to pairs that were still chatting to make the most of our time by talking to new people. I was placed in Ashleigh and Sam's pair. We only got to speak briefly about each of our projects but they really liked my idea of an 'Equine Experience Narrative'. They thought that as long as I kept it lighthearted and humorous it would gain that emotional connection needed for the message to stick.
Through my conversations today, I have been reminded that I need to keep my project lighthearted and maybe even humorous to gain and keep the audience's attention. Perhaps this also will influence what medium I should be using as well, as I am still stuck on what is the best way to reach the people who need to be educated and persuaded to alter their behaviour. I think I have a solid theoretical knowledge foundation, but I definitely need to work on ideating what medium to use and maybe I need to do my own survey to get facts and opinions about the topic specifically in New Zealand to help me argue the issue to people like Molly (because there isn't any statistics available from Statistics New Zealand or the NZTA).
We were supposed to end the Whakatinana moment with the name of someone we either intended to have a followup conversation with or someone we had been directed to go speak to by someone we had paired with during the exercise. Although it was nice to chat to students from other disciplines, the girls had such vastly different topics from mine that I'm not sure it would be that beneficial to seek them out specifically again and they also didn't have anyone to suggest to me to go and talk to. I think I am going to post on our VCD 400 Facebook page and see if I can meet up with others doing 'influencing social change' projects as that might be more useful, especially in terms of figuring out what medium to use to disseminate my stories/message. I was a bit disappointed that for the exercise we weren't paired with people doing similar topics to us as I thought that was what the purpose of the keywords were. It was interesting to talk to people from other disciplines and exciting to hear about what they were researching and proposing etc but because we were put in groups with people doing such different topics there wasn't much sharing of resources etc.
Seb Mclauchlan's Talk Notes:
Today we were all involved in our first Whakatinana moment, an exercise to generate discussion with our peers from all of the design disciplines and to provide opportunities to encounter new ideas and perspectives about our major projects.
We were told we had to bring three words (mine were 'Empathy, Storytelling, Education') which would help dictate which group we would be in.
We also had to bring a 'thing' to show our peers that might represent where we're at, help generate discussion, or show where we would like critique.
Karl
As our group was getting to know each other after being placed together by Mark, Karl came over and asked us what each of our projects were about. His advice to me was that instead of diving straight into talking about the specifics of my project I should introduce myself as an empathetic designer who is questioning/proposing; "How can design... influence social change?".
 |
| Our group, from left to right: Me, Maisie (Photography), Josie (Textiles), Molly (Spacial) |
 |
| I brought my publication prototype as my 'thing' to show my peers |
Josie
After the introductions our group of four split into pairs to chat more in depth about each of our projects. I talked to Josie, a textiles student, first. Overall she thought my idea was great and she didn't have much to add apart from wondering how I will get the info/message/product to the intended audience. She suggested that if it was a book about horse behaviour and stories from horses' points of view then only horsey people would want to read it, so could it be something that people had to be tested on forcing them to read it (which I'm not sure I agree with as although this is an issue that needs to be addressed I think giving it its own test is going a bit overboard). She then also had the idea that the book could have a sticker/tear out that people who own the book can use to promote/show their support for the campaign, perhaps sticking it on their vehicle or horse float, which I thought was an awesome idea and something I had definitely not considered.
Maisie
I paired up with Maisie, a photography student, next. She thought my topic was very strong as she rides horses and knows from personal experience how much of a problem this is in New Zealand, so she was excited to see someone addressing the issue. She loved that I was using horse behaviour to explain to the audience why they need to change the way they interact with horse riders on the road rather than just coming at the issue finger shaking, using scare tactics, or being too serious, as she thinks that's what turns people right off. She agrees with me that what I need to work on now is deciding how to get the information to the people in a way they will engage with, but she didn't really have any good ideas of how to do this apart from perhaps videos. The challenge is trying to get non-horsey people interested in a horse issue.
Molly
Lastly I spoke with Molly, a spacial student. This conversation frustrated me and left me feeling down about my project a bit as Molly just really didn't understand why my topic might be an issue. She thought that I should focus on cyclists as she believes that would be a more useful project, whereas I believe there is already plenty being done in New Zealand to address cyclist safety, but nothing is being done for horse riders' safety. I guess in a way this just showed me that there is a need for my project though as there are so many people in New Zealand (the majority) who are completely blind to the troubles of horse riders and don't have any empathy for them, so would probably pass them dangerously. Coming from her spacial background, another idea she had was that maybe I should be addressing the idea of road infrastructure and why horse riders need to be on the road in the first place. When I asked for her opinion of how to disseminate my message she though maybe I could look into using local governments.
Ashleigh & Sam
Our group finished early so Mark added each of us to pairs that were still chatting to make the most of our time by talking to new people. I was placed in Ashleigh and Sam's pair. We only got to speak briefly about each of our projects but they really liked my idea of an 'Equine Experience Narrative'. They thought that as long as I kept it lighthearted and humorous it would gain that emotional connection needed for the message to stick.
 |
| Ashleigh and Sam (Both VCD) |
Through my conversations today, I have been reminded that I need to keep my project lighthearted and maybe even humorous to gain and keep the audience's attention. Perhaps this also will influence what medium I should be using as well, as I am still stuck on what is the best way to reach the people who need to be educated and persuaded to alter their behaviour. I think I have a solid theoretical knowledge foundation, but I definitely need to work on ideating what medium to use and maybe I need to do my own survey to get facts and opinions about the topic specifically in New Zealand to help me argue the issue to people like Molly (because there isn't any statistics available from Statistics New Zealand or the NZTA).
We were supposed to end the Whakatinana moment with the name of someone we either intended to have a followup conversation with or someone we had been directed to go speak to by someone we had paired with during the exercise. Although it was nice to chat to students from other disciplines, the girls had such vastly different topics from mine that I'm not sure it would be that beneficial to seek them out specifically again and they also didn't have anyone to suggest to me to go and talk to. I think I am going to post on our VCD 400 Facebook page and see if I can meet up with others doing 'influencing social change' projects as that might be more useful, especially in terms of figuring out what medium to use to disseminate my stories/message. I was a bit disappointed that for the exercise we weren't paired with people doing similar topics to us as I thought that was what the purpose of the keywords were. It was interesting to talk to people from other disciplines and exciting to hear about what they were researching and proposing etc but because we were put in groups with people doing such different topics there wasn't much sharing of resources etc.
Seb Mclauchlan's Talk Notes:
- Encouraging others through design
- Design can articulate your frustrations/opinions/point-of-view
- He (and the company he works for) is interested in the possibilities of publishing
- "The design should respond to the architecture of the page"