User:FLEM/thesisoutline

What do I want to write about?

Last year I started questioning my notebook's practice and tried to build a new paper device that would satisfy better the needs of my brain in that moment. To get there I asked myself what were the problems in the device I was using and how changing something small could already improve my use of the notebook. I then wondered: "Why are we all using a device with the same structure? And what impact does it have on our learning, thinking and living, as well as on the imaginary of self? And how creating our personal tools would help users to understand better themselves and their needs?".

I believe this is really a personal matter and that every individual should or could find their personal answers to this. How can I, through research and explorative sessions, discover more about the topic and create a generative structure that can be interpreted by every person in their own way to promote creativity and self-expression?

The thesis will be then a report of my practice: informed through theoretical research and references that will feed the research method section that will then be part of the body of the thesis.

Table of contents

Introduction: Research interest/objective of research

In this section I will analyse my interest in this research and what is the objective of it, how I will go through the reading and the research section, which method I will use and what is the final outcome I am aiming for.

Chapter 1. Context and History

[main question: Why are we all using the same structures?]

In this chapter I will give an overview on notebooks' history and evolution, how they changed through time when standards have been included through the arrival of the industrial revolution. How it changed humans' approach to making the objects we use, how capitalism and consumerism changed our vision of objects's use and more specifically, notebooks' use (touching the explosion of already made bullet journals for example). This chapter will conclude with what is the impact of the use of standardised objects in humans and the importance of self-expression and creativity.

Questions: How and why has the notebook been created? How did it evolved till the most common structures we use nowadays? How has the value of the process of creation modified after industrialisation / in consumerism? What is standardisation? Why do we create standardised objects? What is their impact on humans' existence and the creation of personal imaginary? What happens when we don’t use our intrinsic creativity? Why is it important to express ourselves?

“In our society people make little of what we use but consume it as presented by the media” (Dissanayake E.,1995)

Chapter 2. Case study #1 "Building your own tool: how making becomes a process of self-discovery"

[Primary research method, qualitative research, action research based on the questions: What does happen when the user become the creator of their own tools?]

The "Case study" sections will give an overview of my research based on observation of the CES (Collaborative Explorative Sessions): I will get different groups to apply generative design research methods and analyse the results, that could be people's reactions to my proposals as well as what I discovered using different methodologies and approaches.

Questions: How the act of making help them understanding themselves and their needs better? How everyone can create their own narrative and their personal perception of the world through the act of making our own tool?

Chapter 3. Case study #2 "Building your own tool: how making becomes a process of self-discovery"

[Primary research method, qualitative research, action research based on the questions: What does happen when the user become the creator of their own tools?]

The "Case study" sections will give an overview of my research based on observation of the CES (Collaborative Explorative Sessions): I will get different groups to apply generative design research methods and analyse the results, that could be people's reactions to my proposals as well as what I discovered using different methodologies and approaches.

Questions: How the act of making help them understanding themselves and their needs better? How everyone can create their own narrative and their personal perception of the world through the act of making our own tool?

Chapter 4. Findings

In this sections I will analyse how the research developed throughout the year, what worked and what didn't, how I changed my mind and how my methods evolved while going on experimenting different approach to generative design research methods, concluding with the findings of my research.

Conclusion

I will, based on my readings and on my research outcomes, summarise how my research went, what are the results I obtained.

Why?

One of the main urgency I have to talk about this topic is that both from my personal experience and the experiences of others during growth: standardisation of abilities, of desires, ways of living.

We are supposed to satisfy standards and generalisations throughout our entire lives, structures in which some people feel comfortable in and some others not at all, especially if we talk about young humans that are still building up on their personality and still discovering their abilities and strategies.

In general, in society, I don't like that we are expected or used to be all the same, that expressing who we are is not part of daily life but many times it's a shaming process that has a lot of impact on growth and development of self.

I would like this research to be a sort of manifesto for a general context but using the notebook as a  "metaphor": who are you? how does your brain work? how do your ideas come along? what are your needs from a tool that society provided in a standardised form?

It is not only about making a notebook, is how making a notebook will put us in the position of questioning who we are and the objects we use, why we use them and how something made for us from us could look like.

How?

The thesis will follow the graduation project alongside: it will research theoretical studies to create a context and answer my questions. Then, I will analyse the results and documentation that will follow the CES (Collaborative Explorative Sessions) that are part of my graduation project.

As this process is really personal, I will not be able to produce charts or standardised results; instead, I will be working on observational essays that will try to create a more general overview of the outcomes of the processes of the sessions.

3 key issues/research questions?

1. Why are we all using a device (a notebook) with the same structure?
2. What impact does it have on our learning, thinking and living, as well as on the imaginary of self?
3. What does happen when the user become the creator of their own tools? How does the act of making help them to understand themselves and their needs better?

Method

[Primary research method, qualitative research, action research]

3.2 The CES (Collaborative Explorative Sessions): an overview based on observation

3.3 What is this process of self-discovery? The process for others (analysis of texts that my case studies will write to analyse their personal process towards a notebook that works for them)

Timeline

Deadline dates

18th November: outline deadline

2nd December: first chapter draft

12nd-13rd December: assessment

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17th February: 1st draft thesis

31st March: 2nd draft, 2nd reader

14th April: final deadline

Bibliography

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Brunsson N. and Jacobsson B. (2005). A world of standards. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Dissanayake, E. (1995). The Pleasure and Meaning of Making. American Craft 55(2): 40-45

Gibson, M. (2019). Crafting communities of practice: the relationship between making and learning. Int J Technol Des Educ 29, 25–35

Hamzah, F., Sharifudin, S., Kamarudin, A. and Azlan, M. (2016). The use of personalized notebook among first semester students of UiTM. National Conference of Research on Language Education 2016.

Illich, I.D. (1985). Tools for conviviality. London: Marion Boyars.

‌Kealy-Morris, E. (2015). The bookbinding workshop: Making as collaborative pedagogic practice. Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, [online] 14(2), p.119.

Koestler, A. (1964) The act of creation. 2Nd 'Danube edn. New York: Macmillan.

Korn, P. (2015). Why We Make Things and Why It Matters. David R. Godine Publisher.

Marx, K. (2018). Capital. Volume 1, Chapter 1, Section 4: The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret thereof.

Reed, E. S. (1996). The necessity of experience. Yale University Press.

Renauld, M.-M. (2020). The Effects Of The Industrial Revolution On Craft In The Arts And Crafts Movement. [online] TheCollector. Available at: https://www.thecollector.com/industrial-revolution-arts-and-crafts/.

Saner, B. (2014) Handwriting is physical visual thinking. Visual Arts Research, 40(1), pp. 118–120.

Sanders E. B.-N. and Stappers P. J. (2014). Convivial design toolbox: generative research for the front end of design. Amsterdam: Bis.

Schmidt, J. F. (2018) Niklas Luhmann’s Card Index: The Fabrication of Serendipity, Sociologica, 12(1), pp. 53–60.

Sennett, R. (2009). The Craftsman. Penguin UK.

Wears, R.L. (2015). Standardisation and Its Discontents. Cognition, technology & work (Online), [online] 17(1), pp.89–94.