User:FLEM/Thesis drafts
1. Introduction: research interest, the objective of research
Chapter One communicates the purpose and focus of the study and explains the outline of the research. This chapter includes a brief explanation of the research background, and provides rationale for the selection of the research area. Moreover, the first chapter contains explanation of the research aim and objectives, and explains research structure.
Table of contents
- Introduce your topic
- Describe the background or summarize existing research
- Establish your research problem, Position your own approach
- Specify your objective(s), detail your specific research problem and problem statement
- Map out your paper, Give an overview of the paper’s structure
I have always been fascinated by book making, since the first time I built a book with my hands. The course taught the students how to make three different bindings throughout the year, and our job was to produce the content to build the structure around. I mainly used photographs, as that was part of my visual practice already. But what excited me the most was when the book holding this material has to be produced. Choosing the paper, printing the images, folding, binding and gluing gave me a feeling I never experienced before.
After that, I kept making books and worked on a project called Trashbooksatelier, and specifically on a series called Sketch(totrash)books, no waste editable sketchbooks, consisting of books made of waste. These sketchbooks were meant for artists to paint on the cover and make every single book unique and personal, helping the planet. I was using different papers, with different weights, different colours, everything kept inside an Amazon box’s cardboard. I realized how interesting was to create books from waste and finding ways to make it work. The creativity levels that making notebooks can touch are infinite, in my opinion, and being the creator makes it even more exciting to hold something so special in your hands.
After the first time, I have always been making notebooks for my self and I never bought one anymore. The start of this research happened in a specific moment in time: I finished the last notebook and started a plan for the next one. The idea came out from the measurements of an Italian publishing house (Iperborea) I really love the design of: 10x20 cm. The issue was that, by starting from an A4 paper, I would have been obliged to cut out a lot of paper and therefore, I decided that I didn't want to create a new notebook out of that idea without finding a solution that would not waste anything. The result has been a 10x20 cm notebook with wings and folds that created narrow columns and additional space on the side of the pages. After the notebook was ready, I started questioning my practice and I realised that this object has already a special feature in itself: it permitted the user (me) to play around with the structure and adapt it to their own needs.
I analysed all the pros and cons of this object I created and started to think about alternative solutions that would make the notebook to work specifically for me, my way of reasoning, writing, thinking. I understood how just by changing something small, I could already improve my use of the notebook. I already felt I could give more to this object and vice versa, this object was supporting me in a way that has never happened before.
I am interested in notebooks as a means of creativity, a space for thinking and reasoning, a personal world inside this messy world we live in. I like the idea of getting lost in our own space, how writing and doodling and drawing become part of our living. And, I wonder, can this personal world be the same for everyone, can it be standardised? My theory is that everyone, in different situations, has different needs while using a notebook and that the efficiency - in the sense of: how much we use it, how useful it becomes for us, how we feel free and comfortable with it - can change by using different structures. Following from this, I 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?".
Therefore, I decided to organise a series of Collaborative Explorative Sessions (C.E.S.): experiences of discovery, moments where to play with this object, all together, and explore, experiment and discover the possibilities of notebooks, also as part of a research about ourselves and our participation in the world. I would like participants to explore their inner self and discover what they need from a notebook, and then, if they are up for it, to find out how accessible it can be for everyone to create/edit their own, based on what they're actually looking for.
Lori Emerson in the book Reading Writing Interfaces describes how in recent years design is getting every day more invisible and users are becoming less and less aware of the processes underneath the devices they use: in the same way as with digital interfaces, humans think less and less about what they use or what they do or why or how. We live in an era where we can decide to continuously fulfill our desires, without even understanding or asking ourselves what we really need or want. I assume that many people buy notebooks because they are attracted by the idea around the object, but then they never start or finish them because, still my assumptions, they do not really know what is their need from this object. In addition, consumerism, capitalism and new technologies "promote efficiency and productivity more than happiness and creativity" (Sanders E. B.-N. and Stappers P. J., 2014), but at the same time the desire of people towards creation and expression of self is emerging again (see social media DIY or etsy.com). Therefore, I feel that using an object that, in a way, is the emblem of productivity and that participate in consumerist practices, and trying to transform it into a self thought and subversive one is the right direction I want to give to my project.
I believe this is a personal matter and that every individual should or could find their own answers to this. How can I, through research and explorative sessions, discover more about the topic and create a generative structure that can help others to discover themselves and their needs, in their own way, in order to promote creativity and self-expression?
This thesis will be then a report of my practice: the C.E.S., informed through theoretical research and references, will produce materials that will help to develop the body of the text and support my research questions.
2. Context and history (2000-2500 words)
Chapter Two constitutes a literature review, and accordingly, contains analysis of models and theoretical frameworks that have been previously introduced to the research area. This chapter contains definitions of main terms and explains search strategy for the secondary data. Viewpoints of other authors regarding the research area in general and research problem in particular have been presented in a logical manner in this chapter.
[main question: Why are we all using the same structures?]
In this chapter I will give an overview on notebooks' history and evolution. , how capitalism and consumerism changed our vision of objects's use and more specifically, notebooks' use with the introduction of standardised objects (touching the explosion of already made bullet journals for example). How it changed humans' approach to making the objects we use. 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)
2.1 Overview on notebooks' history and evolution, how capitalism and consumerism changed our vision of objects's use and more specifically, notebooks' use with the introduction of standardised objects (touching the explosion of already made bullet journals for example). How and why has the notebook been created? How did it evolved till the most common structures we use nowadays?
2.2 How industrialisation changed humans' approach to making the objects we use. How has the value of the process of creation modified after industrialisation / in consumerism?
2.3 the impact of the use of standardised objects in humans and the importance of self-expression and creativity. 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?
2.4 what is the environmental impact of buying new items? How within making our own objects we can participate in the "reduce, reuse, recycle" movement as an opposition to buying new items?
3. Case studies
I want to describe the type of environment I want to create, about authority disruption and collective parallel learning
Session 1
Make your own tool 1.0 is the first practical session of the series.