Categorizing the experiences.

During the interactions, the students plotted their experiences on a timeline.
So last week, I categorized the experiences, and made a timeline for each category.

Baptist Coelho: MAPPING(THOUGHTS)

A while ago, a friend informed me about this project. I had forgotten about it till today, when I had the discussion with Danika about form. Thought I'd share. Quite interestingly put together.

MAPPING (THOUGHTS), is a multi-disciplinary project which explores the concept of random thought as part of the social and political commentary of the diverse people living in Switzerland. Collaborations were sought from people all over Switzerland, who share a common thread through generations; practicing and creating similar vocations and experiences. The thoughts collected are also a reflection for future generations. A part of this project was realised specifically in Bern and involved the participation of people using the trams there. The work was exhibited in Grand Palais (an art space, which originally functioned as a waiting room and office for the Tram Company).

Here is the link for the exhibition images on facebook.
project description taken from and a brief write-up about the artist HERE.

Conversation with Danika

- How do you want it look?
- Focus on memory or school?
- Memory has an ephemeral quality, its not static - your perception of it is always changing.
- Holograms? Interactive, live mindmaps?
- Does not need to take a literal form. You do not need to translate this same information you've gathered. It can be abstract, figurative.
- What should I be thinking when I view the exhibition/installation? What should I be thinking after I leave the exhibition/installation?

Group Discussion

Since I've been in a rut the last couple of days, I decided to call Ramya, Munmun, Shruti, Alannah and Tisha to have a group brainstorm. This is what we discussed:

- What is your intent? If it is merely to visualize collective memory, then it is not so much about the content, as it is about the expression – data visualization.

- Create a narrative with disjointed pieces of information – connected network of experiences.

A series of dialogues, conversations. Objects that can hold/collect qualitative information. 

- An example: 5 archetypal people. Who do you identify with? What do you want the audience to feel? Do you want them to go back and question?

- Even in most of the stories that have been narrated here are generic and identifiable, this generalization can be a strength. Draw on those generalizations.

Observations from Interactions

Emotions of contentment, satisfaction or freedom are mostly in the past, or anticipatory. 
Behaviour influenced by the system, the students' behaviour in class is only a reflection of the school system.
Pride in recalling a memory, whether sad, happy, etc.
Pattern in selecting words: conservative choices, words like exams, boards, rules, rebel are quicker to be associated with school memories; over acceptance, rewards, or intelligence.  (Majority of the chosen words are not only tangible, they are words that traditionally suggest limitation.)

Conversation with Ameeta

- All the behaviours you see in the interactions are more important than the words and pictures they write and draw. Those still maybe again things indicating a 'pleaser' mindset coming from a system that demands obedience and not creative thinking.
- The socio-cultural and management systems of schools and homes is creating too much emphasis in the children's minds to be good children rather than to be thinking or creative. There are certain beliefs that go with this "Its easier to manage obedient children." versus "Could it be easier to manage thinking children and come up with more effectiveness not just efficiency." Are we bogged down with efficiency and forgetting effectiveness and value of innovation? Is this that classrooms want rote learning and not questioning because exams only test that.
 - Reference: Book: Drawing on the right side of the brain.

John Dewey's Experience and Education

"How shall the young become acquainted with the past in such a way that the acquaintance is a potent agent in appreciation of the living present?"

John Dewey
1938

John Dewey, the American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer wrote a book - 'Experience and Education.' How apt!
Here is a review of it by someone on the internet. Tomorrow, I'll check the library for it.

An Examination of John Deweys Experience and Education

(how I would've liked to chat with him)

Emotion clustering

tabulated & organized all the experiences.
mapped words --> emotions
quick division into positive and negative emotions
emotion clusters - synoyms and similarities with reference to the student's experiences.
emotion flow marking words attached to those emotions.

The positive emotions are more often associated with words that signal the future.
The words on the left are ones that are looked at as the cause or the system itself, the ones on the right indicate the process or the consequence.

Interaction 4

Interaction 4: Mixed group of students from Class 9 & 10; various schools.
Date: 14 August 2010
Duration: 45 mins
Number of Students: 5

Met this group through a friend, at one of their homes. Again, same process followed.
This group was extremely enthusiastic and participative. They spent a great deal of time drawing, though they repeatedly told me they can't draw. I gave them examples of what other students had done - that seemed to calm and them, and give them ideas to think metaphorically.

photographs: Akshataa Vishwanath

Been working on collating stuff from the interactions so far. I have one scheduled for this weekend, so I'm going to upload those insights and more pictures of what the students did only after Sunday.

patience. 
:)

Now.

thinking about possibilities for what next.
always 'updateable'.

Interaction 3

Interaction 3: Students of Class 12 of Vidya Niketan School.
Date: 9 August 2010
Duration: 40 mins
Number of Students: 6

Met this bunch outside of their school, just before their extra tutions in the evening.
The atmosphere was more relaxed - the exercise was considered fun, it was like an escape from tutions. At the other two schools, it was looked at like an extra subject.
Followed the same process.
The concept of the timeline and metaphors + scale in the illustration was considered more seriously here by the students. Sharing, discussing and exchanging memories was done naturally, without me having to prompt.

Conversation with Alison

- Collate all the content you have collected. 
- 'Do what you do naturally.' Start illustrating, doodling etc – you use different parts of your brain. 
Respond to what you have so far. 
- Instead of thinking of this installation as one large thing, keep doing smaller things that can add up.
Look at: Infographics
- Come up with a theory/ apparatus for bringing the students and you together. (maybe a pseudo social science, fake hypothesis)
- Maybe you can talk to people from a different demographic now - for comparison.
- the memory is a reflection of the system. The institution of something happening.
Zoom out. Is there a commonality between these interactions so far?
- Map a personal lifeline against the timelines the students have drawn.

Book: Experience Design

Experience Design by Nathan Shedroff.
Kumkum suggested this book.









Excerpts:
While everything, technically is an experience of some sort, there is something important and special to many experiences that make them worth discussing. In particular, the elements that contribute to superior experiences are knowable and reproducible, which makes them designable.

The most important concept to grasp is that all experiences are important and that we can learn from them whether they are traditional, physical or offline experiences; or whether they are digital, online or other technological experiences.

One aspect of an experience that can make it surprising and amazing is that of confronting one's beliefs. When we are challenged to rethink possibilities, we can have a profound reaction.

People find meaning in experiences and things based on a wide variety of personal values. That people find meaning in things is, perhaps the only constant that can be relied on.

Conversations are one of the most important ways we learn. Conversations allow us to be comfortable and conscious of the content, and to forget the form and means of transmission almost entirely.

Participation makes experience more meaningful because it taps into our desires to be creative and communicate.

Some of the most compelling and involving experiences are organized around the telling of stories–whether these are from the experience creators or the audience. Storytelling is one of the oldest experiences and still one of the most powerful because it organizes information in a way that allows us, usually to draw personal meaning and create knowledge.

Stories can be used not just as entertainment but as a way to make difficult concepts, information, or instructions more accessible.

Some thoughts

So the two interactions that I've conducted so far were in classrooms. Next week, have two scheduled that are outside school.
The main constraint is time and connecting to the children - to be able to come up with something that can be the main focus of the installation. The illustrations though insightful are unable to stand on their own.
Add another layer.
Danika, during my first review, reminded me to make sure that I explore/use something that I am extremely passionate about. What do I want to do? How do I want to contribute to the project - other that a. facilitating, b. designing the installation, designing the experience in the installation?
Since the interactions aren't going to be able to give me any higher, more refined level outcome, maybe I should limit the interactions to 4 - thats about 40 (approximation) students, [not that that's enough, but moving to the next step might be more helpful] and spend more time creating this other layer myself - something to think about.

Interaction 2: VidyaShilp

Interaction 2: Students of Class 11 at Vidyashilp Academy.
Date: 6 August 2010
Duration: 30 mins
Number of Students: 11

Followed more or less the same process as the first interaction.
The students were enthusiastic and quite responsive. As with DPS, a major inhibition exists regarding drawing and what is considered right and wrong and useful to my project.
Though the time period here was shorter than last time, I felt I was more effective. I asked questions, and helped them with metaphoric associations to translate the memory into visuals.

"Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life."

Octavio Paz
Mexican writer and poet, winner of the 1990 Nobel Proze for Literature

Changes for future interactions

- Longer time period if possible.
- Smaller groups or 1 single group of maximum 10 students: So I have a stronger role in facilitating the interaction with undivided interaction.
- Timelines should be simple and take up the shortest amount of time.
- Be more active while planning and visualizing the memories.
- Planned a location and colour association to help the visualizing which was forgotten - must for the next interactions.

Interaction 1: DPS

Interaction 1: Students of Class 11 at Delhi Public School, Bangalore North.
Date: 2 August 2010
Duration: 40 mins
Number of Students: 15

Introduced myself and the project.
Divided the class into 2 groups.
Gave them a list of words to choose from. I let each student pick their own word, rather than me assigning one.
The words were all related to school and learning in some way. Some were tangible like books, lectures, teachers etc. Others were more open concepts like partiality, success, freedom, pressure etc.
It was nice to see a mix of words being picked - with immediate associations to the word as they were selecting itself.
I asked them to assign an emotion/ feeling to their word - positive or negative. Then after a brief general discussion, a question-answer session about these words, I asked them to jot down an experience when they felt that way in school or to illustrate the word they picked.
I asked them to plot all their 'chosen' experiences on a timeline as a group - and visually illustrate this on a separate sheet. I had to explain what a timeline was, and constantly coax them to draw. One girl (her word was competition) even asked me "Can I paint the picture that I made me win the 1st prize?"
I told them to keep in mind factors like location, who all were present, mood of the experience etc. The illustrations were crude, but they were able to construct simple sketches of their experiences.