Category Archives: Tutorials

The end of tutorials

During the final round of tutorials, we focused on completing our final deliverables and elevating our pitch, making sure we were focusing on the most relevant aspects of our research. Elizabeth emphasized the importance of clearly explaining the logical connections between our ideas. We also discussed how to improve our blogs, a topic I’ve dedicated significant effort and time to, and I’m proud of it.

One of Elizabeth’s key lessons was the importance of keeping things concise and impactful. She often reminded us to prepare for counter-questions about our projects, a skill I’ve found invaluable for sharpening my ideas and communicating them effectively.

Among the group exercises we did, the most impactful for me was when Elizabeth asked us what we had placed in our “box of uncertainties” at the beginning of the year. My answer was ignorance, justice, and gender + design. Reflecting on this, I realized that my project and research had been taking shape in my mind even before the master’s program started. This year has been an opportunity to bring those ideas into the world and explore how they might create meaningful change.

Finally, Elizabeth reminded us that the final presentation is not just an assessment but also a celebration of the knowledge we’ve gained and the progress we’ve made. I find this to be ver special and was the first time that I approached education that was, as a celebration of knowldege! Amazing way of ending this insightful year.

Oh gosh, here we go!

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As I continue to explore how to improve my research and make the most of the final couple months left, I’m reminded of Richard’s advice: Take ownership of your research. This master’s program is all about reflecting on the why and so, I need to really embrace their principles and ask me those hard questions.

Here’s what I need to focus on:

1. Revisiting and Improving My Blog:
I need to re-read my blog and refine it to make it more accessible and easier to navigate. It should clearly reflect my iterations, research, and personal analysis. An introduction is essential to guide readers on what they’ll find in this space. I also need to incorporate presentations, images, and explanations to enrich the content. Elizabeth recommened to print all blog posts and analyze them related to the Learning Outcomes.

2. New Interventions:
I need to identify gaps in my research and use the remaining time to implement small interventions that address them. I have a few ideas in mind and might collaborate with Neelabh from the master’s program. With three weeks left, I’ll need to secure materials and space to make this happen.

3. Final Conversations with Stakeholders:
I’ve been trying to schedule conversations with the three stakeholders I mentioned earlier, but it’s been challenging to align schedules. I need to ensure these conversations happen soon, and I’ve sent emails today to reconnect.

4. Thinking Ahead to the Festival:
What do I want from this festival? It should become a space for people to interact with me, possibly leading to future collaborations. I also see it as an opportunity to find a job aligned with my interests, in spaces like Futuress.

Here we go!

On this image, my personal calendar where I’ll track my adavances in the project.

What do you want to learn?

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As I expressed to Richard my concerns about having to do interventions, he stopped me immediately and said, “It’s not about doing interventions because it’s a mandatory thing; it’s about what you want to learn.”

It’s all about making intangible questions tangible.

Ahhh… that changed everything in my mind. We do interventions to learn more about our ideas. It might have been something evident but I managed to overlook it somehow.

Trying to reframe what I’ve been researching during the summer and the new conversations I’ve had with the experts I interviewed last week, I revisited my conclusions:

People—at least the women I had contact with—do not have the language to speak about design. It’s clearly a privileged discipline. How can we give them a voice in this topic rather than having them feel intimidated? There is something to work with here.

I also had an important insight about “Flag the Gap.” I think I was holding on too tightly to my idea because it felt like something that could have so much impact or potential. But as Richard said, you’ve learned from it, and that’s perfect. It made me reflect on when I was in university and took some ceramics classes. The first lesson the teacher gave us was: never get attached to your ceramics; there’s a big chance that they are going to break. You invest a lot of hours into something, into your creation, but it can happen that while they’re in the oven, they break. Art is also about letting go. It was a hard thing to swallow because I still believe “Flag the Gap” has the power to become amazing. But at the moment, I need to experiment a little bit more, maybe with new topics and I feel ataching hardly to Flag the Gap is blinding me somehow. And who knows? Maybe Flag the gap will revive after.

Tutorial Feedback ~ Ouch!

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My tutorial feedback made me realize that there’s still a significant gap in my project—ironic, given that my project is called Flag the Gap.

As Diana mentioned, I have the ingredients to bring everything together, but I need to find the right connection in my thought process to create something impactful.

I also had a call with Beatriz Leal, a Chilean feminist design teacher, seeking external validation. She gave me similar feedback and encouraged me to be more critical about how I refer to objects. She pointed out that I haven’t acknowledged the agency of objects and suggested that another angle for the project could be understanding the reasons behind their creation. However, I reaffirmed to her that this isn’t the direction I want to pursue.

So, what am I interested in? What am I trying to really pursue?

After some reflection, I believe my research is about raising awareness about the normalized gender norms that shape how people experience their daily lives. but what do I mean by normalized gender norms? The socially accepted ideas of how men and women should behave, and how distorted they are that people have found their ways of adapting to it. For example, for feeling safe women walk during the night with the keys on their hands just to feel safer. The gender norm is the expectation that women must constantly be vigilant and take extra precautions to protect themselves from potential threats, especially when alone in public spaces at night. We have normalized this behaviours. We have made this our reality.

The flag is the normalization in our mind and behaviours.

It’s not just about objects, but about our overall perception of reality.

Of course, there are still some gaps. Why am I focusing on individuals rather than the system? Honestly, addressing a massive capitalist, sexist system is a complex challenge. I think I have a better chance of making an impact by focusing on individuals.

But there’s another gap. So far, I’ve only spoken with women. I need to engage with men and even non-binary people—that could provide some valuable insights.

And still, this is a growing process, so I think I might shift with time.

The start of something new – Tutorial reflections

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After a couple weeks of time to rest and reflect and two different tutorials, I’ve got some clarity on what is going on:

My project is facing growing pains, which is okay. It just needs an adjustment of focus.
It would be interesting exploring the idea of how people right now within the systme raise their own red flags, how do people call it out when they feel the gap and how could we speculate of new ways of doing it.
Also exploring curatorial activism and the role of protesting in our society.
About my research question: It should show an MA level, so there’s a need to not oversimplufy it. Once I have a new focus, I need to add it a little bit more of content.
Funily engough, Flag the gap has a gap of focus. So, hopefully I will find and area that intercrosses with my personal interests, something who I am and my interests in gender equality. Maybe exploring migration situation + law + gender.
Not forget that by creating people interacting, there is a recolection of data and as researcher I need to be aware of what I am going to do with it.
I still have one worry: finding a narrative that interests me could feel a bit like appropriating personal narratives that are not mine.