Research

The literature review involved discussing and reflecting on research surrounding burnout and creativity. This process helped with discovering what burnout involves and what can cause it as well as benefits to creativity. Despite this piece of writing being centred around a research question focusing on creativity, the project later developed to burnout being its focal point.

When researching, I discovered that there were three components surrounding burnout: exhaustion, cynicism or depersonalisation and ineffectiveness or diminished accomplishment. I also found out that burnout can arise through this idea of total work. Total work involves someone viewing work as the utmost priority due to the belief that it's the sole path to them flourishing as a human being. This perception can cause them to define themselves through their work and ignore the damage it does to them - including burnout. This research led to me conducting an auto-ethnography of burnout over 3-4 weeks. This involved me taking a photo whenever I felt one of the three burnout components and noting down the thoughts and emotions running through my mind during that moment. I also did the same thing for when I was in a total work mindset. These recordings were made whenever I felt this mindset or these components in reaction to my uni work. Despite being quite confronting, this auto-ethnographical experience helped me understand on a more personal level this culture of burnout and be more conscience in my day-to-day experiences what causes it.

Following the research undertaken on burnout, I constructed a forensic map. This is similar to a concept map and helped with forging connections between the important terms of burnout that were discovered. It's reminiscent of those boards you see in a crime movie where they are trying to put together all the clues and leads to solve a case. However, this forensic map represents the case as burnout, as I’m trying to, maybe not solve, but understand what burnout is. And my leads are the cause of total work and the three identifiable components of burnout. My burnout auto-ethnography photos act as crime scenes or photographic evidence where this case of burnout has occurred. The forensic map is a powerful sense-making tool as it enables us to tackle and explore terms, such as burnout, that are surrounded by ambiguity. As burnout is a process that can be experienced differently by different people. 

I decided to carry out another auto-ethnography but for this version, I’d involved myself in creative outlets and strategies. This included activities such as art therapy, piano, singing, meditation and building Lego. I took a photo of which creative endeavour I was doing and recorded my thoughts and emotions, just as I did previously, but before and after carrying out the activity. And noted the difference in how I’m feeling. This process was meant to assist in deducing which creative outlets and strategies are most effective against burnout. However, it was realised that this is difficult to determine as everyone experiences and deals with burnout differently. Additionally, the method aided in understanding what aspects in these creative activities actually help in combatting burnout. A key aspect discovered was that many of these activities proved to be a nice escape from work and keep my mind off it.

In search of clarity about where the direction of the burnout motion series will go, I spoke to my supervisor. During this discussion, storytelling was realised to be the most effective way to engage viewers, rather than instructional/how-to. A narrative based structure would prompt more relatability and understanding towards experiencing burnout. It was advised that this proposed motion series needs to have a narrative arc threaded throughout it. Therefore, I decided to explore and develop an understanding to what a narrative arc is.

To expand my knowledge on the term, I saw what came up when I searched it and looked through videos. A narrative arc is described as the chronological structure of a story's plot. It is often broken up into a five act structure involving: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and Resolution. This can be simplified to Exposition (or Beginning), Problem (involves the climax) and Resolution. Understanding a narrative arc is important to planning a story and keeping the audience interested or engaged. It is also a useful to forming the overarching message intending to be conveyed. If I am to create successful motion pieces, I will need to be conscious of a narrative arc's structure and utilise it when creating a storyboard for each video.

Inspiration for character designs involved looking at existing designs that were simplistic and vector based, these two factors will help in ensuring a clear visual communication. There was also a look at vibrant colour usage as well how facial expressions are implemented on simple characters. I also investigated what sort of characters could be used to engage with work-related burnout.