The Resolution

The Residence

India’s G.UTS workshop was comprised of an empathy building warm up activity and an empathetic sense making activity which sought to resolve the workshop facilitator’s concerns with their studio project.

The empathy generation warm up activity saw the participants split into pairs. One individual then spoke, uninterrupted for 1 minute, on the topic of what stresses they were immediately experiencing, while the other participant listened and psychologically communicating their support to the speaker. The individuals speaking had their eyes closed and spoke at the same time as fellow participants, so that no individual felt as though they were presenting deeply personal information to the workshop group. This warm up activity successfully saw the generation of empathy among the workshop participants, as we became aware of the shared university stresses that were being experienced by all. Additionally, this activity was found to be highly revealing. As the workshop facilitator encouraged the participants to follow the “thread” of an emotion, without having an opportunity to prepare or make sense of the feeling, the information disclosed by the speaker provided the listener with a deeply personal insight into their immediate vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the practice of verbal stress sharing, introduced by the workshop facilitator, offered substantial emotional relief to the workshop participants. By outwardly acknowledging the internal turmoil that was experienced, the workshop participants were able to begin the process of resolving such feelings. It is proposed that the warmup activity may have been enhanced by providing the speaker with ear muffs/ ear plugs so they were less likely to experience distraction or insecurity in response to what any other participant was simultaneously disclosing.

The activity of sense making the Transition Toolkit project, on behalf of India, invited me to formulate design additions which might be added to the workshop facilitator’s studio project. The suggested additions, such as “exploring how you might generate a safe workshop environment where participants will seek to acknowledge and share their stresses with others”, primarily emerged from a person-centred perspective. However, I also proposed an array of technical suggestions, such as the development of an accessible custom user interface to support the onboarding process, which were inspired by my technical background. This activity provided great insight into the degree as to which India has positioned herself within the research project, as she acknowledged her difficulty in discerning the potential design solutions which may resolve her studio project. However, the seamless role playing of India’s design workshop demonstrated the considerations that have been embedded into the activity and its readiness to be applied in therapeutic psychiatric settings.

Key Insights:

• The act of being emotionally transparent sees personal relief transpire and empathy communally inspired. It is a designer’s challenge to explore how a participant’s emotional vulnerability may be extrinsically elicited.

• The value of diverse perspectives to productively support a designer’s embedding within their research project.

Sean’s workshop saw the design honours cohort reflecting upon our experiences of the academic year through engaging with the method of illustration. The workshop facilitator asked for the participants to subjectively embellish an A0 printed photograph of the empty design honours room. Sean, the workshop facilitator, embedded himself into the illustrative activity, as an active participant. This saw the workshop’s atmosphere develop into one of informality, as the workshop facilitator sought for the activity to be largely participant led. The collective nature of the activity saw the workshop participants acknowledging one another’s creativity. The intersection of participant illustrations were resolved through the working around or building on top of existing marks which had been made. The workshop facilitator encouraged the communal adaptation of existing illustrations through changing the orientation of the canvas, so that participants were obliged to work within a canvas region that was previously occupied. By observing how fellow participants documented their experience of engaging with the design honours program, a communal rapport was generated. Additionally, the illustrative task was found to be so therapeutic that the presence of storytelling organically emerged during the workshop activity. This emergence supported the closeness being generated between the workshop participants.

Key Insights:

• The presence of organically erupting instances of storytelling may provide an insight into the comfort experienced by workshop participants.

• The practice of mark making may be used as a method to capture the empirical presence of individuals.

• It is difficult to officiate a belonging to a physical space. Just as there was no evidence indicate that the previous honours cohort had belonged to the G building space, the 2023 cohort will be left with no remnants to recognise the learnings, experiences and memories that were generated by the 2022 cohort within the collective space.

The workshops conducted by India and Sean highlight the potential to make sense of studio practices through targeted, theoretical workshop inquiries. The theoretical exploration of design concepts may allow for studio approaches to be refined and validated. Additionally, Dion’s openness to discovering authentic student experiences and how each student positions themselves within their research project is appreciated. Dion’s encouragement to explore and make sense of how our design work is evolving around us has allowed me to recognise my deeply embedded connection to the Close to Home research project.