At this stage, 22 local college students from the Department of Design and Sociology also participated. The University provides a studio for our analysis and discussions during our research.
We maintain this cycle basicly: research on the island for two days, go back to analyse for two days, and then continue to return to the island.
Started in June 2022
Understanding the local culture and connection to the surrounding area is a focus of the project. We believe that the island's people are the most critical cultural bearers. In the survey, we mainly used ethnographic methods to enter the field to understand the behaviour patterns and thoughts of the local people.
Fortunately, we met Mr. Kaibo who was one of the local committee. He knows the island's stories and relationships very well - and is easy to deal with. With his help we conducted field research smoothly.
We collected information about the villagers, such as residents' age structure, proportion of income, economic situations and needs.
"Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, and that these webs of significance are the culture"_Clifford Geertz, 1973
We present the information in sticky notes and printed photos. Then we use wires and annotations to establish connections between data. Initially, the relationship map's primary information included people, objects, environments, and interactions.
In this way, the relationship and life of the villagers are clearly displayed in front of us. We know exactly how they live daily and how they relate to other people.
As the research progresses, we use maps to analyse more in-depth themes. For example, an analysis of island business or positive and negative influences among stakeholders.
For example, when the bridge between the island and the city was built, more tourists came to the island. They drive the island's restaurant and homestay economy, but they also bring the noise to residents.
Just like with mapping software, these relationship maps can be "zoomed in" or "zoomed out" based on the perspective required for the project. When we need to get a general idea of the village, the map can include more people and resources. When we want to focus on a specific type of problem, a certain group or even a certain family, the map can be "zoomed in" to include a lot of specific information.
We use "affinity graphs" to organise the information in our surveys—a method invented by anthropologist Jiro Kawakita. Its role lies in exploring their relevance from complex information. A large amount of fragmented, uncertain information is then classified and organised into logically cohesive groups.
We basically repeated the cycle of "fieldwork" and "mapping" in this workshop. Realising there was enough data to advance to the next stage, we started working on conception and design.
Portraits: the status quo and plight of islanders and tourists
rqyao@stu.edu.cn
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