Blog post #6 Collecting Data

Research Question

Who: University students who feel loneliness. 

Where: Social Environment: The social environment, such as the availability of social support networks, social norms, and cultural factors, can also impact the spatial context of loneliness among young adults. For example, young adults who have limited access to supportive social networks, such as close friends or family members, may experience higher levels of loneliness.

Physical environment : veritas B 

What: Coping with loneliness, throughout interactive art. 

 

Interview with 

Last week we conducted interviews with the target users of our future installations to deeply understand why people in youth feels loneliness and how they understand their emotion. This week we conducted an interview with the interactive artist. Until midterm, we are planning to do interviews with five artists to understand how artists deliver their thoughts with installations, and working processes and ask them for advice on our project. 

-Have you ever heard, experienced, or created an exhibition, or an interactive installation that focused on mental health, emotions, or loneliness.

-Can you talk about your creative process when you are making an interactive art piece?

-What things do you think are important to consider when creative interactive art.

-What are some of the aspects of an installation artwork that keeps users engaged with it?

-When you first get an idea for an art piece, how do you narrow down on what methods, materials, and messages to include?

-How is creative process different from normal work process?

-Do you know any artists who either engage in interactive art work, or have worked with the theme of loneliness? Name, contact information, type of work.

-What is most important part of the art work?

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Artist #1

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVMUr0mJ0=/

Our team visited an exhibition and interviewed an artist with a vast experience in installation and media art.
The artist refused to be filmed and recorded, so we had to manually take notes of what they said.
We conducted an interview with open-ended questions, mixed with free discussion.

-While having a free discussion, the artist pointed out some factors we should consider when working with a creative direction.
-The artist suggested that we have a simple sentence to describe our theme since there could be many variations of loneliness.

-How can you say that someone is lonely? You shouldn't judge others' feelings recklessly.

-The artist did not see themselves as a lonely person but admitted to experiencing this feeling. They’ve described it as “being rejected by the tribe, or a feeling of guilt that accumulates when you feel like you’ve done something wrong when you are being ignored in your social circles”
-When creating an artwork, it has to communicate your own feelings to the world, through visuals, sounds, smells, or physical sensations.
-It is impossible to create a complete solution to loneliness, but we can help people alleviate this feeling through relatable content. Loneliness is not a forever feeling, it will go away and come back, 
-Anything can be art, it’s all about context and story
-The artist refused to reveal their art development process but mentioned that it is essential to start by creating the art itself first, then connecting the research and future intentions afterward. Since art and inspiration come in bursts, and can not be single-handedly achieved by research and analysis.

 

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Questionnaire.

One of the research methods we used to conduct the user study is a google forms survey.

 

The purpose of the google forms survey was to collect quantitative data from a large group of respondents by asking a standardized set of questions. This type of research is useful for measuring the attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and demographics of a population.

 

The link to our survey can be found here: https://forms.gle/Mgqv1aCWQ842tXnu9

 

There were three main objectives of our survey

 

1. to identify the key themes and aspects of loneliness that resonate with our target audience. 

This will guide the conceptualization and design of our artwork, ensuring that it reflects the experiences and emotions of the people who will interact with it.

 

2. receive specific examples, stories, and quotes that illustrate the impact of loneliness on people's lives. 

We can use these insights to create interactive elements or narratives within the artwork that resonate with users at a personal level and encourage empathy and connection.

 

Overall, by gathering standardized data on the feeling of loneliness, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of loneliness as a prevalent issue in society and how people experience it in their daily lives. By understanding the needs, behaviors, motivations, and pain points of users, we will be able to design better solutions that meet their needs and expectations.