Week 10 - Guru's Day

Guru's day provided the opportunity for us to take a step back and look at everything we had achieved so far. It allowed us to talk over ideas with the Guru's and receive constructive feedback on what direction we could take next.

Over the past couple of weeks I feel like I have hit a bit of a dead end, I have found an area I am really interested in and I have explored the method of data visualisation. I need to find ways in which I can gather more data on the vulnerability of women in urban environments.

The main question I had for the Guru's was about what techniques could I use moving forward to gather data. I want to explore a wide variety of data gathering techniques in order to get a deeper understanding on the topic and discover interesting and surprising insights. I wanted to ask Guru's suggestions on different cultural probes and data gathering techniques I could use.

One of the Guru's suggested that I could get local bars involved and could keep in contact with them in regards to reports of inappropriate behaviour or issues raised. The idea of using pinpoints around Dundee as a way to raise awareness to the council about certain problems areas. I could get individuals to pinpoint areas that they feel unsafe and why and see if there are any recurring themes or areas in particular that need improvements.

Another one of the Guru's suggested the use of cultural probes and the idea of a clicker in which individuals could click/ press something when they feel scared when walking home. This would allow me to see on GPS where and when these incidents were taking place. It would be interesting to get males/ females to participate and compare the differences. Another data gathering technique was encouraging people to engage in a public space and provide feedback on how they felt in that area. I was told to also think about how the data I gather will make people feel? I could anonymously gather stories and experiences that people have about the city and then display what I find in public and then take note of people's responses.

It is easy for vast amounts of data to appear as facts and figures rather than personal and intimate stories. A dot on a map can easily be mistaken as a number and forgotten that it could have been a bad experience for someone that's negatively impacted their life. I could look at the option of gathering stories as data and then look at ways in which I could bring the stories to life. One of the Guru's told me about a POW exhibition they seen in a museum in Venice, there was thousands of stories and each had a microphone and played each individuals story in their language as a symbol of respect. Despite there being thousands of stories, each individual being able to have theirs heard made the exhibition intimate and personal and therefore had more of an impact on people.

A diary study was suggest by one of the Guru's, this is where individuals are asked to write down every time they feel scared when walking. The diary could be kept between myself and the participant for a week, whenever they feel uneasy etc they could simply send a message with their location and an emoji/word that describes how they felt.

Another suggestion was that I could spend some time in public spaces and look at how people interact with the spaces. Where do they go? What do they look at? What do they touch/ interact with? I could also test the public by putting up posters/ content relating to my research and take note of the responses and reactions. Another way of gathering people's reactions to the content gathered would be to post voting polls on Instagram.

I was also encouraged to get in contact with the local council and/ or police and see if they could provide me with a bit of a better understanding into the current problems women in the city face.

Overall, the feedback I received was that I need to gather more primary research. I feel as though I have been avoiding it as I do not want to commit to a solid idea yet. But you can never do too much research so over the next week I am going to explore some of these gathering data techniques.

Data gathering techniques

• Pinpoint locations

• Clicker/ GPS device - track journey home

• Publicly display data - anonymously gather data, display findings in public

• Location interaction - response from public how an area makes them feel

• Visualise stories told

• Diary study - WhatsApp conversation

• Map analysis - Hand drawn

• Narrate walk home - then visualise

• Interviews

Next steps:

• Explore a variety of data gathering techniques