#week no.9

[bee-capstone-blog]

Blog no.13 25/09/23

I've been finding it more challenging to sit down and reflect in the last few weeks. This may be because my project is becoming increasingly refined; it's not easy to question and ponder when the idea is more tangible. Reflection is happening, but more in drawing and prototyping and refinement, reflection in action rather than pre and post-action. I suppose this is when meta-reflection comes in, and I will try to do more of this in the coming weeks.

One realisation I've had when looking back on my process is how I haven't really utilised the Service Design Tools. I have naturally gravitated to the tools that are familiar to me.

[Screenshot of Miro Board]

Above, I've captured an example of how I often use brainstorms or visual representations to clarify, test and reflect on my ideas. This is one of the Service Design Tools, but I didn't choose this method in response to that. There is a natural use of different tools and methods that I select almost unconsciously based on the problem.

[bee-capstone-blog]

Blog no.12 25/09/23

In the maramataka, it's a high-energy time to take action and be active. In my personal life, I'm very low energy and have been going through a hard time. Balancing these two energies is important with the upcoming workshops. Yasmin and I have reached out to our peers to get interested in our proposed craft workshops that we will use to enrich our capstones in different ways. I aim to get insights into the application of craft and connection. Up until now, I've been relying on personal experience and literature review, so it's integral to do some participatory design to make sure my concepts translate into actionable workshop design. Below is one of the posts we made to advertise the workshop.

[Image by Bee, texture by Yasmin, 2023]

Making the above image and some other variations was a great way to test how my visual guide can be applied in different formats.

Yasmin and I also translated our workshop plan into kōrero cards, which we can test during our workshop to see if they are an effective tool for advancing vulnerable conversations.

[Scans of kōrero cards, Bee & Yasmin, 2023]

It was interesting collaborating (or co-designing) with Yasmin, especially as we're doing very different projects. The common threads pulling us together (pun intended) of our connection to queerness and crafting allow me to see, tangibly, the wider context of my project and the ontology of queer creativity. We work well together, both motivated and passionate as well as being able to divide tasks in a way that feels fair to both of us.