Week 9: Timeline for the Next Few Weeks

This week I will be plotting a project timeline for the next few weeks as well as for winter break until the end of next semester. I will also be continuing my reading plan onto the next topic area, which is learning about silent mental health crisis in Southeast Asian community.

Project Timeline

From the lecture last week regarding deadlines for our thesis project, the end of the line is definitely approaching. Even though I am still having a difficult time visualizing the form of the final project, I think for my case of designing an interactive space, I would fit best within the category of research through art and design that is a practice-based research for iterative projects. I might not be planning on creating three sets of artefact but two is a definite possibility. The following is the suggested timeline:

Suggested Timeline for Research Through Art & Design

I feel like this suggested timeline is a little too broad (which makes sense) to be a set timeline that I can follow religiously as it does not take into account the reading plan and field-research that might affect the process of creating the artefacts, so I will be drafting a rough timeline for myself.

Pre-Thesis Finals (December 17):

• Read up until third topic area: healthy emotion regulation
• Rough draft of first set of artefact (sketches and plan), possibly idea for second set of artefact (?)
• Finalize design of research methods to be applied during winter break, at least for the first and second methods: collage and cultural probes
• At least second meeting of therapy
• First two chapters of dissertation

Start of Spring Semester (January 24):

• Finish reading all topic areas including how physical/ built environment affects our emotions
• Halfway through first set of artefact and rough draft of second set of artefact
• Compile findings from first batch of field-research, send out second batch if necessary, and finalize planning for the third research method
• At least speak with two professionals/ experts

Spring Semester Mid-term (March):

• Additional reading materials to support the design of artefacts
• Finish first set of artefact and halfway though second set of artefact
• Compile all findings from field-research and apply to the design of artefacts
• Get thoughts from a few participants about the artefacts so far

Defense (April):

• Finish both sets of artefact according to the application from readings, results from field-research, and follow-ups from participants
• Finish the rest of dissertation

Final Presentations (May):

• Finish refining both sets of artefacts based on professional inputs during defense
• Finish preparation for public presentation
• Finish refining dissertation

Design Methods

One of the workshops that I attended last week was Elizabeth’s and I found it informative in a way that I learnt about the various design methods that I can possibly apply to my thesis topic. Long story short, my peers suggested me to consider looking at my project through the design method of ethnography, theology, and phenomenology.

Learnings from Readings

Honestly, looking for scholarly journals regarding Southeast Asian’s cultural attitudes when it comes to mental health is quite challenging, as according to Uehara, E. S., Takeuchi, D. T., & Smukler, M. (1994), there is far less empirical research about mental health services utilization among Asian and Pacific Americans than among other ethnic groups. Below are notes and quotes from scholarly articles that discuss about their cultural attitudes:

1. Help-seeking among Asian and Pacific Americans: A Multiperspective Analysis by Greg Yamashiro and Jon K. Matsuoka

• AAPI has implications for help-seeking behaviors and perceptions of mental illness (especially for those immigrating to the States generally posses values and perceptions consistent with the traditional attitudes of their homelands)
• Common notion: underutilizing mental health services
• Rarity in endorsing their emotional and interpersonal problems as their central problem, may affect their help-seeking behaviors
• AAPI sensitized to their environment and strive to maintain harmony and equilibrium in their multiple levels of experience as according to Johnson and Marsella (1978), they found that AAPI expressed more concern and sensitivity toward others in social situations than did white Americans, This sensitivity relives others of the discomfort of making personal requests and is usually contingent on a gesture of future reciprocation
• There is a belief that people cannot defy their karma but they can control how they live within that fate
• In Eastern culture it is believed that the onus is on the individual or family to overcome the problem, therefore AAPI are not likely to seek assistance of others, especially those form another culture
• In AAPI cultures, language may not accommodate all that individuals think and feel, especially for those who are not socialized to use language as a primary means for expressing feelings, they may prone to relate to symbolic gestures, physical and intuitive sensation, or deeply entrenched precognitive affect
• Differences in maternal style between Western and Eastern mothers when in comes to verbosity among their children as Asian mothers accommodate their children physically so their children tend to be less verbal and more physically passive
• Since AAPI are mostly immigrants or refugees, the element of oppression especially racism reinforces social separation and the development of subcultural systems ranging from the arts to financial assistance to various forms of self-help
• The ideology of self-reliance was determined by a mistrust generated towards outside institutions who took advantage of or misinterpret situations, as a result victimizing AAPI
• Legacy of mistrust and skepticism with white-controlled institutions (“formal” services) leads to the development of “informal services” in order to fill in the void such as services provided by spiritual leaders and practitioners of traditional healing methods