FMP (3) — RUNNING A WORKSHOP
Topic: Money
Timeframe: 02/10/23–23/11/23
Team: R.Hodge, R.Suri, T.Singh & Myself
To contextualise and refine gathered insights at the intersection of money / power / influence over expression and relationships, we developed some use case scenarios and tested them in a workshop settings. Situating our inquiry within interactions, allowed us to gain multiple perspectives and observe behaviours tied to our findings.
DESIGNING & RUNNING A WORKSHOP
ACTIVITY 1 — DESIGN A DATING PROFILE FOR MONEY
For our first activity, we designed an exercise that utilises the literary technique of anthropomorphism — the technique of interpretation of nonhuman things or events in terms of human characteristics— to help people grasp their relationship with money on a more personal level, and uncover nuanced insights.
We then situated the exercise into a 'dating app scenario', which further grounded the concept of money into a familiar setting. Asking our participants to create a dating profile for the imagined money persona, they thought about its positive and negative qualities, what they would be like in a relationship and what are their dreams for the future. Exercise made money real, but also much more fun to think about!
Findings:
- relationships with money are not equal — either you are in control of your money, or money controls you (it is never 50/50)
- money is power / money is leverage (its power controls you, or you can use the power having money gives to control your surroundings)
- having money / controlling your money = freedom
ACTIVITY 2 — BARTER
Our second exercise consisted of several rounds of barter trading. In each round participants are given several items and assigned a list of items they want to get. Each following round then increases the level to which monetary value is involved in the process of trade & fulfilment of your assigned needs and wants.
For ex. In Round 1 you have an umbrella and a water bottle, and your task is to get painkillers, tea and sunglasses. In Round 4 you have an umbrella (20£) and a water bottle (15£) and your task is to get painkillers (1£), tea (6£) and sunglasses (60£).
The exercise questions the topics of power, control and leverage. It looks into how we understand and satisfy our wants&needs when money is not involved versus when it is. It aims to surface how monetary value manipulates the perception of worth.
We ran the first (test) round amongst ourselves to iterate on the elements of the activity — we improved clarity of instructions given to participants and simplified the mechanisms.
We ran the second round of workshop with 8 participants over the course of 60 minutes. Each round (its mechanisms and tasks) was explained separately and won/lost separately. Gains and loses did not carry from one round to the next one.
Running the workshop as a group of 4 was ideal — Bex was guiding the group through exercises; Tanya and Roshni were documenting as well as offering support individually where needed; I was observing the group and taking notes of interactions and conversations. This set-up supported the smooth run of the workshop while also allowing me to capture all the going-ons within the group.
The workshop was really fun for all of us, and for our participants, which undoubtedly supported the engagement in the activities. There was lively discussion, laughter and bartering, which with each round, progressed into using creative storytelling to manufacture desire, leveraging each other to get your way and competition.
Findings:
- monetary value manipulates the nature of negotiations immediately — participants are hesitant to trade out high-value items they don' t need, for low-value items they do need
- with monetary value priorities shift — the goal of satisfying needs is suppressed in favour of retaining items with monetary value
- stories create value — participants invented stories for their items when trading them out, to manufacture emotion, desire and demand in the person, and leverage them into the trade they needed to complete
- personal attachment increases value — participants traded for items they personally found desirable, even if the task did not state that they need them
= money is a third in relationships, and for better or worse, exerts power and control over human interactions
= personal narrative co-creates value of objects and experiences
WORKSHOP REFLECTIONS & LEARNINGS
ACTIVITY 1
- Anthropomorphising exercise made the object/system/ideology of money graspable in familiar terms. It allowed our participants to situate money within their own lives & think about the concept in graspable terms of 1-on-1 interaction.
- Looking back, I would improve the dating exercise a little bit — the ‘best foot forward’ approach to writing a dating profile skews the results toward the positives we associate with money
ACTIVITY 2
- Overall, the workshop run really smoothly. Looking back, I would allocate snack and tea breaks as a part of workshop proceeding (we just put out the snacks, but did not designate a time of rest). Sometimes the best discussions and insights emerge during the downtime — a nice relaxed snack break.
- I would also consider providing some degree of narrative and context; while participants' stories provided invaluable insights, grounding the individual rounds in some context could generate richness of narrative and help answer questions within the scope of our research
+ GENERAL REFLECTIONS
- Feedback, while invaluable and incredibly insightful, surfaced a critical gap: we were missing a clearly defined scope of inquiry and research question. Identifying this gap, we promptly moved into the ideation phase, aiming to refine project’s direction through experiments, prototypes and testing.
