DES303 Week 2 - Demo Planning

For my reflection of week 2 of my design research course, I will use the Gibb's Reflective Cycle (Gibbs, 1988) to break down and evaluate my feelings and create an action plan.

Description

I spent my second week refining and researching my chosen skill for my tech demo assignment. I chose to teach a fibre analysis class on 3 common types of yarn: wool, cotton, and acrylic. I spent time writing out what I already knew about each fibre and then researching further to deepen my understanding of why the different fibres have different properties. I was interested in taking it to a molecular level as I also have a background in chemistry.

I then found some precedents from fibre artists I have been loving recently.

Here is a linktree I created which contains many informational resources as well as all the artists mentioned here.

I also worked on creating some slides to present all of the information I was finding out, plus some crochet swatches to create an interactive activity during the demo. I spent a lot of late nights in the Kate Edgar building coming into uni after working and studying until midnight. There was a lot more research to do than I had anticipated and I was rusty at creating digestable slides. My final presentation will be available to see in next weeks post!

Feelings

I was feeling extremely stressed for most of this week to complete everything. It wasn't that I was neccessarily rushed, but as it was something I was passionate about, I wanted to create an interesting presentation and be well-versed in my topic. I found it really fascinating to research all the chemistry behind the different fibre types and learn why things are the way they are. After doing fibre arts for many years, I had learned many of the physical properties through practice, feel and intuition but it was cool to put the science behind the skill. I also felt frustrated because I had to commit so much time to this assignment and couldn't focus on my other course.

Evaluation

Although I'm grateful that I put so much effort into this assignment as I've come away from it having a deep understanding and knowledge of these three fibre types, I do feel that I put myself under unneccessary stress by making it more complicated than it needed to be. I let myself get carried away with the research which made me commit more time to this assignment and I didn't take care of my body and soul during this period.  I wish to be able to enter every project with the same level of enthusiasm but this is unattainable in my current state.

Analysis

I believe that where things went wrong were because it was my first assignment in design in two years so my time management, and prioritisation skills need practicing again. I wish to give myself grace as I find it easy to beat myself up about doing too much / not enough. This causes me to constantly be swingng between the two extremes which makes me feel chaotic and causes further grief often leaving me burnt out or physically sick. After this assignment was complete I did actually get sick and have to take a few days off from university and work to recover. Why I got so far into the research was because I kept asking 'why?' and diving deeper until I understood at a chemical level the reasoning behind each physical fibre property. With my chemistry background, it was easy to peak my curiosity and I am able to understand a lot of chemical diagrams and jargon making it easier for me.

Conclusion

I learned that it is okay to be passionate about what you're researching, but it is also important to take care of yourself, and it is always okay to simplify! Starting a project earlier will hopefully save me some of those late night study sessions and also help me figure out the scope faster and whether I need to backtrack, simplify etc. I am really proud of myself for all the effort I put into this demo, and the knowledge I have gained and passed on is super helpful and I'm excited to explore more into texture and fibre arts in the future.

Action plan

If I were to do this assignment again, I would create a step by step plan so that there is a more concrete timeline of when I should have completed things by, and to be able to know when I need to stop and move on. This will also be helpful in just starting a project (getting over the mental hurdle of starting) making it easier to continue. Also making sure I have a day to myself each week, or significant breaks in which I do things completely unrelated to university to nourish the soul.

references

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further

Education Unit. Oxford Polytechnic: Oxford. https://thoughtsmostlyaboutlearning.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/learning-by-doing-graham-gibbs.pdf