Cultural Probes: Design & Findings – Kaitlyn

My group decided to create cultural probes based on art therapy for the elderly.

Our cultural probe: an activity booklet accompanied with
drawing / writing materials (pens, pencils and colour pencils)

Goal: To investigate attitudes towards art therapy for the elderly as a creative practice and ageing from the perspectives of an art therapist and general populace

We came up with three main activities that required participants to visualise their practices, think about ageing and imagine themselves as the aged.

One of the participants is Clifford, a silkscreen printer. It would be intriguing to see how another practitioner other than an art therapist visualises ageing and the elderly, an unusual perspective that might be useful when creating a wearable studio suited for our story world (to be told). 

Clifford, a silkscreen printer’s perspective on art therapy

Activity 1: Visualise Your Practice

Interestingly, Clifford’s take on silkscreen printing seems to be similar to an underlying aim of art therapy when he mentioned “translating … an intangible emotion to a physical entity”. The focus in both practices seems to be the process rather than the final product and one that would bring about an emotional response such as happiness. This highlights the importance of art therapists to provide ample means to enhance the therapy process; and of designers to take such into consideration, i.e. to augment their wearables’ holding capacity for a variety of art mediums.

Activity 2: Ageing

To help create a rich story world, we sought to understand how general populace in Singapore understand the elderly and ageing.

Activity 3: Imagine that you are an elderly person.

Photographs would help us to visualise good or bad designs out there so that we could emulate or avoid. 

Based on Clifford’s word tree and photographs, his observations largely are centred around physical mobility, where mobility for the elderly can be improved upon or accommodations can be made. Indeed while designing for an older crowd, including middle-aged art therapists and elder therapy clients, it is important to take their physical abilities into account. It would be useless to create a heavy wearable studio even if it can carry many things, when ultimately they cannot lift it up, rendering the design to be useless. 

Exploring Practitioners 3: Art Therapy – Kaitlyn

Creative Practice

Art therapy: Anna is an experienced art therapist who works with the elderly. Her sessions focus on encouraging communication and thinking through art activities, during which the elderly’s sense of selves are enhanced. 

Tools & equipment used

• Visual references: art books or printed cards
• Clipboard as painting or collaging surface
• Canvas: any paper 
• Medium: colour pencils, crayons, oil pastels, paints, magazines and newspaper cut-outs, stickers
• Paint brushes
• Water bottle and container
• Disposable aprons

Worksite / Set-up

For twice a week, Anna would conduct art therapy sessions at an elderly centre. Other times, she would conduct therapy sessions outdoors, such as in parks or nature reserves. As she would usually need to push her clients on their wheelchairs, Anna carries all her tools and equipment in a back pack or 2 for ease of transportation.

She also organises her tools and equipment neatly in foldable cases and in respective zip-lock bags to ensure extra portability. 

Finding a quiet and serene area suitable for wheelchairs and a bench for Anna to sit is key for the hour-long sessions. While flat surfaces such as outdoor tables are useful for elderly who are generally mobile, Anna improvised a table for those who are wheelchair-bound using clip-boards.

Process

While participating in actual therapy sessions with the elderly was not possible due to confidentiality, Anna kindly conducted a short session with Jo-Ann, Johann and I at her place in her backyard. I suppose a subtle requirement when selecting the right therapy location is how calming it makes clients feel!

During our short half-hour session, we were given 5-minutes to work on our artwork.

As mentioned, the goal of art therapy was to promote self-awareness and stimulate the mind, which was why Anna asked us individually about our process of creating what ended up with. (For me my stomach was not feeling well that morning; inspired by that, I decided to paint what would be a bleeding wound that was imagined to be on my abdominal area.)

The aftermath of making art

Pain Points

In the past, Anna had tried to use trolley bags in place of her back packs but found the former to be inconvenient when she had to push a wheelchair. Given the nature of her work which involves a lot of bulky materials and travelling, it is important that a wearable studio for her would be able to withstand weight yet be as light as possible. Other considerations would be how it ought to be easy to clean, since the medium that clients and herself would encounter includes a messy one – paint. A convenient source of water would also be needed for painting sessions.  

Exploring Practitioners 2: Lei Weaving – Kaitlyn

Creative Practice

Ke-Ting Chen’s work, Queen of Collectors

Ke-Ting Chen is a Taiwanese plant pathologist and artist whose residency with Jalan Besar Salon 2018 featured lei weaving artworks that intertwined with selected research documents. Collectively, the series of talks and workshops will showcase his work with the indigenous communities and farm sash where he explored the effects of human intervention on these natural resources.

Tools & equipment used

• Fresh and dried botanicals specimens 
• Weaving ropes of variable thickness
• Cutters or scissors
• Mats or trays
• A pair of hands!

Worksite / Set-up

Chen picked up lei weaving from aboriginal tribes of Taiwan; they would typically weave head or body wreathes in open spaces surrounded by natural environments, such as in indigenous villages and farms. Here in the city, his weaving workshop was conducted within a retail store, where participants would sit on the floor around tables and the experience turned out to be quite and intimate!

Retail store of Emporium of the Modern Man (EoMM)

While handy leaves and flowers were prepared on trays for later use, a corner in his 3-week worksite is dedicated to a larger variety of plant and flower specimens, which were also part of his botanical installations. 

Process

We were taught one of the simpler forms of lei weaving: using braids.

Before we started to weave flowers into our ropes, Chen advised us to map out how we wanted our final wreathe to look, on the mats/trays given to us.

I really liked the purple leaves and thought I would add yellow and red flowers as a pop of colour.

Time for weaving!

2 hours and a whole lot of patience later… 

My very own neck wreathe

Pain Points

It was really difficult to braid dried stems into the sash because they’re very brittle and rigid; I had to replace them multiple times whenever they would break away. Chen later mentioned the trick was to soften them before braiding by spraying some water on them; I wished he would have told me that earlier!

Exploring Practitioners 2: Handicraft Making – Jhnn Ymn

I had the chance to meet with a practitioner who is really passionate about making small craft items, from hand-woven cozies to clay sculpting and miniature figure making. As such, the tools used were wide and varying. Some of the tools I captured were as follows —

Tools:

  • Clay
  • Sculpting tools
  • Brushes
  • Moulds
  • Different coloured thread
  • Weaving patterns
  • Tape
  • Scissors
  • Penknife
  • Glue

Since I had no experience with these crafts, we decided to start with a more simple craft — cozies for customising pens. Because of the small size of these crafts, a simple table would function as worksite.

Worksite — Crafts table

She began by demonstrating to me one personalised pen cozy she was already working on, with her friend’s name on it. First, she cut out sections of coloured thread to be interwoven with black thread.

By looping black thread around a section of a pen covered in double sided tape, she was then able interweaving pieces of differently coloured thread together. The pattern within which they would be interwoven would be based on the existing weaving pattern samples provided on a piece of paper.

Once she was done with one iteration, she let me try completing the rest of the letters. While I fumbled at first and had to refer to the samples provided a lot, I was able to get the hang of it in the end.

The final step to sealing the cozy up was to apply some glue and wind the sticky thread around the pen and leave it to dry. Unfortunately, my handling of the glue was rather poor and it left some marks on the final product.

Some of the difficulties faced were as follows — 

  • Many implements and tools needed, such as scissors, penknife, glue, string, tape, pens.
  • One required a place to store all these items.
  • A classification system would be needed as well.

Exploring Practitioners 1: Exhibition Curator – Jhnn Ymn

I recently had the chance to meet with the curator of an independent arts space to talk about curation and the technical details of exhibition making. The exhibition being shown when we met dealt with the notion of conservation – about Singapore’s ceaseless march towards upgrading, redevelopment, progress, and its subsequent failure to preserve spaces; how such losses are woven into wider sociocultural discourses on the production/instrumentalisation of heritage, national identity, and nostalgia. The show had a heavy emphasis on new media works, involving 3 video works and a VR installation.

Our interactions took the form of a curatorial workshop – he posed me the question of how I would curate the show myself, with a particular focus on reformulating the existing elements of the show to improve the exhibition experience. The main tools in exhibition making are as follows –

Tools:

  • Wall text
  • Labels
  • Lighting
  • Media equipment (projectors, screens, speakers)
  • Wiring
  • Design

Worksite — Gallery:

First, I went through the exhibition myself, examining the worksite of the gallery space and taking note of these elements.

Visitors would enter the glass doors of the gallery to be confronted by a darkened gallery filled with soil brought over from Bukit Brown cemetery, talismans and gravestones from Bukit Brown peeking out from the dirt. Positioned over these piles of dirt were the video works – an erected screen with projection would greet the visitor on the right, and inscribed on a lit-up section of the wall was an essay – the curator’s notes for the show.

He explained that the essay would frame the entire show from the beginning and reduce the need to light up other sections in the gallery for additional labels, contributing to the atmosphere of the gallery. Text, he said, often served as anchor points for visitors in exhibitions. Having the main text at the beginning encouraged the viewer to circulate the space and revisit works and the text to make full sense of the exhibition.

The next work was a triptych of screens lined against the wall. He pointed out the wiring of the screens, which is an important consideration in exhibitions — how the wiring of components can be tucked away or made as unobtrusive as possible. He also expressed his wish for better installation of sound equipment for this video work, explaining the choice of screens instead of projections (the other two works in the room were already large projections, thus the need to scale down this work).

He also pointed out the horizontality of the work with its tracking camera movements, which encouraged the flow of visitors through the space and gave the exhibition a sense of directional quality.

Objects such as tombstones and talismans were on display with labels. He explained the use of objects being interspersed with artworks as just an interesting point of contrast/interaction, whether materially or conceptually. He talked about the use of spotlights instead of profile-cut, shaped lights, and how distance and position of lights can be played with to light an object well.

The final video work sat above another mound of dirt. Here, a chair was placed for viewers to sit. The curator talked about the chair as a means of allowing the viewer to linger for a longer period of time to appreciate a work, also talking about the silhouette it produces when a visitor sits in front of the large projection. Other considerations, such as painting the wall or fabricating a scrim to the specific aspect ratio of the video work were talked about when installing a projection.

Workshopping

We then sat down to talk about how I would have curated the show instead, given the earlier tools described. After considering everything, I sketched out a new layout within my notes:

The exhibition layout I planned didn’t change so much — I did think of, however, the following changes:

  • Sectioning the wall text better so it spatially corroborated with the works on display
  • Bringing out artefacts towards the centre of the room and scattering them out more so that not all works are wall-based
  • Switching the wall on which the triptych work was presented, such that there was a more immediate visual flow for the audience, bringing the screens down from the wall and placing them with the dirt for a more affective quality. Also, providing chairs such that people could linger with this work more as well.
  • Bringing the dirt more towards the centre of the gallery such that visitors would have a more visceral experience of walking through dirt to sit down and view the final video work.

Overall, some of the challenges one faces are:

  • Poor sound quality/acoustics in galleries
  • Technical limitations — what lights, equipment do you have available?
  • Working with artists produces a different outcome each time, must be able to build relationships and adapt

Cultural Probes: Design & Findings – Jo-Ann Ng

Goal:
To investigate attitudes towards art therapy for the elderly as a creative practice and ageing from the perspectives of an art therapist and general populace

For this cultural probe, I had two participants for the activity workbook.
One, the art therapist we had sat down with to explore her practice – Anna; Two, a university nursing student – Sara.

  1. Visualisation of practice
    1. Through the abstraction of your emotions, experiences, influences, and relationships to wider contexts, represent your practice through colour, line, shape, pattern, or any combination of visual elements – as long as you do not use written words. You may use any number of pages you wish.
    2. On a separate page from your visualisation, write out and document the thought processes behind your visualisation.

Interestingly, for this prompt, Sara put herself in the shoes of what it was like to be a client receiving art therapy. She wrote out a story of her grandmother and her feelings towards the matter – in doing so, she is expressing that she thinks art therapy is meant to heal the heart through drawing and talking one’s problems through and to the therapist.
Anna drew a sapling that had a reflection of a tree, indicating the nourishment that art therapy provides as well as how how the art her clients make provide a reflection she writes about under 1B.

2. Mental model of ageing and the elderly

  1. You are given a list of 7 words below. Based on your own interpretation and understanding of their meanings, implications and/or relationship(s), create one or more word trees using the words as prompts. You should come up with at least 10 other words to create your word tree(s), excluding the given prompts. You may use any number of pages you wish.
    1. Elderly
    2. Death
    3. Ageing
    4. Health
    5. Mobility
    6. Values
    7. Stereotypes

Sara, as a nursing student, approached this question from a relatively objective/external/medical point of view. As compared to Anna who went more in depth with regards to the mental health of elderly. 

3. Imagine that you are an elderly person.

  • Take 2 photographs of objects or elements around you that were integrated to accommodate the various needs of the elderly. (e.g. ramps and railings for the elderly who are unable to navigate up the stairs)
  • Take 3 photographs of everyday things or features around you that you feel might pose a problem to the elderly in any way.
  • The images were provided separately but these were a representation of what the two participants thought about for prompt 3.

    Explore Practitioners 2: Digital Illustrator – Jo-Ann Ng Yixian

    I visited a friend, Caroline, who is a freelance digital illustrator – she mainly earns income from working with companies on projects like collateral designs but she also produces prints and merchandise to sell online. She graduated from NAFA 5 years ago and has been doing this ever since.

    Sketch of the necessary tools Caroline says she needs to do her job.
    (yes snacks are very important)

    Tools:
    As illustrated in the sketch above:
    Seagate 4TB Harddisk, to store all her digital files (She has 5 of these)
    Sippycup Waterbottle, to keep hydrated but to prevent any spillage accidents
    Pantone Color Booklet, to color check with clients, printers, etc.
    – Wrist guard, because of her drawing injuries, tendinitis, so it helps her to work for longer hours without excessively straining it but it is still important for her to take breaks!
    WACOM Intuos 4 Tablet + Pen, about 6 years old and still working good

    Interestingly, she pastes a piece of thick tracing paper on top of the drawing field of the tablet to protect the surface and prevent it from being too scratched up – which will reduce the sensitivity in the long run.
    Many new models of tablets have been released since the Intuos 4 but Caroline has never really bothered to ‘upgrade’ because she feels like she is very comfortable with this and it does the job. 

    Worksite: 
    She mainly works in the comfort of her own room (which she was not very comfortable with me taking pictures of since it was messy and a private space for her).

    Portability: 
    On occasion she brings out her iPad (and Apple pencil) for meetings with companies to do quick sketches on the spot, but she works with this Intuos 4 at-home set up 95% of the time and is most comfortable with.
    It would be possible to migrate to spaces like cafes or coworking spaces of course, but electricity plugs will be needed due to long working hours and it is important for her to be comfortable in the work environment if not she gets art blocked.

    Ng Yixian Jo-Ann (A0142014B) – Practitioner 2/3

    Exploring Practitioners 1: Home-based Silkscreen Printing – Kaitlyn

    Creative Practice

    Clifford owns an art-fashion brand selling prints and apparel with original designs and for over 2 years, he has been using the silk-screen printing method for his tees.

    Tools used

    I did similar research on silkscreen printing a few weeks back, but I thought engaging in the practice with an experienced practitioner would offer me a different perspective, and allow me to compare his unique printing process with my previous research. Similar to my research findings, Clifford uses the following tools:

    • Wooden Squeegee
    • Printable material: shirt and canvas tote bag (any fabric)
    • Speedball fabric paint: green, white, black (any colour)

    There were a few exceptions:

    • Pre-burned silk-screens – Rather than burning an artwork onto a silk screen at home using Diazophoto emulsion and Artwork positive, Clifford prefers to get it done professionally at a local printing shop. For greater precision and convenience, he finds $60 (for an A3-sized screen) worth every dollar.
    • Tape – Since Clifford does not own a printing machine, he uses tape for alignment.

    Worksite / Set-up

    Clifford doesn’t own a studio; rather he works from his living room, which is spacious, well-lit and well-ventilated. According to Clifford, these are ideal qualities of a work space used for silk-screen printing due to constant manoeuvres of screens and prints, and the paint involved. He divides his living room into 2 stations, both far apart from one another:

    Printing Station, on the dining table
    Drying Station, near the window

    Flat surfaces are needed for both stations to print designs clearly and to prevent staining. 

    Another important station is the washing zone, where he washes his screens in between prints.

    Washing Station, in the bathroom

    As for storage, he keeps all tools and paints in his bedroom cabinets, while the screens in the storeroom, just for cleanliness sake.  

    Process

    I was involved in designing an artwork a few weeks prior to prepare for this printing session. The design process was unexpectedly rigorous but necessary; sending multiple drafts back-and-forth between Clifford and I ensured that correct dimensions were used and keeping the printer in the loop ensured that details were apparent enough for printing. The design turned out better than I had expected. All we got left to do is print!

    Silk-screen Clifford and I designed

    The first try turned out to be a complete fail because the paint had dried up (lumpy instead of viscous); the lime green colour was not bright enough; and the canvas tote was not the best material to print on (it was too textured).

    Final outcome of the tote I printed

    The tote bag was left to dry overnight in the drying area. 

    Pain Points

    Given that his studio is practically his living room, Clifford finds it a pain in the ass to ensure his prints don’t stain the floor, furniture and other prints, especially in the wind. The constant need to walk around also makes the process less efficient that it could have been in a proper screen printing studio. 

    Afterthoughts

    Trial and error is an inevitable but necessary part of the creative practice – we utilised the insides and outsides of the first bag to figure out what paint and how many coatings are required to achieve our desired print. Resourcefulness is also important especially if one doesn’t not have all the professional equipment typically found in a printing studio. While my previous research and ideation led me to practical and absurd designs, I might need to reconsider their appropriateness in a story world where experimentalists with resourceful mindsets are valued, such as that of Clifford’s scenario. 

    Explore Practitioners 1: Mirror Engraving – Jo-Ann Ng Yixian

    (Left) Various tools that are required for mirror engraving.
    (Middle) Main body of the micromotor machine.
    (Right) A few examples of the different bits that can be put into the handpiece – each achieves a different type of thickness and roughness (for lines to be drawn and to suit a range of different materials)

    Sketch of the materials needed as well as a brief description of what they did

    Alicia, the mirror engraver, allowed me to engrave my own mirror, while teaching me the basics of how to do so.

    Starting with drawing a sketch on the mirror with a water-soluble marker.
    I decided to draw a chrysanthemum.
    Video of me engraving the mirror for the first time.
    After completing the engraving, wipe off the marker lines and the bits of glass that were ‘shaved’ off during the engraving process. In case it gets too cloudy while engraving, wiping off the bits can also be done during the process.
    Completed! A mask is optional but good to prevent breathing in the small glass shards/powder.

    The mirror turned out a lot better than I expected for a first-time engraving. As I was allowed to fully experience the entire process, I had a much better idea of what is needed and various considerations that are needed to make the engraving process run smoothly. 

    Alicia’s work space (her studio of sorts) was in her own room. She mentioned that she has brought her equipment to other locations (such as art events) as well on several occasions.

    Ng Yixian Jo-Ann (A0142014B) – Practitioner 1/3

    Practice Storyworld – Jo-Ann Ng Yixian

    This storyworld is based around the prototype/model made last week for baristas in cafes. 

    Genre: Adventure (?)

    This storyworld is based on how we know our world, Earth, today. However, it can be seen as an alternate universe or timeline – it is not a futuristic plot but it does have slightly more advanced technology than what we are used to. It is not set “in the future” from 2018, nor in the past. It exists on its own.
    In this society, people are born into professions – much like how people in the past were named after their professions (occupational last names such as Mason or Carpenter). The families are also related to one another based on how closely linked their occupations are – for example, the nurse, surgeon and physicist families are “cousin” branches of the main doctoring/medical family. Societal norms are more or less the same.
    The reputation of these families are based on their competency and value – i.e. doctors have larger roles in saving lives etc as compared to a plumber. However, ‘lower level’ occupations are still able to do well based on their expertise.
    My main storyworld character is a girl from a family of baristas but wants to invent tools within her field but is met with adversity and judgment from others because it branches out to the capabilities of engineers and inventors.
    She makes the “latte art stylus” and uses it while working, but it causes problems (like burning her hand or ruining the cup of coffee) because the device acts up.

    I have not fully thought of the story progression but I started thinking of this ‘storyworld’ based on the context of this module – the idea of rapid prototyping and creating wearable studios.