ESSENCE OF CULTURE
Introduction-
This project helped me understand the importance of culture and community by carefully observing and learning the material and non-material components related to it.
TOOLS used for Inquiry-
1. 5W1H-
5W1H is the abbreviation summarising the following six questions: What? Who? Where? When? Why? How? This method consists of asking a systematic set of questions to gather all the information required.
This tool helped me to diversify my questions further, I was able to make questions from the questions itself using this tool.
The "what" helped me move towards why?, where?, how?. Though I mostly used what, how, why and where because Who was already known.
5W1H also made it easier for me to know the material and non-material components of the object and also emotions and feelings that my subject( 2nd person) had regarding it.
It also helped me to discern the information needed to better understand, encompass, clarify, structure, frame my topics and this way of thinking allowed me to explore all the dimensions from different perspectives.
eg-When I asked my subject "what do you use your notepad for? he answered "to write important things that I might forget" his answer made me question "what you write" and
Why do you forget". Which helped me know him better and analyze his answers.
while my subject was answering the why? to his own answers, I was able to understand the
non-material components better.
BENEFITS | LIMITATIONS |
diversification of the questions further. | Time consuming. |
Better knowledge and analysis of all the dimensions and topics. | tedious and tiresome. |
structuring and forming questions in a systematic and organized manner. | My subject got very irritated while I was questioning him about everything. |
covers all the aspects and helps in probing further. | He was giving one word answers, and I had to dig out my answers from his mouth. |
Always list down all your questions before asking them, you can later add on to your questions while your subject is answering them.
2. Semi-structured interview-
-a type of interview in which the interviewer asks only a few predetermined questions while the rest of the questions are not planned in advance.
Since semi structured interview combines both the structured and unstructured interview styles, it offers the advantage of both as the interviewer does not create any interview sequence, but the questions can be predetermined.
I was not new to this tool as I was a psychology student in my school and I had used this tool while interviewing my classmates during the practical's.
This tool helped me know my subject(2nd person) better, It helped me know their mental state, that what is their perception regarding things and why do they feel what they feel.
I had noted down my questions earlier but using a semi-structured helped me add more questions while he was answering the questions.
It gave a spontaneity to direct the course of my conversation and ask questions.
eg- The question "why is your notepad special to?' made me ask him
"what emotional connect do you have with it and why?"
So I didn't had to think much about what question to ask, it created a flow and sequence on its own.
BENIFITS | LIMITATIONS |
help guide the conversation and keep respondents on topic. | time consuming. |
Encourages two-way communication. | tiresome and tedious |
Provides an opportunity so that interviewers can learn answers to questions and the reasons behind the answers. | You need to ask a lot of questions to draw conclusions and make comparisons. |
Interviewing a person who is very different from you in terms of profession, age, gender, thinking process etc can help you make an insightful comparison and help you answer all the why's.
eg. while interviewing my father I realised .We both had an emotional connect with our
notepads, but for the different reasons depending upon how we perceive things, our maturity level, our personal choices, of course the age difference and also our different emotional quotients.
https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_llZoKnU=/?moveToWidget=3074457367214410820&cot=14 -link to the interview task
CONCLUSION-
Strengths-
I was able to perform my Pre-task very well, gather a lot of information and could complete it before time, as the festival I chose was Karwa Chauth and my Mom had a lot of information about it, she told me everything she knew, I didn't even have to search anything on google. For pictures I asked my family and relatives to send me their own pictures, as I had to collect all the information and pictures from primary resources.
link for my pre-task- https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_llZoKnU=/?moveToWidget=3074457367451422314&cot=14
I was able to diversify my mind-map a lot by questioning the why behind every ritual and custom.
For eg-Why do women see the moon and their husband through a sieve. what is the significance behind it? why is mehndi considered to auspicious for women? etc.
Challenges and barriers-
I struggled a bit during the final commentary log task while writing down my final commentary about the Wancho community, as I was not sure how to go about it and what all to write, I started to state down the facts that I could find about them from the secondary sources, but then I took a session with Gaurvi Ma'am and realised that I had to analyze those facts and find out the why behind them and also write my own observations from the information collected.
Also working in a group for the final task was a bit challenging for me, as we all were not able to sit together at a same time and work because someone or the other was busy, so I decided to finish off my task first and then on the last we all got together on a call and combined and edited our videos together.
KEY LEARNINGS-
I learnt about the material and non material components, at first I found this concept very confusing but after we had a discussion in the class about a chair and discussed about its material and non-material components, I got a bit clear.
I also learnt that their is a non-material aspect of every material.
I wondered why we as design students are taught about culture and its importance and noted down my realisation-
While we as a group were working on different domains of our indigenous community, I realised that though we were researching on different domains like rituals, traditions ,livelihood ,clothing etc but somewhere or the other our domains had some similarities and were interrelated
Eg The clothing of the wancho community has a significance to their tradition and religion as , the tradition of tattoo making holds a significant role in their position and status in their society, for women it is culturally and religiously important.
This shows that the domains are separate yet interrelated.
“The beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people.”
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