“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.”
Indeed we are, but nowadays I suppose the focus is more on the games we’re playing?
We had an absolutely great session with Richard and a rather simple drawing online tool – Polypad. On a hindsight, this most probably would be one of the most favourite sessions I’d had during the studies. Given the tool with basic forms and colours, we were asked to visualise our research questions and.. wow! – what a difference it made expressing my thoughts (random and scattered as they were) without words. As if I saw my project through a completely different prism.
And as much as I was completely entertained by whole experience, whilst it was happening, on reflection I noticed the constant flow states I was going into. Being creative, expressive and absolutely present in the moment apparently gave me a huge delight. Pushing the boundaries even further, what I actually enjoyed very much ware the metaphors, finding the hidden meanings, peeling the outer layers, only to find more underneath, usually in a different dimension. Oh, what a joy!
The first picture depicts my research question as a constant flow of various questions and answers between a mentor and a mentee. That exchange of information constantly carried on the wings of the “birds” – circulating, but being updated every time it passes through an actor. The question mark would symbolise the one that is eager to learn, the curious (the mentee) and the smile, would be the mentor – the one happy to enhance, to give and receive. Underneath is a board with various (almost random) fields, describing the medium and the tool that supports the communication above. Next to the board there’s a literal representation of a sand timer, adding the layer of time to the picture – as being limited, but also as all being gradually developed and tracked throughout it.
One of the most interesting finding for me, was that none of the above concepts were fully defined in my head, before I actually expressed them with shapes and started talking about them.
During the feedback / observation session, I have received some great comments from the group, which developed my thinking even further. Here are some of them:
- huge accent to the actors, compared to the rest of the elements
- polarisation in the actors (aren’t they a bit of both?)
- all elements hold a metaphor, only the sand timer is realistic
I loved listening the comments and observing people trying (quite successfully) to understand it and feed me back. A couple of extra pairs of eyes and minds, gave me a great ground for improvements.
The second picture shows an enhanced version of the first one. I have realised the board / the field should not be sitting outside of the whole communication flow – it should be there, right in the middle, acting as a real medium for it. I have also moved the timer on the upper-right hand side, where we are used to have the legend of the map (or the main menu, if speaking in a digital- world-language).
I love the second version. I plan to use it when developing my question further.
