intervention 4: explore with stakeholder about the impact of seating arrangements on communication

here is their seat arrangement in their family:

Laissez-faire type:

Pluralistic type:

Consensual type:

Protective type:

Reflection

From the previous research, it was found that Protective type and Laissez-faire type lacked communication, and during the discussion, I found that in these two type family, there is usually a seating arrangement at the dining table. Their seats are arranged according to the family seat, but this is unconscious

In the other two types：Consensual and Pluralistic, they rarely have fixed seats, and they do not arrange seats according to family status. They communicate more with their family members, less conflicts, and have a good relationship with family members.

So I think the seat arrangement and family status and rights hinder the communication between children and parents to some extent, and Communication will be affected by power. If I want to promote communication between different generations, I must first make them aware of this problem. So how can we make people aware of this problem? This will be my next intervention

Next step and ideas:


My previous interventions focused on how to reduce the conflict between different generations, but I found that communication is a long-term process，this problem cannot be changed in the short term. And I also found that if two people disagree, you can hardly expect a decent response from the other person. Normally, he will defend himself and try to lead your thinking and judgments astray. A few months later, when the old words are brought up again, you will find that no one has changed their minds, as if the previous argument has never happened. 

So in the next intervention, I will first throw a question or point of view to the other person, let him think or study carefully, don’t worry about asking the answer, let him digest it in his mind first, and challenge his original concept. ( inspired by the book: The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe)

I will design a dining table. This is not an ordinary dining table, but a dining table that can reflect the status of the family. I will place it downstairs in my house or in the park, so that people passing by can think about the meaning of the dining table, and interview their feelings. I will make the next intervention based on the feedback I get.

stakeholders: user + expert

Over the past few weeks I have been actively trying to develop a network of who have difficult to communicate with their parents to engage in my project. So far, four users and one expert have participated in my project. They will discuss with me the communication mode in their own home and the future family communication mode.

User: These four users come from different family communication patterns：protective, consensual, laissez faire and pluralistic.

expert: This expert comes from the rca service design profession. Junyi Cao is a creative and energetic service designer with the background in product design. She has been exploring the relationship between people and studying how to deal with the relationship between people delicately, so that this relationship is at a balance point. In her past project, Junyi and her team members have insights into the weakness of online participants in the actual hybrid conference, and tried to reduce this sense of difference, so as to achieve the effect of improving the efficiency of the conference.(about her project: When we talk and meet people face to face, we get most of the information about what they are thinking from body language and facial expressions. In a virtual environment, we get much less information, and we need more times to confirm the other’s attitude. Because there is less interaction, remote participants feel lonely and alienated, and they will be easier distracted than offline. We believe that increasing the viscosity of the meeting will help solve the above problems.)

I think she can give me useful feedback and opinions in my project in the future.

Reflection

From the survey results, it is found that most people have to communicate with their family members at the table，and most people have fixed seats at the dinner table at home. There is no doubt that eating is a good time for communication. I think the time for eating can be fully used to help them communicate.

However, there is usually an unspoken seating arrangement at the Chinese dining table. This arrangement is a marker of hierarchical, honor and patriarchal structures in Chinese families, a reminder of one’s place at home.The guests of lowest position sit furthest from the seat of honor. When a family holds a banquet, the seat of honor is for the guest with the highest status and the head of the house takes the least prominent seat.

So I think the seat arrangement and family status and rights hinder the communication between children and parents to some extent.

Next step, I will use the time at the dinner table to promote communication between children and parents, so that they can communicate more effectively without rights and family status, and at the same time combine the knowledge I gained from the book 《shared experiences in human communication》 I read before. : Non-verbal and verbal communication, conscious and unconscious communication.

Book “Shared Experiences in Human Communication”

At first, I understood that communication is the exchange and transmission of information. It was not until I read the book “Shared Experiences in Human Communication” that I could really understand the process of re-understanding communication from a very basic level.

reflection

The following is my reflection after reading this book：

  • The concept of communication encompasses the process by which all people influence each other.
  • How different communication methods will reflect different person relationships.
  • Non-verbal communication basically defines the interpersonal relationship between each other.
  • Although language can be used to communicate almost everything, nonverbal responses only have a relatively limited range of communication. Nonverbal responses are often used to communicate feelings, preferences and preferences, and to emphasize or refute to correct those feelings communicated with language. Non-verbal communication can superimpose another layer of meaning on top of verbal information.
  • When interpersonal communication forces participants to accept the pressure of interacting with the future, interpersonal communication is destructive, because it makes participants more vulnerable; when interpersonal communication only enhances the spread of information does not affect the value and attitude behind people When interpersonal communication is neutral; when interpersonal communication is regarded as curative, it means that it inspires an individual’s insight into or readjustment to the world, and it allows people to carry out future developments in a more satisfying way. Social interaction.
  • Intentional and unintentional communication. A lot of our daily communication is consciously motivated. For example, if we want to impress in front of a special person, we will change into carefully selected clothes when we go out. However, we have learned from the advertisements selling toothpaste and mouthwash. Although exquisite clothes can convey a good impression, bad breath and unclean teeth will still unintentionally reveal their less satisfactory side. . Unintentional communication is undoubtedly the most maddening communication method, because you will not receive corrective feedback from others. When we are well-dressed but still unable to date the person we like, we will feel very confused, but in fact this is not due to the clothes

Four modes of family communication




Consensual type: You will feel the pressure to have the same value views as your family and maintain the family hierarchy.  At the same time your ideas will be valued.  The children of this kind of family either follow the rules or escape into their own fantasies.  Generally, the parents of this kind of family are very traditional. They believe in “husband and wife”, “maintain loyalty”, mutual dependence and company, and they believe that their intramarital communication is easy-going and diligent management instead of frequent conflicts.

Pluralistic type: Ensure an open discussion atmosphere, and everyone can sit down and negotiate when making a decision.  Generally, the parents who create this kind of family hold non-mainstream values. For example, intimate relationships cannot restrict personal freedom.  This kind of parents not only accompany each other, but also have separate activity spaces and schedules (such as separate study rooms and bathrooms), and they don’t avoid conflicts, and they won’t avoid dealing with differences.

Protective: Obviously there will be an atmosphere of observing family rules and obeying parents, and it is unlikely that children are allowed to question their elders.  Children who grow up in such a family are easily influenced or persuaded by authority.  The three views of parents that shape this atmosphere are also very traditional. They value themselves more than intimate relationships, and they spend less time with each other and share, and believe that their intramarital communication is resolute, confident and persuasive, and they avoid marriage more.  conflict.

Laissez-faire: There is not much communication between family members, and family cohesion is also lacking.  Most family members are emotionally distant from their families.  Children raised by such families are more likely to be influenced by outside social organizations.  Parents who have shaped this family model cannot agree on marriage. They have different expectations of self-concepts, mutual dependence and inter-marital communication, so it is difficult to make the family cohesive.

intervention 3: what is the shape of your relationship

This intervention stimulates to think about future interpersonal relationship (romantic relationship） through choose a ring. This intervention aim to throw a question or point of view to people, let them think about the relationship currently and future. For the next step, I will invited the same group to make a shape of ring(the shape of their relationship).

FEEDBACK

So far I got three couple to choose the ring, the first and second couple age around 25 years old, the third couple age around 50 years old. I set up two question: 1: which ring can represent their currently romantic relationship and why? 2: which ring can represent their future romantic relationship and why? Here is the feedback from them:

reflection and next step

After I engaged with Pan Wang and talked with my friend about their views of marriage and love, I found that there are big different concept between young generation and old generation, and traditional concept is still spread among the boys. Although we are opposed to our parents looking for partners for us and do not like parental interference, we also unconsciously take the parents’ requirements as a condition for choosing a mate.

and I also found that if two people disagree, you can hardly expect a decent response from the other person. Normally, he will defend himself and try to lead your thinking and judgments astray. A few months later, when the old words are brought up again, you will find that no one has changed their minds, as if the previous argument has never happened. If you chat with someone on social media, you may never meet him, and you will never develop a real relationship, so you can just express your views concisely and then go to your own business. But if the person you are chatting with is your parents or wife or husband, it is completely different. You will be willing to spend many years slowly changing his point of view.

So in the next intervention, I will first throw a question or point of view to the other person, let him think or study carefully, don’t worry about asking the answer, let him digest it in his mind first, and challenge his original concept. ( inspired by the book: The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe)

I will make an online workshop which stimulates to think about future interpersonal relationships (future family and future romantic relationship) through choose and make a ring. (Why ring:  ring is a true sign of love for another individual, but what is the real meaning behind the ring, and what does its shape？）

engaged with Pan wang

engaged with Pan wang, the author of ” Love and Marriage in Globalising China.”

Over the past few weeks I have been actively trying to develop a network of professionals to engage in my project, and give me some suggestions on my project, luckily, I engaged with Pan Wang successfully, he is a senior lecturer in Chinese and Asian studies at the University of New South Wales and author of ” Love and Marriage in Globalising China.” he told me some phenomenon about love and marriage in China and some ideas.

The following content is what I think is helpful to me in my dialogue with him:

“As China’s society has become rapidly and intensely commercialised, romantic relationships too can be seen like a commodity, traded and exchange in the market,”

“In China, love has become increasingly complicated, intertwined with consumerism, and in this sense you can say love is tagged with a price like other products in the market. To some people, the value of love can be measured by the price of gift.”

“men and women are increasingly looking at expensive gifts as a way of signifying the seriousness of a relationship. While people tend to get married later, they exchange gifts of love more often and longer.”

“men in China and their parents are under pressure to own both a home and car before a women’s family will accept any potential marriage. But according to Pablo Mauron, partner and managing director China at Digital Luxury Group, even in cases where marriage is not immediately on the table, these signifiers of economic dependability and desirability are just as important. It is important to show of financial commitment to legitimise a relationship and show that you are serious about it.”

“The romantic gifting culture, no matter whether it’s Valentine’s Day, Qixi or 520 is directly on that trend,’ You’re going to have to show that you’re not afraid of spending money on me to show that you value and take our relationship seriously.”

“It seems in an age in which traditional markers of love and commitment are on the way out, there is still a great appetite for romance — a pragmatic and consumerist appetite, certainly – but a love for love nonetheless.”

reflection and secondary research

From my first intervention （friend’s experience on blind dates）, I found that many boys’ thinking is still very traditional, and a large part of it is influenced by their parents. We can see that there are big different concept between young generation and old generation, and traditional concept is still spread among the boys. Men’s and women’s thinking are still different, so why don’t girls? Is it because of the feminism in recent years? and the society’s requirements for women’s status are getting higher and higher? so I might consider adding feminism to my intervention.

From the last week, I looked for some what other medium exist and looked at example from around the world that what are other people doing, what other organisations doing. I did some research on jewellery brand, beauty brand and some TV reality show related to arrange marriages.

I found that some jewellery brands have gone from the initial concept of “diamonds are forever, a diamond will last forever, and a lifetime of happiness” to the present “couples in love may get married, or they may choose not to get married.” This means that although feminism and celibacy are on the rise. The De Beers report pointed out that although Chinese women’s purchase of diamond products at their own expense is on the rise, diamonds are still the most luxurious gift that Chinese women want to receive. On the one hand, they are willing to pay for their own pockets, and on the other hand they do not reject the multiple psychology of receiving diamond jewelry gifts. As the divorce rate increases, the lonely single society is likely to generate more demands for true love.

From the current point of view, some successful cases of brands are still more focused on the problem itself. For example, the “Marriage Market” short film launched by Japanese high-end skin care brand SK-II last year showed a new generation of Chinese women’s views on marriage and love, such as “I don’t want to get married for marriage, that would not be happy”, and detonated social media. In the process of constantly testing the water temperature, the commercial market has been quite tolerant of the values of women’s empowerment, “this will encourage brands to be more brave.”

I am also watching some dating TV show related to arranged marriages, like TOO HOT TOO HANDLE, LOVE TO BLIND, DATING AROUND, and some chinese dating reality show .

NEXT STEP:

do more research on academic resources can relate to what I am doing, use theories to construct my intervention.

look at example from around the world that what are other people doing what are organisations doing charities, and what other mediums exist.

Intervention 2

For my intervention, I invited one of my friends, she forced to blind date by her family, so far she attended fifth blind date, and I invited her to draw her life map related to her blind date, and choose a dating story into visual story(video), and then this video will be shared her parents, and her parents will create an ending for this story and share their feeling after watching this video. I also will share this video to other young and old generations to get more feedback.

PROCESS

FEEDBACK ONE:

FEEDBACK TWO:

FEEDBACK THREE:

FEEDBACK FOUR

REFLECTION

During the intervention, I found that it is difficult to engage parents to my project, specially some parents who force their child into marriage, they don’t want to share more opinion, so I think I should change my stakeholder and think about my backup plan, but I have no idea so far. I feel like this intervention is not very successful, because I hadn’t see any change from the parents, after the girl’s parents seeing the visual story, they still keep the old thought. From feedback I got, we can see that there are big different concept between young generation and old generation, and traditional concept is still spread among the boys.

Intervention 1 (wear mask to communicate)

This is my small intervention 1, I used mask as a technique, drawing their mood on the mask and wear their mask to communicate with other people, but can’t speak, only rely on body language, this lasted for 4 days. Finally, observe whether they rely on the mask to have better communication.

FEEDBACK

after the intervention, I got some feedback and their feelings from participants:

  • at the beginning, they were unfamiliar, and a little embarrassed;
  • if don’t draw something on the mask, it’s difficult to express(without the help of the drawing, they don’t know how to express)
  • they can basically understand each other’s meaning, but there is also a slight deviation in the details
  • can’t feel the other person’s mood
  • without training, it is difficult to express with body language

REFLECTION

In the beginning, for my small intervention 1 and 2. Before the experiment, I think that communication and attractiveness are important, but I started to forget this in the following steps. I used mask as a technique, though it resolves a little embarrassment, it also increase the difficulty of communication. There are few information acquisition channels for online communication, a lot of interactive information is hidden, and it is difficult to feel the other’s person mood. And I found that if you want to increase the sense of communication and interaction, the content and process of communication will become more complicated. So how to make my project creative and interactive and not just like an only solution for temporary something I need to think more about in the future.

For the next step, I will continue to develop my intervention of the online drama therapy, develop the digital story. I also will consider the drawing as a technique to help people have a better communication style. (I also will do more secondary research on other therapy: https://www.verywellmind.com/art-therapy-for-troubled-teens-2610348 https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-gestalt-therapy-4584583 https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-art-therapy-2795755 ) and my intervention will focus on communication, interaction and creativity.

PROCESS OF INTERVENTION

FIRST DAY

SECOND DAY

THIRD DAY

FOURTH DAY

Existing story for visual story making

existing story 1:

name: yuhui huang  age: 28  fashion designer

she was forced by her parents to go on a blind date about five times, but she has not met a suitable person so far, and her parents said that she must marry this year, because they think 28 years old is old for women and the fortune teller said this year is her wedding year, and she is very troubled and does not know how to communicate with her parents.  she think that It is impossible to meet the right person in this year, so she decided to move out instead living with her parents.

existing story 2:

name: waner chen age: 26  insurance

She has a boyfriend, but her parents are dissatisfied with her boyfriend, because the fortune teller said that her boyfriend has many female friends, and he is likely to cheat after getting married, so her parents want her daughter to break up with her boyfriend . She is very entangled now. On the one hand, she likes her boyfriend, on the other hand, she doesn’t want to go against her parents’ meaning, and she is also a little superstitious in fortune telling

existing story 3:

name: dasen  age: 29   medicine

He has a girlfriend, but his parents are not satisfied with his girlfriend because the fortune teller said that his girlfriend will bring bad luck to his family, but he insists on marrying his girlfriend.  As a result, less than a month after the marriage, his father was diagnosed with leukemia and passed away two weeks later (his father was healthy and showed no signs of illness), and his father’s company also closed down.

I collected some existing story that can be used as a material in the intervention 1, and the next step I will invite them to make a map life and make a visual story to show their parents, and let their parents to make a story’s ending.

Intervention 2

To gain a industry knowledge of drama therapy online, I reached out to experts, Monique. She is a drama therapist and do a lot of stuff on drama therapy online.

Beneficial feedback I got started that: masks and costumes as a technique in the digital space, mask work is a staple of drama therapy work. As Jennings states, “some feelings can only be expressed through masks-feelings that are too anti-social, dangerous or depressing to be shown in other ways. Masks can contain the feelings that could not otherwise be expressed” (1990, ch.6, para.33). It is my belief that the online drama therapy space presents us with unique opportunities to not only work with masks, but to allow the client to see themselves in role with an immediacy that does not often happen in-person.

For my intervention 2, I will use mask as a technique, drawing their mood on the mask and invite people wear their mask to communicate with other people, but can’t speak, only rely on body language, this will last for 5 days, 10 mins a day. Finally, observe whether they rely on the face to have better communication.

technologies can be used

I did some research on technology regard to film or drama therapy or story telling online, here is the link for video:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08jr0cd/culture-in-quarantine-airlock-a-graphic-novel-2-writers-block

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08k9jz5/culture-in-quarantine-how-hard-is-waving-1-week-one

Research on Digital Experience in Psychotherapy

One of the most prevalent technologies used in psychotherapy intervention is Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Both technologies are used as a tool to help guide psychotherapy treatments in patients who can benefit from interactive digital experiences. Below are two notable projects or organizations that are utilizing VR to enhance the patient’s traditional mode of psychotherapeutic experience.

MyPsySpace is a project by Missouri State University’s Second Life (SL) Prototyping Center for Psychotherapy Technologies that explores SL as a prototyping tool for HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) to offer “virtual translations of traditional expressive therapies (e.g. virtual sandplay, virtual drama therapy, digital expressive therapy, and virtual safe spaces).”  The VR element is used to increase accessibility and flexibility to those who may not have the practical means to receive proper expressive therapies. MyPsySpace is designed to securely connect the therapist to a group or an individual patients located anywhere in the world. Moreover, one can virtually create any type of imaginable scenarios, images, or enact behaviors safely in the virtual space.

SL
虚拟现实

Research on creating digital story

some apps about creating digital story

All therapists recognize the power of storytelling. In essence, our clients come to tell their stories and we need to know their full story in and out including characters, background, plots (and subplots), point of view, etc. With children, their personal stories often come out in fantastical and metaphoric ways and an expressive therapist has the skills to bring those out and enact change, if needed.  Below are multimedia apps that can provide engagement as well as therapeutic, communicative, and expressive opportunities for a child client:

Plotagon: This is a creative animation app that is very easy to use. I have a 8-year-old who learned how to make a full 5 minute story in 10 minutes.

Plotagon

Puppet Pals 2: This is a essentially digital puppetry and you can even use your own picture to create a character.

Puppet Pal

Comic Book: This is a bit challenging to use for those who are not comic book creators. But, if you have a kid who likes to create comic books, this app has many layout options, caption tools, and stickers in its library.

Comic book

Storehouse: Helps you easily create, edit and share visual stories. Perfect for teenagers who want to use their own digital photos without much text to tell a story that is meaningful to them.

Storehouse

These apps help create a multimedia story rich with complementary combination of text, still image, audio, and/or video that can be interactive and edited at any time. I encourage art therapists to try experiencing these apps for themselves to see if they can be a valuable tool in empowering the developing stories of our children and teenagers.

EARLY INTERVENTION

DIGITAL STORYMAKING :

DRAMA THERAPY WITH DIFFERENT GENERATIONS ONLINE

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can bring understanding in views of marriage and love between different generations?

For this project, I found that there was a need for a way of communicating which allowed for a greater breadth of expression than could be conveyed through text and talk with each other face to face. In my journey to find suitable creative interventions, I drew inspiration from the approach I had developed as psychology, and based on the feedback I got from the stakeholder, I applied my drama therapy training to the field of digital media. I plan to use performance narratives, through interactive creation, actively explore the combination of drama therapy and digital media, and provide a way to express their feelings , communicate with each other and interact with others. 

I had designed the framework of the technique to follow a trajectory that began with telling existing stories and ended with creating new stories.

FIRST STEP:  

Recounting a story which collected from the people who has a problem on marriage and love (about blind date or marriage) Since some people unwilling to share their experience at the beginning, I collected some story in real life as a material that participant can use. If they want to share their experience, they can create a life map which illustrates important moments or events; the maps are then embellished with stories that were important in each of these stages of life.

SECOND STEP: 

Reading the beginning of a story and creating one’s own ending

THIRD STEP:

Creating a new story The multiple platform would create a space in which participants work collaboratively to create their culture and have a sense of ownership of the outcome.

FOURTH STEP:

Share your visual story and your parents can edit it

SCHEDULE:

Consulting with experts (05/21 — 06/21)
The next step for my project is it consult with experts as my project tackles themes of how to applied drama therapy to the digital techniques.

  • art therapists;
  • artists;
  • video game designers 

Collect real story can be as a material in the step one (04/21 — 05/21)

Further engage with stakeholder (05/21 — 07/21) How to engage people in my idea and have them easily understand each other. Build, edit and share their visual story

Do some research on Shaping Networked Theatre (05/21 — 06/21)

THE CHANGE I WANT TO SEE

DAFT

RESEARCH QUESTION:

How can bring understanding in views of marriage and love between different generations?

WHY:

China is clearly one of the world’s favorite countries for forced marriages. According to the “Survey Report on the Status of Forced Marriage in China” more than 70% of the respondents had the experience of being forced into marriage by their parents. The reason foe this phenomenon comes from their lack of communication, different growth background and different channels for receiving information.

HOW:

In my journey to find suitable creative interventions, I drew inspiration from the approach I had developed as psychology.

I found that drama therapy is a method to help them understand each other more. Drama therapy offer new ways to express what you are thinking or feeling in order to cope with problems. Here’s an example: if you are having conflict with your parents, you maybe asked to role-play a scene in which you pretend to be your parents and speak from their perspective. It is intended to help participants break them out of any rigid roles or frameworks they have been limiting themselves to. They can express themselves while sharing a new side to their personality and learn to look at problems from the other side’s perspective.

How to engage people in my idea and have them easily understand each other is the biggest obstacle I need to overcome, and I got some feedback from stakeholder: 

  • face to face therapy is a bit awkward; 
  • It’s inconvenient offline, because don’t have much time to attend especially during pandemic;
  • They have not studied acting and drama

To further my stakeholder engagement I had conversation with psychologist, I have came up with multimedia platform that is to be used as part of my project’s targeted intervention, which can provide engagement as well as communicative, and expressive opportunities for different generations. The platform can help create a multimedia story rich with complementary combination of text, still image, audio, and/or video that can be interactive and edited at any time. These steps are as follows:

  • Recounting a story that the teller feels a strong connection to, usually from material that I collected in the real life;
  • reading online the beginning of a story and creating one’s own ending
  • Creating a new story with each other

WHAT IF

Parents and us are independent individuals, we can’t really change each other. My project aim to want to be understand each other better rather than proving that parents wrong in the views of marriage and love. After this project, they can understand each other more, and willing to communicate with each other, and accept the existence of different ideas. I am not against marriage, what I am against is the uniform criteria of happiness, like you have to get married at a certain age, if you don’t, you can’t be happy, you are a loser in life. I hope this project can reduce the conflict and young generations can have a say in the marriage.