I understand the purpose of commune but do not appreciate it. The reason is being that I feel that I am stressing so much about trying to plan and lead two other people, rushing to do commune without having a strong research base. I feel it would've just been easier and more effective if I did more thorough research by myself. 

But then again, without having the structure of having groupmates, would I be as stressed and in turn more alerted as I am now? I can't guarantee I will be. But still, it still annoys me. Because compared to all the other students in foundation only graphics have to further plan commune!!! ......

My group mates are Carissa and Diandra. They are both Indonesian and were friends before commune making me feel a little uncomfortable as 1) they share the same nationality and coming from the same city? they have a similar cultural background, making the purpose of commune less effective 2) they sometimes speak in Indonesian and I feel excluded from the conversation 3) They were friends beforehand, so its not an equal getting-to-know-each-other social experience. Unfortunately, we formed this group fairly late in the commune so there weren't a lot of choices. 

Today turns out didn't follow the rules of our manifesto which made me reflect on how it was not ideal when we decided so many rules on our manifesto. 

Not being the first to do my commune day was very helpful in terms of allowing me to get a feel of what was expected of me to do on commune. Being the party that was being led, I could understand what it feels which allows me to better plan ahead to during my day how to instruct. 

(generating ideas through questions with pauline)

Explore - nostalgia in relation childhood heroes/characters archetypes -- what the characters embodies

Foreign + familiar in childhood heroes and characters from the media 

I am interested in 

1) how engagement with media heroes and characters inspired ______  as children

2) what was the inspiration for authors, artists, film-makers or who designed media childhood characters.

(research - through interviews with people -- character designers' thinking (interview with designers))

1) what would you like to communicate?

2) what do I want to do with what I find out?

3) Can I do this in the time available?

How might one/some of the ideas be developed?

Ideas could be developed through many ways. One could visualise it and realise the unrealistic logistics of the idea which prompts them to change it further to fit the occasion. They could discuss a lot with a partner that inputs more information that could be integrated into the already existing idea. Ideas could be further enhanced and developed through thorough research, both primary and secondary.

Although I had a clear direction in terms of the theme, I was inspired by one of the exhibitions (dream on) in the Commune to consider a specific focus within that theme which was very helpful. That in terms led me into looking at one type of method of communicating meaning.

What (Primary) research reference?

I felt that it was important to try to give myself boundaries because I personally work better within boundaries as too much freedom give me too many choices to work with. I thought of a title 'The Foreign and the familiar' as I am interested in reminiscing the past and exploring unknown and I thought it would be interesting to explore and document the foreign within graphic design and possibly fashion in my art so I would be able to see a journey. 

Within this title, I started by focusing and dissecting the word 'familiar' which made me think of childhood, a period of time that I am familiar with and have experienced before. I thought that this concept was relevant and significant as it allows me to look back and reflect on how my childhood moulded my identity and way of thinking. 

I was lucky that during my time of commune/ research, I was able to find relevant places we could visit as part of my research. The V&A Museum of Childhood and the V&A exhibition on Winnie-the-pooh, exploring the Classic, were both very relevant in their content and successful in linking me towards more material that would solidify my project. 

What (secondary) research references could be useful?

For secondary research, I was drawn to childhood tales, especially from Disney animation. As I did more research the topic, I was drawn to the contrast of the glorified and censored portrayal of the stories and the dark, gruesome origins of the tales. It really shocked me that Disney was able to completely retell the story and made it even more iconic and well-known than the original tale. 

I also found that many music/film/media industry featured or re-interpreted famous tales, and I was interested in looking at how they differently interpret the origin. It was useful in allowing me more insight and different sides of the story that I didn't think about. It was definitely an eye-opener. 

However the vast range of sources did make me confused, I'm even more unsure what I can do to create a fresh twist since there is already so much existing content about the topic already. Although that does mean I am more informed than before. 

I feel very confused with how commune can contribute to my project research. because say going to the galleries or exhibitions, I can go by myself and record. Having to lead two other members actually distracts me from looking at the exhibition wholeheartedly. I feel very unprepared going into commune without thorough research to guide the process. However Pauline did say that it might be more useful that I go into commune without a fully developed concept as it will be more flexible for change with the contribution of my groupmate's potential ideas. Maybe I should try to do a discussion day instead of going somewhere day? I'm not very sure.  

Activities on my day were actually somewhat inspired by Diandra's day because to be honest, I was struggling with making my teammates create research content that is relevant to my topic. Her emotional responses and documentation through visualisations were an interesting way to see in different people's perspective. Coming from various cultural backgrounds, I was interested in seeing how their childhood differed from mine. At first, I was thinking of doing Q & A interviews but I wanted to incorporate a visual element. This led me to prompt them to use mindmaps instead as it is useful to see their thinking process. 

 I thought that today was quite successful in terms of generating primary research, I was inspired by some of the works in the exhibition which led me into thinking possible outcomes or methods of creating outcome. It also provided me with a chance to get to know my groupmates more. 

Although the mindmapping and visualisations were good ideas, I thought it was poorly executed because the questions I provided were questions that are not immediately answerable and needs a lot of time to think. I felt that I could've sent the questions in advance so my groupmates had time to prepare so they wouldn't waste so much time thinking. 

Other than that I felt that the questions asked were very broad, not having a focus, many questions didn't relate to or progress from each other, making them broad and shallow. However, this was because I didn't know what direction I wanted to take in terms of theme and focus point. 

V&A Museum of Childhood

V&A Museum exhibition: Winnie-the-pooh, Exploring the Classic