Disertation Constellation

For this assignment, I’ve been tasked with writing up my topic idea for my dissertation and proposal and what will be my research and writing technique.

What’s my idea?:

My focus will be on Topoanylis, which is the study of human identity as it relates to the places in people’s lives. (e.g: The house I grew up in is an essential part of my childhood since I have many memories there and it was quite a big step to move out of my childhood home into halls, and soon my old house will be just a memory since my parents will be moving out of it soon.) This study will act as a story and sensory anthropology report, the format I have chosen for my dissertation is a 6000-word conference paper along with a slideshow presentation.

Why did I pick this particular subject?:

Last term I wrote an essay on “story anthropology”, the name of my essay was “The transition of a person through negativity”, in this I explained how a person can go through life after a bad turn in their life can start changing and feeling new things and to some extent contribute something positive toward something or others. So when I was given feedback on my work, my lecturer suggested that I explore topoanylis if I wanted to continue this sort of theme for my dissertation and I believe that my last essay was very successful.

What’s so important about this topic?

This topic is supposed to give people a new interpretation of life as I did for the other one, I gave my own commentary on human behavior and society, so with the recommendation from my lecturer to further explore this subject, I want to give people a new sense of familiarity and a way of seeing into someone else’s mind. Another reason why this topic is important is for me personally, writing my last essay gave me the chance to write my own commentary by comparing my world views to others and to give people the sense I feel, and while I really enjoyed writing and felt I was really good at reading, writing and understanding anthropology, especially the specific topic I was writing about, so I really want to continue writing in this type of subtext.

What are going to be my research methods?:

A good way to start is by revisiting the book I read and referenced to for my last essay, Sarah Pink’s Home truth gender, domestic and everyday life, since in her book she commentates on a person’s daily life around the house, narrowing it down to the smells, the sights, the feels and the experiences to establish a person’s identity (e.g she mentions that for housewives certain sentiments aren’t necessarily forms of familiarity and because of this some housewives could experience oppression, isolation, depression, loneliness, and even disempowerment with isn’t conterminous with a house wive’s identity) another thing to do is research more authors/philosophers who specialize in this kind of topic.

How am I going to write it out?

For both the dissertation and proposal, I will take the massive word count and divide it by categories which will then limit the word count to each category, when all typed up and combined it will complete the entire word count.

Book: Pink, S, 2004, Oxford, Berg

My Interview Excercise

On the 11th of October, I had my third session of “A Play on Extraordinary Processes”, after the lecture we were tasked in conducting a practice an oral history interview with our classmates, For each of our interviews we had to ask our classmate what they were going to write about in our essay and so for each of us we had to ask the right kind of questions to our classmates.

Dalia

What do you think you’re going to do for your essay?

Dalia- “I think going to choose the same topic of my subject, synesthesia, its a neurological condition about people who see colors when they hear music, so I actually have discovered that Van Gogh had this condition and also there is an artist called Melisa in the U.S who has the same condition and when I read about the two artists I found out how Van Gogh was treated as someone who has a disease and how Melisa is someone consider very talented with the “disease” so it’s about how people who have this condition over the years like in classrooms, eg when Van Gogh did piano classes, he was kicked out because he used to color in the notes because he would see them in colors, but when Melisa was in college she was considered an artist just for having this condition, so yeah I’m talking about differences of how they felt.

What are you going to include? (e.g Your own views, quotes or your own argument)

“I think I’m going to include my options and also from the documentaries I’ve seen about people talking about themselves and how they experience synesthesia so then I would take their quotes and put them in my essay.

Do you think you know where to find sources?

“I’m still researching this because I’m choosing this topic for my subject so my tutor helps me some books and since I’m choosing this for constellation It would involve me getting resources, for example, I could contact Melisa and ask her questions but obviously, I cant contact Van Gogh and ask him how it felt.”

Do you think you’ll able to cover all three categories for your essay?

“I’m still researching this, so my tutor helps me get some books and since I’m choosing this for my constellation and it would involve me getting resources, for example, I could contact Mellisa and ask her if I could ask her some questions, but obviously I cant contact Van Gogh and ask him what it was like.”

Do you think you’ll be able to cover all three categories for your essay?

“Actually I don’t understand each category, so I don’t really understand them well.”

St Fagans

On the 4th of October, for my second week of constellation, I and my group were assigned to meet up at st Fagan’s, there we would explore around the area and exercise our ability to identify sensory perceptions in places, objects or atmosphere.

The Red House

As I enter the house I instantly Smell the fireplace that warm nostalgic smell, it reminds me of when I was a child, whenever I and my family were exploring historic houses

I enter upstairs the floorboards are unbalanced the wood on the banister is smooth it has been varnished

The steps in the stairs are hollow inside
The ceiling is excellently woven
The architecture is different compared to modern work, the support beams are uneven and are chipped
Unlike modern architecture that’s all measured out and checked for quality and smoothed out
I look at the bedroom I wonder what it was like to sleep in those beds as they don’t look very comfy, so kind of makes me think, what was comfort for them?

The fire has many aspects we see the wood burn and as it burns it slowly collapses the wood turns white and fragile

The hissing and the crackling wood
The spitting sparks
Sometimes a new flame appears in a corner

The houses from multiple time periods:

The first house: unlike the other houses which were decorated with ornaments, pictures and may decorations

This house was pretty empty and dull, only containing items for person/people’s survival

I look at the old architecture, the chairs don’t seem to have good lumbar support or any comfort
The floor is bare ground
No carpet or wooden floorboards
This type of house was most likely intended for

1950s: This house is the first one to have electricity, this one has a tv, a ceiling light, and a radio

1980s:

This house is well put together and decorated the floor has patterned carpet
The kitchen is also well put together with an oven, an overly sized microwave
The living room has a TV, a radiator, a coffee table with two plates of fish and chips
Although this house isn’t as modern as today’s houses, it is the kind of set up we’re accustomed to compared to the other houses throughout the decades, with comfortable furniture

The Stores

Desk Inventory

For this assignment, I’ll be conducting an inventory of my studio space based on its sensory stimuli and for each encounter, I’ll be writing from a number of perspectives.

Sight – I see my equipment, my models, my desk calendar, my postcards, my water flask, my spray paint cans, My inventory box, etc. Sometimes my desk is cluttered with tools and materials (depending on the project) such as clay, cardboard cuttings, my pens, pencils, craft knives, paper and whichever project(s) I’m working on

My models – On the shelf on my desk I have three raku clay models, a little statue and one 3D printed figurine.
My Inventory box- The inventory box is a small wooden box I once made from wood induction last year, the box is smooth and the texture of it is slightly burned for decoration, on top is a pewter casted Avengers logo superglued on and inside the box it contains multiple tools and miscellaneous things such as pencils, paints, erasers, paperclips and a ball of string
My postcards- Each of my postcards are from multiple museums, each one based on an art piece
My Name signs – There are two models of my name, one of them I made out of coffee sticks, string, and hot glue and the other I made out of clay and glazed it green

Touch – Each item has its own unique touch, many of them feel smooth, others have a rough texture and other

The Clay Models- The clay models (when finished, unfinished or glazed) can feel cold, and if not handled with care, could break, the raku models have a slightly rough feel to them
My Notebooks – There are my three notebooks, my current one and my two old ones, each of them are customized, each one with a volume number, indicating which one was used in order, each page is filled handwritten notes, annotations, and sketches, some of the writing and sketching roughly written/drawn in, sometimes you can feel the pressure from pen go through the pages to the other.
My Inventory box- when opened it hold various tools and miscellaneous items, the box is smooth and the texture of it is slightly burned for decoration, on the front is a small hook lock on a hinge, on top is a pewter casted Avengers logo superglued on. The edges have also been carved.

Sound – Each item has it’s own unique sound, some are quiet and unnoticeable some are pretty distinctive

The Spraypaint cans- the spraypaint cans make a rattling sound when shaken
My Clay/plaster models- if one of my clay or plaster models were to break the sound of them smashing sound like glass. and some of them have a hollow sound, and if the plaster were to be stretched, it would create a creaking noise
The hinges on my inventory box squeak when opened

Smell – Each item has it’s own smell

My Inventory box has a faint but noticeable smell of burning wood, like burnt cardboard my clay models don’t have much smell to them
My plaster hand that I made last year still has traces of baby powder, from when I was using it for latex tests, the baby powder smells sweet, like strawberries