After my talk with Ben I had a better idea of the direction my project was going in. We talked a little about my aims and objectives as Ben was unclear about the design aspect of my project and how I would come up with a final outcome. He wasn’t sure how I would implement a design solution into my work. This made me realise I needed to be clearer and more transparent about my intentions for this project.
We discussed anhedonia (the inability to experience pleasure from activities that people would normally find stimulating). We agreed that I should narrow my project down from talking about both anhedonia and hyperesthesia and focus on one. I realised this was a better idea as the research was becoming burdensome and I was going in so many different directions I found myself feeling a bit overwhelmed.
We discussed what it was that we were supposed to be doing for this phase. Prior to this I had been feeling a bit confused about what was expected for this phase. So far, I have written about my research findings and brainstormed some rough ideas. But Ben cleared it up a little and told me I should talk about my development process, what experiments worked and what didn’t. He used the analogy of a high school math question – show your working out, which helped guide me as to what to include in the pdf. He also told me that I should narrow down my ideas from stage to stage, for example when talking about anhedonia, I should narrow down my focus when considering anhedonia as there are different classes (social and physical). He advised that I should talk about physical anhedonia, describe what it is and explain how it affects film spectatorship.
He also advised that I should finish my critical report with my objectives for this research as well as my research question, where the report would be based on previous research and theory whereas the pdf would be based on how I developed the idea and what I wanted to do to solve the problem. He said that I had 3 main aspects to focus on; anhedonia, spectatorship and sensory experiences that would guide my process.
He guided me on how to start off my critical report and that I should start off with explaining what autoethnography is where I would explain that I am adopting a method of self-reflection to guide my design response.
We discussed the ideas I had planned for my final outcome, I hadn’t thought too much about them, I had brainstormed a couple of ideas that I thought would work, one being a sensory subscription box with tangible elements such as scents, fabrics and soundtracks that would make the film experience more immersive. I also thought of designing some kind of platform that would recommend films based on past positive experiences with films, sentiment and how the person is feeling. I discussed these ideas with Ben and in the end he advised me to look into how film can be a sensory experience. He encouraged me to look at film from outside a cinema perspective and how film can be made into an experience such as using a gallery space or exhibition. It was noted that I would look into sensory experiences in the realm of film and space. He recommended looking at the weather project as well as pipolotti rist.
Overall I had a better understanding of the direction I was going to take my project in.