Phase 2: Week 6
Define, Test and Prepare
Weeks 5-6: Skills and design experimentation | Short project warm-ups and project planning
Phase Overview – this is where things should be
You can now move to a rapid testing of the ideas and skills to ensure your subject is researched and the problem for exploration is fully tested and defined:
- What do you do now to start testing the viability of your project?
- Who do you need to talk to?
- What specific explorative initiatives should you set up?
This is where things are:
You can now move to a rapid testing of the ideas and skills to ensure your subject is researched and the problem for exploration is fully tested and defined:
What do you do now to start testing the viability of your project?
Still to define a project
Who do you need to talk to?
What specific explorative initiatives should you set up?
Formative Phase Outputs
Report outline / plan is to be refined, and logistics of running your studio, practice based project must be defined (project management) as two A4 text documents
Experimental work and testing for your Studio Practice should be clearly presented and peer reviewed by a relevant external critic of your finding (creative directors, design studios, writers, journalists from within or beyond the subject), as befits the needs of the area of your proposal.
Week 4 official feedback…
Your research question and aim are still a little vague. You mention celebrate OR spread the word which is confusing and could steer you in very different areas of research and conclusion. Your aim, at present, is to either celebrate the history or convert people to cycling and/or promote the cycle to work scheme. This needs some consideration. Maybe it is something else? How can you make this decision? Not in isolation, but by active investigation.
It’s extremely vague, at this point I still didn’t have a direction to go in.
All I had was that I could look for something to fix, not knowing what that could be, or say how nice cycling is in a way that would fit an MA project, again not knowing what that could be.
Celebrating cycling to grow interest is a huge undertaking, as it’s already very, very popular.
What would you do differently?
How would you undertake this?
Does it involve a historical element that look into cycling as a health and recreational pursuit?
Same with ‘spread the word’ which suggests an information campaign. Is there still really a need to spread the word about cycling? It’s one of the most popular recreational pursuits in the UK and heavily backed by the government.
Looking to grow the popularity of cycling could only be a local goal, assuming a place where it’s not popular could be found.
All these points lead to the same conclusion, promoting cycling again isn’t going to change anything.
Your aim outlines encouraging crowds to keep coming over to cycling, but why? You mention transport, health, the environment but you haven’t identified a specific goal. You need to become informed in these matters to be able to make informed decisions about your project gather research, current statistics, up to date information have trans-disciplinary discussions with experts.
Become an expert in your proposed area of research. This will all come with research, but at present the project scope is so broad that it may take a long time to find that purpose.
I don’t have a base to initiate any research, I don’t have a specific goal. So far I’m hoping I’ll come across these as I look into possible subjects.
Think about the current government initiatives to improve and invest in cycling infrastructures in cities for example and what challenges or issues come from this.
Is there a disconnect between public city planning and decision making and the needs or voices of the public or cyclists, themselves? How could design be utilised to bridge that gap. What new research, new initiative, new product would be useful, and to whom?
Your project doesn’t have to have a social implication or answer a need in society, but the project does require a purpose and direction and your work needs to propose new debates and insights in your field.
I’m not really looking for a project which will have a social implication or answer, it’s just that these are the only starting points I can see so far.
Cycling is a great subject matter, which you’re obviously passionate about, but you really need to consider the direction as this project could drift.
Decide what this is about, who it is for and what value it has and start brainstorming and reach out to key people now.
I’m not sure exactly what it is I’m passionate about, what specific issue if any at all.
Key points to answer:
Become an expert in your proposed area of research.
Your project doesn’t have to have a social implication or answer a need in society, but the project does require a purpose and direction and your work needs to propose new debates and insights in your field.
Consider the aim of the project, then consider the connections.
How would you explain your project:
- what this is about
- who it is for
- what value does it have
Determine a clear research area, a problem to answer, a need and formulate a research question to investigate.
Progression from Week 5
Unfortunately, collaboration with Olivia won’t be going ahead due to her commitments.
Looking for positives there are possible directions to take:
Areas we discussed were:
- The gender gap in cycling, looking to find out what might cause this.
- Is it self consciousness?
- “If I go out with a club am I going to get left behind if I can’t keep up?”
- Ride ambassadors would promote inclusivity.
- Road safety.
- Wearing lycra causes issues for some women.
- Other issues such as personal safety at night.
- Possibly conduct the same research in different areas of the country. Different sized towns and cities would bring comparative results on any issue: does the uptake depend on where you live?
Ask: “How is the cycling community where you live? This is how you find out” – a resource to establish cycling hubs where people new to town and cities can go to meet other cyclists.
These possibilities are still vague – along with the comments from Stuart and Anna, drill each one down into a clear direction.
Week 5 feedback showed some promise.
Outcome: not good.
A bit of an epiphany this morning which has only added to my problem.
I don’t really care about these issues, well maybe personal safety at night is one I’d say I do worry about, but buy better lights and a brighter jacket. I’ve a strong feeling this is why I’m not getting anywhere, and choosing one of these issues because I feel I have to, for me, will not make a worthwhile Final Project. ????
Don’t get me wrong, I think the work that Sustrans, CyclingUK, Boardman, et al., is great for cycling; it makes it safer, makes people healthier, reduces pollution, etc. but I’m not, nor do I want to be, an ambassador for cycling.
If someone has an interest in it, great. If someone is thinking about taking it up (I’ll call it ‘properly’ for the want of a better word) but is unsure what to do other than buy a bike then I’m happy to give them my advice. If someone doesn’t, well then that’s their choice and I’m not going to try and persuade them to change it.
When people aren’t the slightest bit interested in cycling, then all the safety talks, workshops, holes in the road, female only club rides and road safety campaigns aren’t going to persuade those people to like it.
If someone has that spark of interest or curiosity, but isn’t sure if they will take it up because they don’t want to get killed on the road, they’re the ones who can be encouraged to join in, and they’re the ones who those organisations were set up to encourage into cycling. My passion for cycling isn’t this.
So what is it?
The social aspect – the characters, the stories. It’s somewhere to chat about anything that comes up whether it’s useful, intelligent or most likely not, but people open up on a ride and talk about real problems without being judged.
The aesthetics – that ‘thing’ some frames have over others.
The ‘unwritten rules’ – ride etiquette that must come from somewhere.
The achievement – there’s always a positive to come from any ride, not just being the fastest or the having ridden the farthest, it’s getting up a climb in one go when last time you had to stop. Or someone else getting up that climb when last time they had to stop.
There’s a lot of clichés and un-written ride etiquette, the excuses for having a bad ride, these are also things I love about cycling – so far, I can’t see a project that hasn’t been done already…
Don’t know what it is but it looks like jerseys
Notification email from Behance of someone’s new project. There’s no explanation with it but it looks like cycling jerseys so I thought I’d post it up in case it’s useful later.
What about stereotypes
The clichés and ride etiquettes are something I find charming, along with the eccentricities which I think bring humour and a camaraderie to cycling. But not everyone will feel the same way, these things might put some people off cycling altogether.
These acknowledged, and often embraced, behaviours will create stereotypes. I guess nobody consciously chooses to become one, but it’s quite a shock when you realise you might be one.
What could the research question be?
- Do stereotypes put people put off cycling?
- What stereotypes put people put off cycling?
- How can ‘we’ remove the stereotypes which put people off cycling?
- How much ‘X’ can be attributed to s-types?
- How can ‘we’ remove the barriers caused by s-types?
- There are a lot of s-types around cycling, how much influence do they have?
- Do s-types really put people off?
- Are people put off by them because they don’t want to become one?
- Does being a self-conscious beginner lead to believing in s-types?
- What makes you believe in s-types?
- What makes people think of s-types?
- How can ‘we’ reduce s-types by perception/behaviour
- Does behaviour cause the stereotype or does the stereotype cause the behaviour?
Like most things, there’s a dark side to stereotypes, not everyone will find them charming or funny.
In some cases being called a stereotype might sound like you’re a quirky caricature, a light-hearted observation of a characteristic, a ‘Fluck & Law’, harmless or harmful? Whichever way it’s intended isn’t always the way it’s received.
- You could be classed as one by how you look or behave
- You might be put off doing something by someone you see as one
- Someone might behave towards you in a way which makes them one
We all know the ‘funny’ ones, but what/when/where are the negative ones, and from which side are they negative?
How would I reach the people ‘nearly’ cycling, but for stereotypes putting them off?
Research/POV’s
What are the stereotypes?
Active travel in the media: Exploring representations of walking and cycling in UK and Scottish online news’
“We in the sector also need to make sure we don’t inadvertently reinforce stereotypes, or add to a climate of fear rather than celebration.”
SUSTRANS UK DEPUTY CEO, AND NATIONAL DIRECTOR, SCOTLAND, NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Sustrans, Active travel in the media: Exploring representations of walking and cycling in UK and Scottish online news’ (Links to an external site.) (Accessed 29.11.20)
“Stereotype threat” – referring to a fear of doing something that would confirm negative perceptions of a stigmatised group that we are members of. The phenomenon was first uncovered by American social psychologists in the 1990s.
theconversation.com (Links to an external site.) Website
Twenty Years of Stereotype Threat Research: A Review of Psychological Mediators
The stereotypes covered here are predominantly focussed around race and gender. These stereotypes show a bilateral implied inferiority between the different groups, I can’t decide how deep the issue I’m looking into actually goes. ‘White-van-man’ and ‘MAMIL’ surely wouldn’t get upset? Snowflakes…
National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine (Links to an external site.) Website
The bike snob’s guide to cycling tribes
Bearded messengers, fixed-gear freestylers, laid-back contraption captains … Eben Weiss, the razor-sharp blogger behind Bike Snob NYC, offers a merciless velo-taxonomy of two-wheeled clans
Eben Weiss, The bike snob’s guide to cycling tribes. (Links to external site). The Guardian. Sun 24 Oct 2010
Bike Snob NYC
“While I love cycling and embrace it in all its forms, I’m also extremely critical. So I present to you my venting for your amusement and betterment. No offense meant to the critiqued. Always keep riding!”
Eben Weiss
BikeSnobNYC (Links to an external site.) Website
(Possible contact Eben Weiss about the project, views on s-types?)
Design out the stereotypes?
I see my angle as being “ignore the Alpha Male Cyclist” rather than “don’t call me an Alpha Male Cyclist” – I need the stereotype, the person, to be seen as harmless rather than the ‘bully’ they’re thought to be.
I think?
Daughter’s LoveRaw designs look to ‘dissociate from vegan stereotypes’
LoveRaw choc is now positioned as “great-tasting chocolate that just so happens to be vegan too.”
I don’t think the look backs this up though – are the illustrations adding to or taking away the stereotype? By using images of people does that imply the stereotype (ST), if this image wasn’t on the packaging it would just be seen as a vegan chocolate bar, but having the people there implies vegans: white, middle-class and trying to be ‘quirky’? (Did I just assume one?)
Emily Gosling, Daughter’s LoveRaw designs look to ‘dissociate from vegan stereotypes’. (Links to external site). Creative Boom. 26.06.2020
‘This Girl Can’
The Independent: “Could #ThisGirlCan be the first female health campaign that doesn’t shame or exclude women?”
BBC: “This Girl Can: New campaign urges more women to get active”
The Huffington Post: “Sport England’s This Girl Can Campaign Inspires Women To Get Fit By Using Real Woman (Cellulite And All)”
The Telegraph: “This Girl Can advert: Scared of working out? Watch this.”
The campaign might have done what it set out to do but it feels like it uses one stereotype to try and break down another?
Connects with the audience by allowing custom ads to be made via their site.
Would people see the irony in a male version or would that be too risky?
Reflection
The stereotype is a key subject I think. It can talk people out of cycling and, as came across in the interviews earlier, it can also be what attracts people to it.
But the audience issue is still the same. How can those on the outside of cycling be reached? Whatever the result is, wherever the project goes, someone still needs to pick it up and look.
