Phase 2: Week 7
Define, Test and Prepare
Weeks 7-8: External panel evaluation and review | Case study presentations
Weekly learning objectives 5-8
- You must present a two minute case study of your final project (both practice and critical report), peer reviewed by an industry specialist and presented in a webinar to a panel for feedback the following week. You must find your own industry specialist and include a quote / soundbite of feedback from them in your presentation to the panel. This activity is part of your formative feedback.
- In addition to the case study presentation, you need to provide an A4 written draft literature review that has academic integrity, a bibliography, a clear structure and role of appropriate histories and theories that contextualise and support your idea.
- If you are writing a business orientated essay / report, make sure you integrate relevant market intel and data to support the positioning and viability of your project.
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.
Create a two minute case study presentation to be delivered in a webinar format to a creative team / panel, in order to gather feedback from academics and industry professionals. You will also be expected to peer review each other’s presentations via live note-taking. Your case study presentation should include a quote from your chosen external peer review critic / industry specialist.
In addition to the case study presentation you need to provide an A4 written draft literature review that has academic integrity, a bibliography, a clear structure and role of appropriate histories and theories that contextualise and support your idea.
Or if you are writing a business orientated essay / report, make sure you integrate relevant market intel and data to support the positioning and viability of your project.
All outputs to be clearly documented on your blogs, with evidence of active engagement with the Ideas Wall.
Actual objectives 7-8
- Succinct explanation of project
- Draft submission (with a view to becoming the presentation)
- Presentation
- Industry specialist
- Draft literature review (check)
- Market intel and data (check)
Webinar 02/11
For tomorrow’s webinar we will discuss ‘building connections’ – I’ll present a useful way of using LinkedIn to gain contacts.
Can you please bring info about people you’d potentially like to connect with and how you plan to go about it. We can have an open discussion about your plans and share useful contacts.
Ways to track down the right person without guessing their email or sending to info@
Webinar Feedback
Some good pointers from the others (watch again to get more accurate notes!)
Right…
Just get it all down:
Stereotypes – the cyclist (not cycling).
Firstly, there are obvious reasons why ‘we’ don’t accept people:
Class/gender/race/colour; anything that creates a difference. These are well documented, and wide-ranging and well understood/understandable. These issues aren’t likely to result in an interesting and focussed project.
So, to make the project more interesting, I’m going to drill it down and take it back to the individual.
What is the individual’s self-esteem, their own ‘theme value’, them being out in the world? I’ll use women as an example for now: how does it feel for a woman who is contemplating riding a bike to go out into that environment?
What’s her self-image of riding a bike, what goes through her head?
Did she ride a bike when she was a girl, did she like it, was it fun, what’s her sense of riding a bike?
Is it the positive image: it’s me, it’s a sunny day, I’m cycling down a country lane where its all quiet; the ‘wind’s in my hair’ I’m having a great time with friends, etc.
Think about the individuals’ point of view, the sense of self; what’s attracting me?
Why is she/he riding a bike?
- Social reasons
- Fitness
- Coming back from illness – advised as part of some therapy, mental or physical
- What do they see as themself on a bike?
Is it from a self-critical, negative voice or is it from something positive; ‘I really love the idea of riding a bike. I want to do it because it’s something I love’; dance, ride, listen to music, I want to do all the good things which people do which lift them and makes them feel good. Or is it; ‘I feel like I SHOULD be doing these things’? What’s the motivation or the aversion to being seen as someone who rides a bike?
Why might a person not want to do it?
What different things would but of different people; criticism, competitiveness, a sense of joining something where you don’t know the ‘rules’ – being in a situation where you don’t understand what the rules are. Or, they could be just more risk-averse than others.
Stereotypes can act as either a barrier or a facilitator to potential riders.
Experiences
My first experience of club cycling was turning up at the start and seeing a large group of people, all with expensive bikes, all wearing the club kit and I thought: ‘oh shit, what am I getting myself into…
- I’ve got an expensive bike, are they going to expect me to be better than I am, will that lead to negative opinions about why I have an expensive bike?
- Am I going to slow everyone down
- Am I going to do something stupid?
All these things go through your head in an instant, positive/negative, fight/flight?
Other club members I’ve spoken to had such a positive self-image of riding. One riders’ story in particular stands out:
‘My introduction was so much ‘safer’, for me it was like: “I’m going to ride the Tour de France”, it happened to be a one-day race in Bridgnorth, but in my head; literally as we all clipped-in together I was thinking; I’m in the Tour de France.
‘As ridiculous as it sounds, my image was so positive about riding a bike that it just overrode all the negatives. I didn’t even begin to think about the negative stuff until two or three years into it because…
‘My image of riding a bike was just so powerful, so positive. So for me that image was super-attractive, unrealistic, but super-attractive.’
Looking to be the stereotype – positive/attractive stereotypes – do we always assume a stereotype is a negative image? Perhaps…
I’m looking for all opinions, not just cyclists themselves. I’m looking for the opinion of the person who is just starting to ride or hasn’t ridden for a while but now wants to take it to the next level.
The people who don’t like cycling: why don’t they like it, is it from a safety standpoint or do they just not like cyclists because they see too many run red lights?
Whilst thinking of the subject my interpretation of ST’s in cycling always became caricatures; the MAMIL, old lady on a bike, old man on a bike – these pre-conceptions of different groups as comic figures – why is that?
Our club – Collettivo ????- as one rider says; ‘we are desperately up-ourselves’.
To us though, it’s tongue in cheek (mostly) and just aimed at ourselves. We say it’s a parody of the pretentious cycling club which we feel is saving us from becoming one for real, we criticise/mock ourselves and play along with being the stereotypical cyclists. Still, it’s always within the group; it’s a way we can play when we’re out riding.
How can we act as we do to each other to someone you have only just met without them feeling as though you’re turning them away? You can’t.
Information first – show what’s been gathered.
I haven’t decided on an answer so like ‘Traffic’ was revealed as a theme back in the Contemporary Practice Module: Message Delivered, what’s the theme we’re going to find about cyclists and cycling? For example, 20 people come back to us with the same one-in-three word, we can imagine what it might be, but ‘that word’ will present one of the valid barriers we’re looking for.
What about images, could part of the survey show images of cyclists for the user to choose the one they see as the cyclist?
‘Word Clouds’ could sit with these different images? Describe each image with three words?
“I don’t want to go there because they’re all ‘XYZ'”
What three words, don’t load the questions: ‘what would stop you cycling’ starts an opinion from the off, you’re asking for a negative opinion. ‘Just three words’ doesn’t hint at +/- and would bring an independent response.
What do these words mean? What is the connection between the words? The person who is the ST or the person who sees the ST.
Ask about the cyclist, not the cycling? That will result in an answer based on a stereotype.
Ask ‘What’s a cyclist – in three words?’
To quickly build an image of ‘a cyclist’ without people realising that’s what they’re doing I’m going to set up a simple survey to ask, in three words; what is a cyclist?
Do I want that from ‘the cyclist’ or from others who don’t own a bike, doesn’t want to ride a bike – am I interested in their opinion? Yes, because rider or not, they will still have a valid opinion of a cyclist; it’s somebody who’s always in my way, etc.…
Part two: do you recognise this (main gathered words) as the stereotype which could affect your engagement with cycling? Do you recognise these stereotypes?
What’s your image of cycling – why three words? Simply because three is the magic number…
Other points to ask?
Do you cycle – just a sentence to say why/why not
Stories of everyday bike journeys – going off-topic now.
“you’re a bit fat to be riding a bike…”
Phil’s first experience
Is ‘cycling stereotypes’ still too wide?
Break down cycling further: Urban, Commuter, Road, MTB, BMX?
One each?
The ‘Roadie’ – Too many times before?
Further still – the lycra kit itself? The jersey, the casquette (cap to everyone else).
Tutorial Feedback
I like your idea of researching subgenres and/or stereotypes associated with cycling. Do some digging and try to find an unusual subgenre.
Think beyond the obvious. Your project doesn’t have to be about solving a social needs (if you don’t want it to be) but could be about documenting a very niche subgenre.
How do creatives go about doing this?
Documentary photography is a good example, but designers do these projects too and it doesn’t have to work within the traditional commercial design platforms.
Down to The Club Rider?
Drill it down to him – the wannabe. All the gear but no idea, what’s his stereotype? Knows the best gear-ratios to use -vs- his current weight. £1200 on a set of wheels to save a few grams, always having an ‘off-day’ when riding in the group.
The Club Cyclist is the best example when it comes to cycling stereotypes: white male, middle-age, middle-class, definitely true but isn’t always the case. Cycling Clubs (mostly) have a wider demographic, although admittedly the stereotype we all know covers most of the club.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/aug/26/beryl-burton-liquorice-allsorts-shake-up-cycling
Andrew Diprose, Ride Journal: https://www.andrewdiprose.com/about
Contacting: Who, why and how?
Within Cycling: Commentators, team bosses and riders, to get opinions which can be seen as ‘genuine’ because of the person’s position, that could help open up the outcome to a wider audience. For instance, if my outcome is in the form of a product, then a link to someone within the sport could add more appeal, a prologue to a book, a story or experience.
I’ve got a link to local ex-pro Mike Jones (quite a stereotype already), successful domestique in the pro/continental level teams knows the likes of –
Chris Boardman: former Olympic champion, pundit, author, Greater Manchester’s cycling and walking commissioner
Ned Boulting: commentator, journalist, writer.
Other: See where the above might lead.
What am I asking them for? My ‘in just three words’ summary as well as an experience they had.
I’ve contacted Andrew Diprose from The Ride Journal [Link] to see if he’s able to read through my outline and feed back.
Megan Streb, Partnership Manager at sustrans.org.uk: an opinion from an organisation committed to encouraging active travel by bike. Does Sustrans see any evidence of stereotypes affecting people’s decisions to start cycling, when it comes to their work with schools and communities or organisations like councils, etc.?
Eben Weiss: Blogger, writer, journalist, broadcaster – BikeSnobNYC (since 2007) [Link] – Long-running blog documenting experiences whilst cycling around NYC. “As someone with a special bike for everything I relish the smugness and hypocrisy of telling people they don’t need a special bike for everything.” – sounds like there would be an interesting view on stereotypes.
Social Media, a more informal route, people tend to engage more as it feels less formal: Facebook pages of cycling clubs, post the survey to ask members for the ‘three words’. Also, ask the people who run those clubs if any reasons are given when people leave the club or are asked to…
Club levels – messages to ‘women only clubs’ etc. to see if there’s a particular reason why they feel the need to narrow down the x-section of members
Club Directory
I came across a directory of cycling clubs local to Shropshire which has saved me some time looking. I’ll be looking further afield for information also.
I want to gather some info from these different clubs as to what made members join, etc. A link to a Q&A can be sent out.
What am I Q&A-ing?
Continued…
“What Three Words”
Q&A/survey to collect words via FB, etc. along with an answer to Why do/don’t you cycle? – just a sentence to say why/why not
Images: Journalistic/documentary-style – build a collection of portraits and scenario images starting around the subject of club-cycling.
Separate into single words then, using an algorithm (or a pair of scissors and a bag), regroup into randomised new sets of three. Combining images with the statements and displaying them side by side to create a set of (are they paradigms? Better language). These would illustrate the mixed reactions we get from pedestrians, horse riders, traffic and other riders faced when cycling in a group – when ‘we’re the targets’.
The photos are the self-image, the texts are random; for or against.
The project will be made up of the tagged images, texts and soundbites from talking through stories where possible.
Soundbites will play alongside images or film clips.
Other topics within Gender and financial status – the stereotype is the white wealthy-ish middle-class male, the project needs to show that this isn’t (always) the case.
Styles?
First look at type -vs- image
Images are by Elliot Jones from our local Paramount RTC club, taken as they reached the summit of Mont Ventoux.
Stencil typeface suggests the words were added by a third party – intentionally defacing the image?
(Screenprinted thin white (or silver) ink on photographic print?)
Avoid obscuring the faces so much? Play with sizes and a contrast to the B/W image.
Reflection
This has been flying off and around in all directions this week. I did think I’d sorted it out at one point but looking at it the next day something didn’t sit right still. I think it will work better, be much more focussed and make more sense as a reason for being if I drop the ‘outsider’ viewpoint.
There doesn’t seem to be a reason to include this anymore; I think it was just showing the other point of view for the sake of it. I’m just going to look at the Club Cyclist from the inside, to show the oddities and the eccentricities which are undoubtedly in there, but also to show the camaraderie and support between a lot of the members.
If I remove that negative outside view, then the project will still fit in with the theme of stereotypes, but that will be up to the viewer/reader to conclude and not the project telling them.
But… does this target anyone new?
Another thing I’m seeing when reflecting on the week is that the Phase Outputs and the weekly gains are running way out of sync. I’ve got to admit that the timing of this module couldn’t have landed any worse. I’m finding it hard to concentrate on the MA as much as I’m used to being able to, I’ve less time away from the studio as things are getting difficult in there.
