Intercultural Design Proposal

Intercultural Design

Name : Chan Huei Lian (0351597)

Intercultural Design | Bachelor of Design in Creative Media | Taylor's University

Project Proposal

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LECTURE

Week 1

Netnography

Netnography is the branch of ethnography (the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures) that analyses the free behaviour of individuals on the Internet that uses online marketing research techniques to provide useful insights.

Robert Kozinets

- compiles and analyzes data about the free social behavior of individuals on the Internet.

- data is collected when consumers are behaving freely, as opposed to research surveys in which consumers sometimes respond to prevent embarrassment or please the surveyor.

- data can be compiled quickly and accurately. 

source : https://martech.zone/what-is-netnography/

Netnography is a contemporary and extremely useful research method. As more and more of us are turning to the Internet to share our experiences, views and opinions, researchers are provided with an easily accessible way of collecting data.

According to Kozinets (2002, p62), netnography was first defined as;

 ‘A new research methodology that adapts ethnographic research techniques to study the cultures and communities that are emerging through computer-mediated communications’ .

Some examples of research methods that use netnography are:

• Blog analysis
• Tweet analysis
• Facebook analysis
• Pinterest analysis
• Snapchat analysis
• WeChat analysis
• Instagram analysis
• YouTube analysis
• Examination of behaviour in online forum.
• Analysis of online teaching and student responses
• Analysis of online conferences/webinars etc
• Analysis of group interactions using video call software e.g. a choir singing via Zoom or a counselling session conducted via Microsoft Teams

source : https://tourismteacher.com/netnography/

Week 2

Culture & Us

This week, we learned about culture and its layers through watching a pre-recorded lecture video by Dr. Jinchi. She started by using an example of a greek mythology, which talked about the origin of the flower called Narcissus. It was an interesting story which teaches us about the consequences of excess vanity and also extreme narcissistic behaviour. 

Definition of Culture

Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.

The Layers of Culture

Dr. Jinchi talked about the external and internal layers of culture. She then elaborated that the aspects of cultures that we often discover easily are the physical aspects of one's culture, which includes :

• Behaviours
• Traditions
• Customs
• Observable with 5 senses

External Layers of Culture is :

• Explicity learned
• Conscious
• Easily changeable
• Objective Knowledge

Internal Layers of Culture includes :

• Core Values
• Attitudes
• Beliefs
• Perceptions
• Assumptions
• Priorities

Internal layers of cultures on the other hand, represents the inner aspects of a culture, which are implicity learned, unconscious, difficult to change, and also subjective in knowledge. 

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INSTRUCTIONS

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PROJECT PROPOSAL

We were instructed to form a group of 6, and discuss about the culture of interest we would like to do in our project. We have quite a few cultures proposed by the team members, they are : Toraja (Indonesia) Ritual of Death, Hula Dance Culture, Arab Culture, and Greek Culture, which I proposed. Finally, we settled down on Greek Culture, focusing on Greek Mythology, which was suggested by Rhyanne. 

Final Decision of research area made via Telegram among members.

We narrowed down our focus of research of Greek Mythology to either about Greek Gods (Olympians) or Greek creatures. We voted on a poll, and eventually it is decided that we would be focusing on Greek creatures instead.

Research

We began our early research using padlet, to collect the general idea of the topic.

 

We chose 6 of the creatures to focus on our research and project, which each member is assigned to one creature to work on. For me, I chose to work on Medusa. We did research on the creature we are assigned to respectively.

Through consultations with our group mentor lecturer, Ms. Anis, we realised that we need to focus on our research about the part which cannot be directly obtained online, something that requires more critical thinking. We decided to focus on the lessons and issues highlighted in the stories of the Greek creatures, and to compare and contrast the similarities between the issues of modern society that relate to stories of Greek mythology, which reflect the issues of the past era. We aims to present morality in the stories to the public to raise awareness about the similar issues between the present and the past.

Apart from research about Medusa, I was assigned to write our rationale together with Alya, and also to write the problem statement.

Full Proposal Document

Final Proposal Slides

Final Recorded Presentation

Reflection : The challenge of this task is to find a balance between the members' ideas and suggestions. We managed to compile everyone's opinion, and this helps us to ensure our contents are more diverse and complete. Another challenge is regarding our group meetings, as we are not familiar with each other, we tend to be more quiet and shy to express our thoughts during our zoom calls, and this affected the discussion's effectiveness. To overcome this situation, we used telegram for discussion and surprisingly, our discussions went efficiently and very effective. 

 

Observation : I have observed that the issues about morality has always been a serious problem to human being, whether it is in the past era, or modern society, which is reflected in folklores and myths. The connection of past and modern era is significant and thus it is important for us to learn, preserve and bring awareness about the lessons that was passed down by ancient people, so that we could avoid making similar mistakes that could result in serious consequences and tragedies.

Findings : 

I have always loved Greek culture, but through this project's research, I found out so many things that I have not explored about. For instance, the meaningful lessons that could be found in the stories of Greek mythological creatures. For my chosen creature for example, I have realised that Medusa is not all about the vicious monster that a lot of media have perceived to be, she is actually a victim of possible rape crime, which she faced heavy consequences instead as a victim instead of the assailant, which is Poseidon. This also indicated the unfair treatment of victims and also probably individual status, which hinted by Poseidon being the sea god (high status) and Medusa being a Gorgon or monster (lower status), which higher status individuals get to do whatever they desire, without being punished.