At the very beginning, the first difficulty I faced was how to move from the subjective to the objective. I tried to find objects that could represent the intricate relationships between neighbors from what I could gather in the corridor. But instead of looking at objects directly related to human activity, I looked at natural objects for metaphorical imagery. Obviously, this is a highly subjective approach, and everyone has a different interpretation of the images I arrive at. I then abandoned this way and sought a more direct method of expression. Confused and overwhelmed, I had no choice but to keep recording what I saw, and to record it stealthily with a video camera, trying to get something out of the video, but ultimately coming up empty-handed. I was stuck at this stage for a long time until I read The medium is the message by McLuhan, which gave me a lot of inspiration, why not try to switch mediums? I was skeptical throughout the process, not sure if this was the ‘right’ way to go. Fortunately, I finally made the unexpected discovery of converting video to audio and then to text. In addition to this, during discussions with my tutorial group, the relationship between machines and humans and various anthropological perspectives were mentioned, giving me more insight.
I found that my project had actually deviated from the public-private theme I had started with, and that it had become more about technology and humans. This all happened naturally and I began to reflect on whether it was right to look for or give a meaning to the project before it started. The public and private issues I raised were based on my imagination, or what I thought was common sense, in other words, I thought there should be public and private issues in such a place. The topic may indeed be able to unfold, but should it have been raised at the very beginning? Before starting my research, I should have held more of an unknown about future developments rather than predetermining a conclusion.
Apart from my own project, I also learned a lot from other people’s presentations. My classmates used a lot of graphic methods to explore, such as color and abstract lines, which showed me that there is still a lot of room for development and experimentation in the investigation phase of my own project. Secondly, every step of progress in a project can be progressed by learning from the work of artists or writers about the methodologies they use, especially when there is no progress, and more reading can greatly expand the mind.