thank you for watching my presentation titled in search of forms for evocative
and generative reflection I started with a quick preview of one exploratory study
that will be introduced later in this presentation to share its atmosphere
first. My name is Heekyoung Jung. I'm an associate professor in the School of
Design at University of Cincinnati. Today with the raised expectation for the
quality of life people take special care of their physical and mental health and
make extra efforts to maximize their capabilities they push themselves to
work harder and achieve more. And increasing opportunities and competition
for self-development sometimes become another source of distress. This study
takes reflection as a subject and a method of inquiry to look into the
intersection of well-being reflection and creativity.
Herbert Dunn emphasized the spirit for creative expression as a bridge between
the biological nature of man and the spirit of the man for toward High-Level
Wellness. In HCI reflective informatics and personal informatics promote
well-being through data-driven introspection artifacts also have active
life presences to evoke different thoughts for reflection. There are also
creative attempts to reflective practice by appreciating performative and ritual
values of reflection and embracing the body as a source of inspiration. Nature
also offers unique aesthetic qualities for physical and mental rejuvenation and
creative inspiration this study investigates the creative dimension of
well-being and reflection by viewing creatively as an energy to relate or fit
things together in a new way and as the natural
order of life. Then how could we connect and integrate reflective and creative
practices? I defined reflective form as a configuration of contextual and
representational elements that afford and unfold a reflective experience and
applied it as an analytical lens to probe unusual context and forms of
reflection first I participated a traveling artist residency with ten
visual artists and two organizers of light gray art lab where artists share
and work on their creative practice while traveling in nature in Iceland for
a week in the summer of 2018 the second study was conducted as a creative
exercise with 15 communication design students to create writing and visual
compositions about their transformative experience for three hours in 2019 those
study context were chosen because of the participants unique motivation for
self-reflection and their our expertise in creative practice but the
implications are not limited to them first at the beginning of the artist
residency each participant presented their creative skills and routines and
shared their motivation in attending the residency program their reflection was
initiated to search for inspirations when they felt stuck or found themselves
repeating their practice just mechanically or when they needed a
mental break after completing a project and felt burned down or for recovery
from life transitions or as a creative ritual to keep up their practice and the
sense of community with others as many artists work alone in a private
studio they were able to notice need for a change without noticeable breakdowns
even when things seem to be going well in the residency program they continued
inquiry by looking back and connecting dots with their artistic styles as a
lens or reflection seeking inspirations in nature and navigating goals was part
of their reflection we also visited different natural spots to work on
individual art project and with an informed consent I invited the artist to
engage it in to engage in sensory reflection at any time or any place
where they felt like or so that they could experiment with different contexts
and forms of reflection in nature I introduced different sensitizing methods
including body scanning forest bathing and body mapping to engage bodily
sensation and articulate their reflection at the end of the residency
program the artist shared their body maps and reflective stories for a group
discussion the collected body maps were analyzed to develop for sensory
reflection themes according to how the body was engaged in the moment and
represented in the map the first theme is awakening moments this theme directly
reflects the guidance of body scanning by dividing body sections and noticing
different senses felt from each part one participant described that it felt like
it felt as if her years extended to her feet when she stepped on the moss in the
water simultaneously listening to the loud
waterfall falling from above other participants
similarly appreciated unique felt sensations as a new bodily experience
that evokes shocking awareness of being present and alive with a surprising or
playful sensory touch the second theme is unbound presence and emotions many
participants describe their sensory reflection as a process of descaling
social and cultural layers present in between their inner presence and the
world some extended their thought to natural since metaphorically for example
one participant related his mind to a country cottage overgrown with grass
saying that's me so much in my mind but there is some calm and clarity the next
theme is mind examination and sensitization by detailing all the felt
senses meticulously amplifying usually ignore awful ones and navigating random
thoughts I booked from them one participant scanned through different
body parts while learning noticed some pain in his knees from a previous
surgery and somehow that made him think of other memories and miss his
wife as such reflections continued overflow of thought made some
participants emotionally sensitive and even cry and it became contagious within
the group however that was not uncommon or perceived negatively in this kind of
retreat and crying was considered cathartic to a certain degree. The last theme is
projecting life trajectory by drawing a chain of thoughts and memories triggered
by sensory experience as a mind map not really a body map some participants
a resolution or a statement as an outcome of their reflection the four
sensory reflection themes illustrate how one's mind was awakened unbound and
extended to the environment through immersive sensation. The unusually rich
and mesmerizing sensory qualities from nature trigger the participants to
notice their attested memories thoughts fears and hopes were facing from their
sensation they appreciated the moment of posing feeling holistically and engaging
separate sensations slowly the body map was an effective mean to externalize
their reflection but not preferred for creative expression they naturally
integrated the sense of awareness and inspirations from self-reflection into
their creative styles and artworks shifting the focus from context to
representation the second study explored various reflective compositions with a
different group of participants they were asked to write a short essay about
the best change in their life and create three visual compositions from the
written reflection the written reflections covered different kind of
changes in their mindset social attitudes are health and self-care
regimes or lifestyles those changes were initiated when things are not going well
or they felt not healthy physically or mentally or when they were exposed to
different lifestyles or context overall emotional crisis the unclear but
pressing feelings was frequently mentioned as an Associated problem
facing hard feelings being honest to oneself and staying authentic seemed to
be a life challenge today reflection and the change could be
initiated either by trivial or dramatic triggers with the surprising awareness
in a moment as in sensory reflection or over time being aware of and coping with
mixed emotions was a challenge but key to make positive changes in mundane or
rough situations the 15 written reflections were recreated into 45
visual representations in various genres of styles of expression like drawing
photography typographic compositions timeline table diagram and maps not only
the specific stories from each composition the participants disc
discussed some qualities that they considered in selecting a certain genre
or style of their visual expression those qualities include how engaging the
expression would be to start reflection with provocative prompts or how simple
or expressive it would be to create or how descriptive of the event it would be
in the end or how representative it would be of their thoughts or how
evocative of new meanings with enough ambiguity or they'd be appropriate to
share without revealing too much expressivity was pre frequently
mentioned and valued in relation to the first and second qualities it seems to
be best supported when text and drawing are combined to visualize a sense of
dynamic change or flow of time to wrap up from the reflective stories and
compositions collected in this story I first learned that meaningful changes
could begin either by trivial or dramatic if
through dynamic interactions among contexture personal and social elements
of reflection does any moment may have a different reflective and transformative
impact depending on the context regardless of its time frame research
involving reflection should carefully consider reflective forms to use as they
could evoke different emotional responses second probing various
reflective forms provided inspiring signals to propose a new design space
for evocative and generative reflection various qualities of reflective forms
need to be further investigated in future work in the end this study calls
for more exploratory studies that suggest possibilities to generate new
meanings of life events and goals through creative expression thank you