Consider a line of inquiry you want to pursue (this might be a topic, a place or particular site to respond to, an archive, a type of technology, a person, a community). This period of research is designed specifically to allow you to explore a line of questioning that will help you develop the Fall Portfolio Project. In 3-5 double spaced pages, explain how your lived research will take shape and how it might inform your second portfolio project. Elaborate on what you’re interested in learning and how. Consider how this relates to work you’ve already done and how it fits into your personal practice.
Lived Research should comprise about 50-75 hours of your time in June and July (you decide how spread out that is: two weekend trips, one long week, an hour prototyping every day over two months, or five hours a week interviewing experts).
Potential styles of approach:
Intensive Approach: Immerse yourself in a group or a community (a la Ida Benedetto) for a period of time, apprentice with an expert, or travel somewhere specific to study physical places, works of art, environments, etc. This may have an ethnographic quality, and involves understanding the experiential aspects of the design of that world in an embodied way.
Research Approach: Conduct a series of interviews or studio visits with a larger number of practitioners (say 10-15) within a particular field, or spend time in an archive dedicated to a particular topic. This should gather a diverse set of voices to understand a topic or concept thoroughly.
Prototype Approach: Identify the experiential design qualities you are interested in researching and then develop a series of prototypes to expand your understanding. This is like doing laboratory research in a particular line of interest. Topics might be developing consent in improvised interactions, identifying the nature of awe or wonder, experimenting with expanding and contracting the sense of time, testing modes of narrative engagement, etc.
Proposal Requirements:
3-5 pages (double spaced)
A description of the Lived Research project
A bibliography of 5 or more sources (these may be books, online sources, other media, interviews, etc.)
A calendar or timeline of your Lived Research
A site, a series of sites, or an itinerary
Other components of your lived research might include:
A more complete booklist
Workshops you’ll attend
A travel guide or map
A person you’ll apprentice with
List of interviews and people you’ll talk to
Materials you’ll be studying/working with
Technical skills you will be learning
A clearly stated line of inquiry
Timeline:
April 25 midnight: First Draft Lived Research Proposal Due
May 20/21: Final Lived Research Outline due
June 1 - August 1: Lived Research Period
Biweekly Cohort-Facilitated Meetings on alternating weeks
Tuesday cohort meets from 2-4pm EST (June 3, June 17, July 1, July 15, July 29, Aug 12)
Sign up here. Meeting link here.Wednesday cohort meets from 12-2pm EST (June 4, June 18, July 2, July 16, July 30, Aug 13)
Sign up here. Meeting link here.
Mid July: Individual progress meeting with EDCP Instructors.
August 8: Lived Research report due.
Upload to google drive and email us when it is ready.
Week of August 11: Final report meeting with EDCP Instructors to discuss translating your report into a project proposal
LIVED RESEARCH SAMPLE:
Margo Gray Sample Proposal & Final Report and Bibliography Notes