Synopsis update

How can teenagers be encouraged to to develop their personal identites athrough creative ritical reflection?

Having been brought up in an environment in which crafting skills were passed down through generations, I am passionate about arts, crafts and the important role they can play in society. My project looks at ways for friends, families and communities to work collectively to produce work that reflects their experiences, places they live, and helps develop a real sense of identity, in turn exploring  how crafting can be used in contemporary society to help teenagers build an awareness of their own identities and their cultural and community identities. 

My aim is to encourage encounters between teenagers and designer makers and local people of different generations. These encounters can lead to extremely rich experiences and help young people develop expertise, understanding, communication skills, confidence and awareness to create stronger families and communities.  I hope these encounters will have a positive affect on the teenagers involved allowing them to think about and develop their hopes, dreams and aspirations. 

Throughout the research phase of this project my ideas have continuously evolved and I have been inspired by the people I have met, places I have been and the exhibitions I have visited. I have developed relationships with members of staff at Craft Central and the Craft Council Research Centre, and designer makers from studios and incubators across the South East. Their feedback has led to the evolution of my question and iterations of my artefacts, these artefacts have then been tested in non-craft environments to help develop my theories further.

The summer period is key to me as this is when I will be testing my artefacts with the teenagers in my area and getting their feedback on the workshop activities that I have developed to help them develop themselves further. 

Amongst other things, I have investigated ideas relating to online crafting networks, arts-based community engagement programmes, craft kits, combinations of modern materials and traditional techniques, and craft and the slow movement. I have also filmed ethnographic studies with people working in these fields to understand why they do what they do.

Since the beginning of the course I have been maintaining a blog to record my 'MADS Journey'. The entries vary from research findings and observations, project work and feedback, to the people, places and moments that have inspired me.

WHAT
What is your main personal ambition?
To feel joy, love and passion. Expand and discover more about myself. Undo my conditioning, clearing personal and generational history and transforming myself.

What is your main professional ambition?
To find a profession that utilizes the best and most creative parts of myself; and affords me the opportunity to grow. To work for myself in an environment that attracts like-minded souls. To work on projects that benefit the community around me. 

What is your main area of research interest?
Craftsmen, artisans, lost skills and the possible creative collaborations, collusions and collisions with young people. The values related to these traditional past-times, and what contemporary society can learn from them. Identity, sense of self, communication, storytelling and the importance of community. Encouraging young people to get involved in crafting to help develop their sense of self and understand their communities better. 

What is your question? (Your question needs to ask, “how can” and must indicate the means as well as the end that you hope to achieve)

How can teenagers be encouraged to build their awareness of and develop their own identities and their cultural identities through the use of crafting?

WHY
Why do you think that this question will enable you to achieve your main personal ambition?
I believe my question will allow me to meet a wide range of people with a variety of skills that I can learn, it will allow me to create, and help me find my passion. I hope these new skills and my new found understanding of lost crafts will allow me to develop my creativity and myself. Through meeting other people that have taken less conventional career routes I hope to undo my conditioning.

Why do you think that this question will enable you to achieve your main professional ambition?
I hope to meet like-minded souls through this project and see how they make a living using their creativity, which will help me reverse my conditioning and allow me to fulfill my true potential. I hope to build up a portfolio of work throughout the project and exhibit my work online and physically, allowing me to build a network of useful contacts, and grow in confidence allowing me to take on freelance work. My question will allow me to work with young people in my community. 

HOW
How has your research informed your question so far?
My research has allowed me to meet a variety of creatives, designer makers, and community arts professionals.  Through this and my desk research I have developed a number of workshop ideas that I wish to test with the young people in my area.

How will desk research inform your outcome?
Desk research has allowed me to investigate crafting, to find craftsmen to visit, courses to attend, centres and groups to get involved with. I have also carried out market research on designer makers, young people, crafting, community projects, identity and sense of self. 

How will field research inform your outcome?
Through my fieldwork I have been able to ascertain the links between creativity and sense of self, which has always been an interest of mine.  My field research over the summer will allow me to develop my question further, iterate my artefacts, and get feedback from the young people in my community, youth club workers and designer makers. 

How has your artefact extended your understanding of the potential of your question?
My artfeacts to date have allowed me to see what a huge area of research my question is opening up, there are so many possibilities, I have even been working on ideas to involve young people have been housed after periods of homelessness, as the effect of bing homeless on one’s sense of self and identity is enormous. 

How do you intend to develop the next stages of artefact iterations?
My artefact iterations will come directly from the feedback from the young people at my workshops and their youth clubs leaders, parents and teachers.   I will also be involving the designer makers I have met along the way to help with this. 

How do you intend to ensure that your feedback will challenge as well as support your preconceptions?
I hope to get feedback from a variety of sources, young people, designers, parents, teachers, social workers.  I have even spoken to a therapist about these workshops and my planned exercises. I also feel that the young people I am working with will be very forthcoming and challenging with their feedback.