Peer Reviews

I presented my thesis idea and process on Friday night for peer reviews. There wasn’t a large attendance in the section I was in, still the reviews were beneficial to me.
I wanted to present not just my concept and topic, but also the process that I am going through and the way my thesis idea is being formed. I wanted to share both forms I have been experimenting with in regards to the state of mental unease when dining alone. I only had seven minutes to present and I was rushing through my slides. I divided my presentation into two sections. The first section covered the iterations within the realm of critical design and the second section covered the narrative approach. I couldn’t get into the details of the second section because of time constraints, but overall, my presentation was clear.
Most of my peers related to the topic of eating alone, and I felt that they were relating more to the idea of the kits, they became more attentive and amused by the irony of the form. As for the second part, they reacted to the idea of perception versus the reality and suggested that I should experiment more with that. The discussion that started in the room was not feedback but rather personal opinions on eating alone, and being alone; which is exactly what I want my project to evoke as a final piece. Another suggestion was thinking of ways where my project could be shown, for example putting it in a public space where people do eat alone. One person pointed out that I should be aware that I was leaning to the negative side of eating alone, it made me realize that as a person who finds it very hard to eat alone, my piece should not reflect pejoratively.
As a designer, I don’t want to spoon-feed my audience, I don’t want my project to help people in a straightforward manner, I want to spark a discussion and I want my audience to think. It leaves me thinking, how can I find the intersection between critical design and linear storytelling?

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