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25/03

Conversations and links from today

https://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/mo-te-puni-kokiri/our-stories-and-media/helping-rangatahi-get-into-the-digi-creative-space

I’m in a spot where I am really wanting to nail down a clear answer to why this Aotearoa specific lens is really important. I keep questioning it, I know that it is but how do I articulate this, or rebut to someone who wants to challenge this? 

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Helpful today was the 3 horizons approach concerning possible futures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5KfRQJqpPU

Also after finding this “work is a transformative activity and socially constructed phenomenon without fixed meaning across space and time. Its meanings are delimited by the cultural forms and social context in which it is practiced (Grint, 1998, pg. 42)” I have requested the book ‘The Sociology of Work’ by Keith Grint to help frame my approach

The 100 word doco continues also

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Moving to 

I’ve realised that for some reason, I can’t pinpoint why (maybe because I have been using this blog platform as a way to prove to myself that I am doing work? for the past 4 years) but I feel like there are more productive ways to reflect that are more effective to the place I am in at the moment. 

I will be starting a ‘100 words a day’ ongoing document & a physical journal of my own ‘working’ reflections from now on. Maybe I’ll revisit this blog – maybe not. 

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Reflection on: Situated Structures. Amanda Yates and Gemma Loving-Hutchins, 2015.

This text is of interest to my project on a broader level, consider the concept of time within space and how engaging time based change within architecture is within Pacific / Oceanic design discourse. By finding Aotearoa specific means of culturally constructing aspects of design and architecture that I can relate back to the workplace will enhance my own reasoning behind why I am suggesting this shift to localise aspects of the work environment - and it is shown through the strong, historical relationship that Aotearoa has with the land, this is rooted within our architecture and I think a point that is often lost between the many Westernised, static architectures that we see day-to-day.

This reading discusses how Western architecture, architectural representation and discourse is concerned with stasis and containment (immediately I have made the connection between the Interstices reading of Peter Sloterdijk and his containers vs sphere within interior spaces metaphor). There is a call for cultural productions including architecture to shift from stasis and singularity to the ‘evental’ and dynamic and multiple - all which are temporal states and experiences. This will require us to change our thinking that architecture is an object but rather a field of relations.

Other snippets which I feel important to consider include: “Architecture as a performative, time based condition” “Site specific flux”

Oceanic cultural constructions of site - the Ocean as the primary site of the Pacific, ocean as all of the grounds, it has no particular identifier, fixed position, unstable sit condition leads to pacific spatiality defined by the indefinite and the momentaty. This architecture derives from that of the sea - the waka. Pacific space embodies a spatiality of motion that thoroughly imbricated (overlapped) with the technologies, mythologies and aesthetics of movement. Conditions of movement create an ephemeral temporality that contrasts with Western architects aspirations of durability. Waka and Fale are environmentally responsive and permeave architectural discourse framing architecture as performative and fluid in conditions.

How can a workplace perform in response to rhythms in the environment to enhance the site specific Oceanic concept of space-time??

Thinking about interventions as in lighting and how power this can be as discussed in the descriptors of the Futuna Chapel and the Sounds House.

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Mon March 18th - quick update

I have be listening to the ‘Indigenous Urbanism’ podcast and have found a lot of value in hearing the thoughts of Elisapeta Heta, an architect as Jasmax - seeing a large architectural business setting up a framework that values Matauranga Māori within their structure is exciting, I am looking for into how these values are shared around the entire business. 

I have also found an incredibly relevant reading that I will make a separate post on ‘Interior Space across cultures’ specifically looking Oceanic culture and the differences between this and Euro-centric spatial design and how they two can live as neighbours. 

Dr. Stephanie Pride of Stratedgy has invited me to attend her Future Thinking two day course where she works with business’ to help them prepare and create a innovate positive approach to the future of work - an absolute privilege and an amazing opportunity to witness and personally experience workshopping within a business setting. I am hoping to meet with Stephanie during the week to discuss this further. 

Finally I had a productive conversation with Meg on Friday just to go over some of the new thoughts that have been popping up, we both agreed that I need to move forward more from last year and in doing so I need to focus on new language, digital nomadic worker and co-working do not fit within this frame anymore, they take away from what I am trying to convey within my Aotearoa specific foundation - I will talk to Tama about suggestions of wording which could speak to cultural base. 

Meg also suggested that I should be undertaking case studies as part of my research, kind of like the post-occupancy report that Anna talked to me about. We thought that an organisation such as Ākina and a government organisation could be appropriate, we did think it would need to be clearly communicated that I would not be designing these places with as new office or solutions. I agree that this would be the next step within my research to move into the phase of coming up with some physical interventions to test and evaluate. 

I have also been looking at the Chch recovery plan because as I have been looking more and more into Grow Waitaha and the strategic redevelopment of educations spaces within Aotearoa I have made some conclusions that all of the strong cultural framing happening within our educational spaces which communicate and instill these values within our tamariki are not continued to be framed and grown with into the workplace - I am hoping to find within the plan some overall values that the community identified as important regarding the collective identity of the city and then use these to influence the values I am working with too. 

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Tuesday 12th & Wed 13th March - conversations 

I didn’t post yesterday, can’t remember why...I spent a productive morning with Craig in the library discussing some ways to wade through the enormous about of literature there is to do with ‘the future of work’. Craig brought up some valuable points regarding the language that I use, and creating a strong framing. He spoke to me about a ‘grounded framework’ whereby you are let your research navigate you to the appropriate methodologies and build the framework from the ground up, rather than finding it all beforehand. I think that works well with me. I have a lot of literature to read through from Craig, I haven’t had a moment to begin really because I am have been trying to spend time to process and write down reflections so to not miss anything. 

Today, I completed my Toro Mai course in Tikanga Māori. Onto reo next. 

I had the most fantastic conversation today with Anna Brown, I felt so full of energy afterwards and have spent most of my day contacting and looking through the sites of fascinating and extremely relevant organisations who are working within the same / similar (pedagogical) spaces to me based in Ōtautahi. Anna wants to be keep in the loop with my project which is thrilling because I felt like gained so many new thoughts and expansions to my current line of thinking, especially surrounding the co-design aspect of work (one thing I need to do is find a different term for this). I’m feeling a bit brain-dead after today, so I have taken pictures of my reflection diaries from all of these conversations rather than write them down again here. 

Kerry Ann has introduced me to Vincent from Māui Studios in Christchurch who work within design to keep alive the Aotearoa narratives - Vincent and I have been chatting and he has agreed to help me through this project from his own industry, Aotearoa perspective which is amazing! 

So links from today:  REALLY HELPFUL and productive ones too 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167836/  - need to watch this doco

https://www.thinkbeyond.co.nz/about/

http://www.growwaitaha.co.nz/about-us/#about-us

http://shapingeducation.govt.nz/engagement/advisory-boards/waitaha-advisory-board

https://matapopore.co.nz/

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Monday 11 March - Arohaehae #1

Personal Reflection: Upon reflection of my first Arohaehae I feel as though my recent research and analysis of Tikanga Māori Co-Design Wānanga, and other Aotearoa design studios work-shopping methods was successful in communicating an approach and initial method as to how I will move forward within this workplace design research space.

My feedback valued the use of Matauranga Māori framing and felt that the descriptor of ‘spatially befriending the worker’ was strong in drawing in my audience and could also aide in the Aotearoa specific view as well as non-conventional ways of approaching this topic.

It was clear however that narrowing my scope before I move forward much further is essential, not to be limiting, but to frame my research so to not get drawn too far away from my critical position. Suggestions as to how to hem things in included; focussing on Ngāi Tahu values or general Tikanga Māori values, deciding on the ‘type of worker’ which will mean a more specific site to respond to will follow.

I have such a hesitancy to choosing a specific type of work, it seems very restricting saying, I am only focusing on work that happens within accountancy firms, for example. At the stage I am at, this kind of ‘work’ is such that currently completed in interior space, within a traditional Western design and frameworks, including but not limited to work at a desk with a chair but definitely on a digital device. This is why I keep being drawn back to co-working spaces where many different kinds of ‘work’ happen within one interior space. This dilemma is food for thought and something I will try to promptly sift through and find a solution.

Caroline’s Feedback:

The scope of your project may need tweaking, so as to be manageable.

We also suggest that you consider the audience/users/activities as well as the values core to the determined group(s).

In addition, we discussed how the European model closely resembles the structure of a classical Greek or Roman temple.

Kerry Ann’s Feeback:

Excited to see what the specificities around Aotearoa-based, Matauranga Māori co-design might look like. You mentioned a focus on Christchurch.

I have some former graduates from Ōtepoti who are now based there running their own business, Maui Studios with a strong kaupapa Māori focus and might be of interest to connect with if you are there. Let me know if you’d like me to introduce you.

Workplace/context will be crucial too. Would there be options to customise for a diverse range of ‘digital nomads’/ workers?

Spatially befriending the worker’ is a nice take away from your presentation. How? And for whom?

Julieanna’s Feedback:

In my opinion, I think that digital workers do not necessarily do different work from one another in that their labour is similar and the action of work is pretty much the same.

If you want to devise a system, or a process or a space of facilitations for work, then you need to ask yourself how digital fits into it alongside a Maori framing. Maybe the task is to talk to Maori business, associations, working groups, councils that are based on M Framework to see how, why and if digital plays an important role or not. Here, in this advice, I admit, you may be placing digital over M Framework and I am inverting it.

My intuition tells me that you may still want to design a specific space/site, which is fine. Your hesitancy to focus  as you say hints at that for me.

Personally I do not think you can make these decisions until you suss out what work is in western and Maori worlds.

So what are the most contemporary businesses, offices, companies in NZ owned, run and guided by Maori values?

__

I think I definitely want to move forward with the task of connecting with and talking with Māori working groups, councils etc that are based within the Māori framework and use that as a starting point for bringing coherency to my project. I have reached out to Chloe Cull who is an Māori Art Historian and teaches within this area, Chloe is also from my hapū so can hopefully bring a specific Ngāi Tahu values perspective, I wish to discuss this further with her & gather whether she thinks it will be beneficial to focus on tikanga or specifically our iwi values.

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Friday 8th March - sorting  I did not post on Wed, slipped my mind however I was totally engrossed in the reading “ A Simulacrum of Workplace Community: Individualism and Engineered Culture” * It was quite a read to digest and I will follow up after the Arohaehae 1 with my thoughts and I feel that it needs a couple more reads. 

Today I went through my presentation for Monday, create a small powerpoint with a couple of visuals to bring context to what I am talking about. 

I read an article last night about a man called Simon Casperson, founder of Space 10 - an innovation consultancy based in Copenhagen. Simon was discussing the future of work and living within an interview primarily based around how his team has ditched open plan offices and are embracing a self-directed, dynamic office space that he states gives people more ownership of their space....(thoughts immediately point to the engineered culture reading - why do we need to be the owners of our own spaces, aren’t we reaching towards a co-living community based world & doesn’t this spark the individualism debate again?) 

I really enjoyed looking through Space 10′s approaches to design, one in particular is an ‘online survey’ called ONE SHARED HOUSE 2030: http://onesharedhouse2030.com/survey/ which is a beautifully designed resource that is collecting data but actually prompting in depth thought about our living situations in the future, I feel like the form in which this has been design is extremely engaging and thus means that more input is presented.  I have also been looking into the approaches of Studio Tilt and Toi Āria - seeing how I can build on these co-design methods and utlise the current research in this area to drive my own individual approach - I have posted a very rough diagram of my thinking around this. 

* I also want to add that I have completed two modules of Toro Mai today and I am learning so much, I am thrilled to have found such a helpful online resource. I am ringing Aunty Den in the morning to ask about whether I can come home for a  couple of days soon to visit our Marae and talk about my project more- i need all the support I can get within this area & at this stage I have not heard back from Pūreirei regarding a mentor match, so I am trying to find other options. 

*Ezzy, D. (2001). A Simulacrum of Workplace Community: Individualism and Engineered Culture. Sociology, 35(3), 631-650. doi:10.1017/S0038038501000323

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Tuesday March 5th - sorting prep  I spent the morning sifting through my thoughts and beginning on my research to clarify a general frame to share at the Arohaehae 1 on Monday. 

Above what I achieved this morning + a simplified research outline. I feel like I spent a lot of time trying to make coherent ideas that just don’t want to be sorted out just yet, they still need more time to grow. 

I have begun to listen on my lunch break to this podcast ‘Workplace Matters’ it is essentially a discussion between two researchers who chat about fresh perspectives on the cultural, spatial and technological aspects of workplaces. The purpose of the podcast is to share a fresh, diverse, broader, more critical thoughts about the workplace. 

They begun by breaking down the definition of work (something I have been working on for a long time. It was spoke of how in the English language we use words and we assume and anticipate that people all have the same meaning for them (when thinking of Māori culture this is challenging as words can have multiple meanings, it is the context that changes them). 

In the quest to define workplace it is too hard to pin down one thing. 

Work space vs work place is already an interesting though process, is space the direct physical environment & then workplace is where the people and culture come to be within the overall umbrella term of work? 

The professors spoke about “standing on the boundary of workplace” where there is an intersection of spatial & people or cultural parts. It is a deceptively simple term that actually has incredibly developed meanings. 

I have also begun a reading - which is super challenging to the very basic level of research that I put into last year regarding individualism and collectism in the workplace. It is by Douglas Ezzy from Tasmania’s School of Sociology and it is entitled “A Simulacrum of Workplace Community: Individualism and Engineered Culture. I have begun to digest the first page and ready I am faced with many thoughts - Ezzy argues that workplaces with engineers cultures are ‘institutional sites for the production of a culture of self-gratificatory, narcissistic indivdiualism’ to put it lightly. As I have chewed further into the page I have begun to see that workplaces who do engineer culture to try and keep their employees working longer / more income etc etc present an image or representation of a community, but then encourage individualism, we work at our own stations, need to work to our own time schedules, shut off with technology etc etc. Lots more to read into here - I am feeling slightly positive as this first page suggests that Ezzy is going to draw on some positive social theories that argue that culture can encourage respect for others & that is at the heart of good work - but that is something for tomorrow.  

I need to do my Toro Mai course today - I have been very slack. 

Thoughts to revisit:

Post-fordism 

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Monday March 4th - sifting and sorting 

I spent most of my day today on a tangent, looking into to co-design workshops around New Zealand in an attempt start to clarify what I trying to understand through sparking conversations between people and place. 

I came across a workshop from 2016 - Tikanga Māori Co-Design Wānanga, which included some very thoughtful questions towards co-design within Aotearoa including; how can we ramp up from co-design to co-production? How can co-design work within a Māori term/framework? How does co-design become a fluid part of everyday practice and not something that keeps having to be explained?

This document provided some statements that I have written down to keep close to my mind - How Māoridom is being manifested within design outputs. Co-design is about kotahitanga (unity), manaakitanga (hospitality) & kaitiakitanga (guardianship) - the collective sharing of knowledge comes out of this too - something that I think is going to be very important to address - the indivdualistic working world, within a Western framework vs a Māori based framework of working for and with the collective. 

Some design groups to refer back to: Auckalnd Co-Design Lab Smallfire consultancy  Toi Tangata 

I read an article today and I think that it successfully sums up part of what I was yearning to find today - an interview with Johnson Witehera (Designer & educator) discussing that in the past cultural heritage (Māori) within design has been embraced in a ‘token’ fashion, however increasingly now value is being placed on proper processes and protocol- which is being values as a cultural point of difference. 

Witehera worked with a group of interdisciplinary students at Unitec - wanting to disrupt the status quo of Eurocentric positioning in education by brining Māori context and tikanga into the university - he asked students to bring their own tikanga with them (a point I really find compelling, it is a piece of the individual being brought to the collective & shared) the design task was to image the inside of homes from a bi-cultural Aotearoa standpoint. The best part about it was that the students thought that they would be taught, Māori design,however they were actually taught how to start thinking in a Māori way - designing from this perspective - how can this be integrated into the workplace design and cultural framing - changing the perspectives of those who are working through spatial design, not to start ‘working as a Māori’ but bring a  different perspective to their work’ Witehera speaks about these changes are best seen within the banal, everyday aspects of life, which is perfect for the workplace.

I am still yet to clarify a clear question for next weeks Arohaehae, even though I feel like I don’t personally need one in my head at this stage, it is rather hard to communicate to someone outside of my brain what I am trying to achieve. That will be tomorrow’s objective, I am leaving today with my brain in a tangled mess, however I feel positive about the mess, I’d quite like to stay within this mess for a while longer. 

Ant dropped by today and suggested really trying to clarify a question and book a session with Craig ASAP as to get a few really strong sources - less is more he suggested. 

Going to look at this reading tomorrow:  https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/73A3DD2DCFC7750433E54E8B4CD977C8/S0038038501000323a.pdf/simulacrum_of_workplace_community_individualism_and_engineered_culture.pdf

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https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8564160Fri March 1st - beginning the thought network 

I needed to start a though network to map through all of my thoughts, I feel the need to get all of the words that are running around my head onto a page. I know that I personally love words, I like putting them together, rearranging them and making sense of them - however I am also aware that this is an approach that I am comfortable with and I do think that it can be creatively limiting to me. I have been trying to think of ways today that I can challenge my usual method, I did a lot of thinking on this today and have not come to a solution. Will ponder this over the weekend. 

I read a text today: “ Augmented Human-Workplace Interaction: Revisiting Email - IEEE Conference Publication”. In hindsight, last year I didn’t actually acknowledge digital disruption in great depth because it is a concept that I feel is out of my depth, I don’t really understand it and it seems daunting so I generally avoid involving myself. I had a realisation today that this is what workplace designer / organisations are doing aswell, and the whole time I have been focussed on workplaces and the future of work I have only acknowledged this very possible and near future - what about inviting it though? Is one of the reasons that workplace design feels as though it has essentially stood still over the past few decades because the digital disruptions has not been warmly invited inside? 

So along this line of thinking I was putting connections together with why I have been so fixed on the cultural and organisational framing of the workplace as a solution to... what? The fear / concerns / lack of invitation to digital disruption. A reframing of the disruption is needed and I feel like there is room for spatial design to be used as an offer up to this ‘issue’ in the sense that spatial design & in particular my research can build up / suggest a tool box based on non conventional organisational and cultural framing that uplifts people and place at work, that invites in the digi but lets the workers know that - hey, there is no need to be worried, the placemaking, sense of belonging and identity (framed by localisation of context i.e Aotearoa workplace) is still held in the highest regard. Passion and people are at the forefront of the workplacedesign, but we are not scared of mixed realities and augmented experiences, Human + Innovation + Culture = Workplace Design. 

I also spent some time looking at current case studies as I have realised that I need some physical examples to critique, one from Kursty Groves ‘Spaces of Innovation’ book was about the AIR BNB LONDON office space. The organisation values passion and people, so their philospophy was to design a space that sparks passion and enhances a sense of place, but with the biggest emphasis put on the need to be dynamic and change as the changes happen - a fluidity I guess. 

Other thoughts from today include: I am meeting with Anna Brown of Toi Āria in the next 2 weeks to explore ideas of workshopping and worker-led involvement in the design process, this gives me a couple of days to research into participatory practices which could enhance my research question and talk to Anna about. Also I have found a ‘FUTURE OF WORK’ convention (in London) which took place at the end of last year. It was a govt run convention and the topics involved, how will we prepare for digital disruption - will innovation outplace regulation, what is the role of social attitudes in relation to new technologies in the workplace, how will we benefit from digitalisation - I endeavour to look into a recording of this, I think it would be interesting to see if the physical workspace was acknowledged. 

Over the weekend it is time to continue thinking about the how these concepts and spatialisations of work in a contemporary context can be unfolded within my exegesis. 

Links from today: 

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8564160

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Wednesday 27th Feb - A day of thought & not much else 

I had my first supervision session with Julieanna and Meg this morning. I’ll have to admit, I had not had much thought into the actual reasoning behind why I wanted to do this thesis until it was posed as a direct question to me today - what do I want from this? what is my 5 year plan and how is this going to get me to where I want to be?  To me, this was an extension of last years honours project because I felt like I had a lot more to give, I really enjoyed being challenged and stretching myself - when I didn’t exactly feel like I had achieved an output that represented what I wanted my final project to be like, I decided to continue.. but never actually considered how this is going to help me in the future? 

So to address that, I know how much I enjoy working with people, consulting with them, sharing and growing ideas, I get energy from the stages of a project where there is no final output in sight and it is all up to the conversations and drawings that are happening right now to spark what will grow into a final work. I realised how much I enjoyed working with alongside Mum & Pene of Paparoa St. School for their new schools design brief which will be submitted to the Govt for review and then to the Architects to start developing a design from the initial directions, guided by us. I feel like there is value in acting as the facilitator of ideas during these situations - so how can this feed into what I am doing this year? 

There is also the concern that this is all not going to fit into a 1 year project - something I have been avoiding. I want to try and, in these early weeks, pick or discover an aspect to workplace design that will refine my scope more, but not be limiting in my approach either. 

Two main things that I want to get to the crux of ASAP is what is work? What is workplace design? why do I need to re-think workplace design? What is the value in this? 

& secondly WHO is my client/user/audience/ I do not need an ‘industry connection’ such as I am designing for this firm - however I just know that a major cause of my confusion last year is that I did not have a clearly defined client that I could refer back to, I kept expanding on who and that definitely took away from my project. 

Overall today I was a bit stuck in my thoughts, I tried to do some readings, find some inspirations, I did my Toro Mai, but I just feel like now at the moment i’m questioning everything & it’s more of a case of me processing my thoughts and needing to have a clear direction. 

We decided that I’d have until our next session to just absolutely go ham and explore lot of different channels of thinking, make a huge mind map, be honest, make pros and cons and cover lots of areas, make links, show the thinking and then produce a clear guide to what I am doing. 

Some notes from brain blurts today: 

27/02 - Innovation Foundations ( what ones, specific) are looking towards the future of work, especially in consideration of digital disruption and wanting to come up with solutions for companies to enhance the physical workspaces for digital nomadic workers (capitalism though, making people be at work, more production, efficient etc etc)

I am designing (at this stage?) a toolbox, strategies, consultation device, design suggestions, to bring an Aotearoa based framework to workplace design which intends to reassess what it means to work & BE at work.

This will be inconsideration of an Aotearoa based framework.

WHY WHAT IS THE META?

^ redefining what a workplace can be

What is this new work paradigm that we are in?

There is a new work paradigm, I see an opportunity to stretch out from the current standardised, Western work design situation that we still sit within in Aotearoa and draw from ideaologies of cultural framing and organisational models that are specific to, or devoloped in consideration of an Aotearoa environment – one where conversations, learning and expanding on knowledge through sharing is key.

The output could be a series of interventions, but it draws from the people.

The people are at the centre of this, not huge corporations. If people and their daily needs are help at the highest, then these changes can be made.

What if this was all about creating Master Plan strategies?

For translating information between workers/companies/architects to communicate the type of spaces that the people want, which then in turn will build a strong company culture.

Links from today: 

https://www.hrtechnologist.com/articles/digital-transformation/4-trends-shaping-the-future-of-work/

https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/doi/pdf/10.1002/ace.39

https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj17/17_pages214_217.pdf

^ none that I actually really paid attention to htough. 

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Tuesday 26th Feb - brainstorming and sourcing 

I felt like it would be beneficial to craft a couple of sentences that I can draw from pretty quickly to explain the over view of my work at this stage. I worked through some terms as well and grouped them into my 3 categories so I can start a bank of thinking, that I will look into, draw connections and tease our over the coming weeks. 

I felt like it was important today to begin finding some designers who actually work currently within this space of - strategic future thinking, workplace spatial design - areas. I have been drawn to the work of Kursty Groves over the past summer when I have been doing some initial reading about. She works together with Oliver Marlow at the London based Studio Tilt, an architecture & design firm that specialises in innovative spaces and collaborative environments (note - not called ‘workplace’). I have combed through an interview today between both Kursty and Oliver, discussing the essentials that they draw from when approaching a design in this area. This has been funded by NESTA, UK, which is a global innovation foundation - supporting studies within ‘future scoping’ areas. Some quick thoughts from this interview that have already spurred thoughts in my own mind include: - designing with component elements of space lending to individual autonomy which builds up to a companies identity footprint. 

- Space should be considered as a tool that leverages human performance. 

- We are holistic beings, so our workplaces should reflect that; things are not isolated, they work togther

- Design from the inside out; what do workers need form the space? What do they need to interact? How do they behave in the given space? 

I continued on to find the ‘Spaces of Innovation’ book, co-authored by both Kursty and Oliver. Already I have been drawn in by this exert; “ when culture, behaviour & new ideas collide in physical space, what are the placemaking rules by which organisations today should play? 

I also grabbed a couple of other books which I want to have a glimpse at to see some physical workplaces with strategic design methodologies at play. 

I didn’t get around to my Toro Mai course today which I am annoyed at, I am thinking I should build this in to be the first thing I do in the morning so that it is achieved earliest. 

Tomorrow is my first supervision meeting, I have prepared a series of questions that I want to go over - basically just want to get the ball rolling and understand the kind of time expectations & design time frame that I should ideally be working to. 

Today’s helpful resources:

http://studiotilt.com/services/

& ‘From the Inside Out - Kursty Grove interview - ZOTERO

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Monday Feb 25 - First day in the studio

Today I found that it would be most beneficial to plan out my year and begin putting into perspective the kinds of expectations in terms of time frame that I have for getting all of the work I can possibly do, done.

I have re-looked over my Masters application and starting drawing out the most important points from that to share in my Arohaehae 1. I think that over the coming days I need to sit down and read my R&D work from 400 S1 and get a grasp on my thinking, there, especially the bi-cultural departure point that I got to.

I am starting to realise that I think for me a lot of the most beneficial research I can do too within the stage is first hand, talking, communicating. I know that these moments are so important, and even in informal conversations ideas are sparked. After sitting by myself for most of the day, planning out notes I have found that although this is great for my writing/thinking moments, that I actually really need the connection with people to spark ideas. I guess that this is relevant too for my own individual workplace experience.

I have started to divide my ideas up into groupings, I see three groups emerging:

1. Future

2. Organisation

3. Culture

There three strands are so broad and a huge amount can be teased out of them. I am thinking that I should look at one at a time (obviously there are many connections between them so they will have to come together at some point).

I have started off briefly engaging in the cultural point - signing up and participating in the Toro Mai Massey online course about Te Reo Māori and Tikanga Māori. I have also involved myself over the summer months in Pūreirei, a group within my iwi Ngāi Tahū who work within university students to help provide mentorship and guidance within their areas of study. I am waiting to hear back from my application if there is anyone within the iwi that is willing to support me through some of this journey.

I briefly discussed with Jen today about the importance of first hand conversations regarding this cultural aspect. She suggested that I look at some journals that focus on organisational system within Māori culture, so I will begin on that tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be mostly full of preparation for my first supervisor meeting. The brief plan at the moment will be to get help setting some expectations and goals for myself, go over the plan of my research and the strands, check whether there is anything glaringly wrong with where I am at right now begin teasing out a plan from the Arohaehae 1 guidelines sheet.