For this exercise, I was tasked to practice using spider diagrams to explore and expand on words and concepts.
I had to create 4 spider diagrams, one for each of these words: Seaside, Angry, Childhood, and Festival.
At first this challenge seemed simple, but the more I worked on it, the harder it seemed.
Strategies
My general approach to this exercise was to start with a shortlist of obvious things that came to my mind easily. Then I used these 'hubs' to then extend into more specific areas. I tried to see where there were connections and cross-connections.
The cross-connections we particularly interesting to me. I tried to think about the subject from multiple viewpoints. For example - not everyone's childhood is a good one and I tried to explore aspects of that. Cross-connections allow me to connect juxtaposed areas together, and build up a picture of the subject which is more authentic (I found that starting on personal experiences first tended to draw my down idealistic or cliched paths).
After the initial branches, I extended my approach to more conceptual aspects. For some of the spider maps specific colours came to mind, so I used oil pastels to capture the essence of those impressions. A lot of the time, when reviewing the map it would trigger larger feelings or concepts in my head, and I tried to get those down when they came to me. They weren't essentially linked, but almost felt like summaries.
Taking on different subjects
The subjects themselves seem simple at first glance, but when you really have to think about the subject they are far from it. I felt that the simpler the subject, the harder it was to build up a spider map that I was happy with, as there were so many avenues to take that it actually restricted my imagination. I think Festival was the hardest for me to get a connection to, and explore fully.
Whilst the technique was not a new one to me, I found having a specific tight brief about very general topics to be a real challenge and I found it very useful. I think I will take away a lot from the exercise to build into my research approach. There were a few things that found specifically useful: One was to get someone else to do a verbal version of the exercise with you - it really helped me to fill in gaps and make connections that hadn't come to me initially. The other thing that helped was to use shape and colour.
I found that, in the Angry subject, I leaned more towards using colour, shape and iconography. This actually helped me navigate this difficult subject more easily. I feel that this is a more natural approach for me, and the others might have been more successful if I had used this approach more. I felt the wording of the task leaned more towards having to use wordplay, and I felt obligated to not use too many visual elements. I am wondering if this was self-imposed?
Overall, it was fun and I'm looking forward to the next exercise.
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