How Do You Begin a Thesis? Part 04
Over the next few weeks, SANNZ will be talking with a range of 5th year students from UoA, Unitec and Victoria to ask them “How are you starting your thesis”? This will provide an insight into the range of methods and projects that you can expect to see this year with the “Show Us Your Thesis” blog. And, given the unprecedented challenges with COVID 19, we will also be asking them “how are you adjusting your process to work at home?”
SANNZ: How are you starting your thesis? How are you adjusting your process to work at home?
Maggie Jiang: I started with making collages on the topics I was interested in: authoritarianism and surveillance. I found that making collages can articulate otherwise rather heavy subjects into more whimsical concepts. There is an inherent looseness to collage-making that enables imaginative results and explorations, which is particularly important during early stages of my project as I do not want to confine myself to a single direction just yet. Alongside this, I’m also doing a lot of reading, and taking out quotes from various sources that really stood out to me.
The COVID-19 lockdown means we can only work from home now. Whilst it does not impact my design process as much as it may others (as I can create collages digitally and read materials online), it does hinder my physical model making capabilities, hence I am taking this time now to hone my digital CAD skills. I find that starting a routine at home is really important, something I am still struggling with and working towards to. Also taking a short walk to get some fresh air definitely helps!
Finn Forstner: My thesis and my chosen focus of rural communities was always going to have a wide scope. This could result in a large period of reading to find direction but after talking to an architect who runs a community practice, I realized how important the direct actions of the architect and the acknowledgement of its widening role are in this environment. This realization led to me after initial mapping exercises joint with previous research on the rural industries and communities that fuel them to set about drawing, modelling and building an installation which I planned to take to multiple sites and engage in an active process of reactionary conversation with the public.
With the occurrence of CO-VID 19 and the resulting period of self-isolation I have had to stall construction at the 1:1 prototype stage and instead will switch scales for the time being to critique the multidisciplinary approaches to regional and district conditions that was going to occur later in the design process.
Cara Webster: The COVID-19 level 4 lockdown has dramatically changed my initial thesis process. My thesis is based around physical material production and exploration, handcrafting, and tool making. Without access to the 3D labs, workshops, craft makers and stores, the lockdown has meant that I’ve had to change course and pause a lot of things completely.
Luckily just before the alert level was raised, I had the pleasure of being taught a traditional practice of material making. This practice is deeply rooted in tradition and history, which I was very humbled to have been taught this one on one. It also requires tools that I already have. I also was able to get some books out of the library, as what I am researching often doesn’t exist online. With this combination I am able to explore the material I am working with from my home. Unfortunately the natural material is still hard to source due to movement restriction, but I am able to get some and practice.
I am essentially going to have to flip my thesis process around, and work slightly backward. My initial material exploration will have to be pushed back until the alert level has been reduced, and I will have to bring forward the period of researching, reading and writing that was anticipating to be later on. Although frustrating, the research I am doing now means that I can be more knowledgeable and have a more tactical approach to my physical material exploration once the alert levels have been reduced.
Muhammad Izzat Ramli: I started thinking about my thesis a few years ago, when I began to see the connection of my own culture (Malay) with the Oceanic culture. Books and journals taught me about the term, ‘Austronesian’ which is constructed by the concept of language families that cover a vast area of the world (South East Asia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) because of the ‘great voyage’ that happened several thousand years ago. In summer 2018, I did ten weeks of travel to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Borneo to experience it in person by observing and talking to locals about Austronesian architectural heritage architectonic, and that’s when my ‘thesis voyage’ started.
I reckon I become more creative with limited materials, tools, and space, especially for physical modelling. Typically, I only focused on making intricate models and drawings, especially during the exploration stage. At home, I change to quick and straightforward models or sketches, then translate them into digital, which is a pretty fun and efficient process.
