It is a regular discussion that I had with Laurene and I cannot see why she seldom disagreed with the idea that each country is unique in their owns different ways. Or perhaps I did not see what she was trying to say. Are we talking on the same thing or we both agree and disagree on different topic? I argued that the uniqueness does exist through the connection between people with object, places, space, weather, etc. Somehow there is some kind of emotional connection happen in between that makes one felt special and unique of the object, places or space. One who visited Paris will said that no other place like Paris because of the cuisine, Eiffel tower, language etc. Paris is unique in some ways comparing to other city. Others might disagree with it and said that Sydney is unique in one eyes because of the Sydney harbour, food, weather and people. Looking at both with experiencing each places, one could not said that it’s unique. It relates with emotion and the kind of experience that one got through with others, objects and places.
But what Laurene might means when she said that there is no uniqueness in identity in my research, she might be referring to the advertisements and woman’s magazine cover I had from Malaysia. Indeed looking at the printed artefact doesn’t demonstrate the idea of uniqueness. There no such thing as uniqueness if there is no experience connected to it. Is that what Laurene mean? And no, I’m not trying to defend my personal feeling here but what I think about it in relation to my research.
In relation to the notion of uniqueness…
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Thanks. Hmmm…..Responding to what you wrote “what you think is unique for you, you then find out is unique for others.”
Indeed, that after all it is not more as unique as because as you mentioned that unique usually implies one. But unique also implies being one of its kind and original. But it could go the opposite such as it would be unique for one but not for others. In this case it could be called unique.
In relation to the notion of uniqueness in my research, in the context of Malaysia, like any other country the people will find it unique as most of them have experience and memory that relates to the country/place/object etc. I cannot say that the notion of uniqueness does not exist in identity, because there do exist and I strongly think that the notion of uniqueness do contribute heavily in the creation of identity.
I’m presenting a paper at a 17th Biennial Conference of Asian Studies Associations of Australia (ASAA). It at Albert Park Hotel, in St Kilda, Melbourne.
In this paper I will discuss about the earliest project in the beginning of my PhD, the Online Forum and www.malaysianidentity.com is the case study of this paper. As my PhD is a practice-based design research project, it is challenging to explain it to the non-design background what is design research and what is practice-based research. Here’s the abstract of my paper. If you interested to read the whole paper, please do email me.
Can an online discussion be used as a new research practice? A case study www.malaysianidentity.com
Nurul Rahman
With the rise of web 2.0, and collaborative web sites and communication platforms, there is the temptation and the possibility of utilising innovative technology for research methods and practices.
As part of a practice-based design PhD research project, I used an online discussion forum as an environment to enable focus group discussions. The aim was to gather together a selection of research participants (artists and designers) involved in creative fields, to start a conversation, and explore ideas about, Malaysian identity and its representations within cultural artifacts. I facilitated this discussion, exploring particular topics; and through the use of open-ended questions and threads within the forum, encouraged participants to present their ideas and engage with others.
This paper will discuss how an online tool can be used within a research project to experiment and confront ideas, to find new directions for investigation or to have a general discussion about a specific subject with research participants who are located in diverse international locations, asynchronously.
The forum malaysianidentity.com will be used as a case study to explore the advantages and challenges such a solution may present.
Full paper
Can online discussion be used as a new research practices? by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.