Drawing from the deeply personal nature of fanfiction and its connection to the experiences of fan writers, I chose narrative inquiry as my methodology to explore and understand the needs of stakeholders.
This approach emphasizes storytelling as a way to delve into the motivations, challenges, and aspirations of those involved in the fanfiction community. The podcast below helped me a lot for preparing how to structure for my interviews.
6.16~6.21 Pre-Intervention
I have contacted an expert on worldbuilding and have told them 2 of the fictional stories I created. Their reaction was to immediately come up with 2 storylines to broaden the story further.
I want to emphasize that, if we view this interaction as an intervention, sharing my comic to a worldbuilder does “create change”, because they came up with brand new ideas because they saw my work. The evidence is shown in the pictures.
Story Link:
0th Intervention（7.15）
I am currently very aware of the fact that my current research question: “How can we measure the impact of fantasy-based fiction?” has yet to generate new change into this world and that has made me quite anxious and hesitant to do interventions.
After discussing this problem with the course tutor, I was given the advice to explore the area of both fantasy and magic tricks via traditional research(first and secondary) as well as action research(interventions).
So for action research(7.13~7.15), I decided to put the comic I showed the expert out publicly and show it to different people.
I printed out the comic, went to Kings Cross, and tried to interact with the pedestrians who were passing by. This proved unsuccessful and only one person wrote down a dream that they wanted to do.
So I changed tactics, and decided to reposition my intervention online. [There were 24 participants in total]
I asked each participant 4 questions:
Quantitative data:
1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think the comic influenced you personally?
2. Do you think that this transformation of the concept of an “unfinished building” into a story has a greater impact on the real world than it did before?
Qualitative Data:
3. What does this story remind you of? Do you have any thoughts about this story? Please feel free to write down any feedback you have on this comic.
(This question generated a lot of very long feedback that I’m still integrating into a readable format for a learning log. I will update bullet points of audience feedback shortly.)
e.g. I really liked the theme of giving meaning to things that seem otherwise meaningless. Personally, I like this subjective, materialistic way of understanding the world, and I feel quite strongly about this theme. Because everything in the world is meaningless in itself, it is we who give meaning to it. The unfinished building remind me of ruins, like when we go to see a historical site that is objectively just some broken rocks and mounds of earth, but just because someone says that it was once the splendour of a dynasty, we instantly feel a lot of emotion. And I really like the meaning you’ve given to it, it’s very cute and cosy, for me it can hold not only buried dreams, but also more of those carefree old times, childhoods that I can’t go back to.
4. Please recommend a work of fantasy (novel, film, TV show, musical or any other genre) that has had a profound effect on you, and explain briefly about the impact this work has had on you in real life.
(Same.)
e.g.1. I’m a big fan of “The Three-Body Problem”. It has a very ambitious setting, but if I were to say how it affected my actual life, I’d probably say that the line in the book that stuck with me the most was “To the civilisation of time, rather than to life in time”. This line is actually originally from Pascal’s “to the time to life, rather than to life in time, that is, “to give time to life, rather than to life in time”, Liu Cixin extended this line from individual life to the survival of the whole civilisation. He extended this phrase from individual life to the survival of civilisation as a whole.
In the book, human beings, facing the invasion of the Trisolarians, and realising the disparity in the level of technology between the two sides, after complete despair, established a calm mindset: since human civilisation is bound to be destroyed after a century, we might as well make the most of our last years and live our lives to the fullest. And it is precisely this mentality that has made the human mind break free and soar freely, and in this short span of 100 years, the level of human science and technology has taken an unprecedented leap forward.
This is the meaning of the saying that what we should pursue is not the continuation of civilisation, but to let civilisation blossom most beautifully in the years of its continuation. In the same way, each of us, with regard to life, should seek not to extend our life span, but to live out more values in our limited life.
e.g.2. There are countless fantasy and sci-fi works that I’ve read and enjoyed. Sci-fi still has quite a few logic holes, and fantasy relies even more on strange powers that don’t quite fit the rules of the real world. That said it may lead to a new question, what if the fantasy elements in this work are just observers of the real world and not interlopers? Or if we only look at the part that observes the real world and ignore the part that interferes with it for the time being, are there any works that have had a profound effect on me? Reality itself is full of “fantastical” but reasonable things, and compared to the sheer size of the real world I live in, a particular work of fantasy would be a drop in the ocean, and its effect on me would be like a handful of salt sprinkled in the ocean. So it’s a slight shame that there doesn’t seem to be any fantasy that really has a profound effect on me, it’s basically just fun to read.
Although I received a lot of positive and constructive feedback from this intervention, the process in designing it felt forced. The fear of not being able to link this intervention to my research question had been paralysing to me, and was slowing my research process down distinctly.
The fantasy I created has different amounts of impact to different individuals. I will try my best to use the data I collected from this intervention and form a logical link to my current research.
This process is to demonstrate the power of placebo and show that even when people know they’re taking a placebo, it can still have physical effects on the body.
After receiving a “fear erasure tablet”, participants are put into scary situations like being locked in a dark room or a coffin, and their physical reactions are monitored. Remarkably, even though the participants verbally acknowledged taking a placebo, their body’s stress responses are lowered after taking the pill compared to before.
This shows the mind’s ability to override our autonomic fight or flight responses and biologically reduce fear through expectation and suggestion alone.
Derren Brown discusses how placebos have been clinically proven to reduce pain and change hormonal secretions through psychological factors.The video is an entertaining demonstration of just how powerful the placebo effect and mind-body connection can be.
I’m currently having trouble defining the change in my project.
I’m uncertain how fantasy and magic tricks can create new change in both areas because performances such as this already exist, and they already create excellent change in this world.
I have tried to pick out a specific group of stakeholders to specify the change, such as Chinese high school students(which is the group of stakeholders for the intervention on May 13th, where I created a dystopian world based on current reality in the Chinese education system). But it detoured my project to education rather than fiction, which caused huge confusion in my audience.
I am trying to plan for interventions but finding it hard to take action because the research question hasn’t been completely defined. I’m currently planning out interventions on fantasy and magic tricks separately, and try to piece them together like jigsaw puzzles in order to create something new.
Jordan Peterson once said, “You’ll have to sacrifice the pluri-potentiality of childhood for the actuality of a frame.” I think it is similar with projects. When starting a project, I really enjoy the endless potential and as time went on, have spent too much time mourning the fact that I could only choose one area to work on. It will happen whether we want to or not, and the main difference is whether I choose this limitation in time, or let it get take me unaware.
But I’ve already chosen my limitation. I’ve identified as a writer of fiction and comic artist, specifically on the area of fantasy. What stumped me was that, I don’t know how fantasy can create change, new change, to this world. And that was why I kept adding elements to it that was inside my comfort zone, like result-based education, because I was a student in the majority of my life.
I’ve had a paralysing fear because I was unable to define the change of my project and therefore since the start of independent study, I was hesitant, even unable, to create interventions. However I needed to undertake one soon to get the project out of a stalemate.
I have also been in touch with several magicians based in London via a magician’s workshop. According to them, magic isn’t as entertaining if you perform magic alone, you have to weave a story or a narrative into it to actually attract an audience. Requoting Derren Brown: “Magic is a great analogy of editing reality and forming a story and mistaking that story for the truth.” It is quite a valid way of storytelling.
I have contacted an expert on worldbuilding and have told them 2 of the fictional stories I created. Their reaction was to immediately come up with 2 storylines to broaden the story further.
I want to emphasize that, if we view this interaction as an intervention, sharing my comic to a worldbuilder does “create change”, because they came up with brand new ideas because they saw my work. The evidence is shown in the pictures.
Recently I have been feeling quite lost in the way I convey my project and felt the need to redefine my research question. I had trouble with identifying the focal point of my topic, failed to address my topic in a clear and succinct matter, and conveyed it in a wrong way. I’m redefining it right now in order to gain evidence and feedback from the area that I had always intended it to.
For my project, result-based education acts as part of the “compost heap” in the mind for me as a writer/creator of fiction.
For my intervention on May 13th, I created a fictional, exaggerated version of results-based culture. My aim is NOT to create change in the structure of the Chinese education system(it’s impossible). It’s to use the negative experience of an individual to create something beautiful. A piece of speculative fiction like Black Mirror is only going to reveal an incident to possible stakeholders rather than change the incident itself. But revealing as an action does create change.
The intervention does provide evidence to a research question, but not the research question that I chose before. I need to doublecheck the function of interventions and the specific field that I want to change.
Research Question updated up till now: How can we measure the impact of fantasy-based fiction?
A project on fiction, unlike a design project, doesn’t have stakeholders in a particularly focused field, and the impact it creates is relatively intangible. It inspires change in individuals rather than creating tangible change itself.
This story contains overlapping narratives about different people editing a real incident and turning them into a piece of news on the media for their own benefits.
One man’s dream of the NHS From campaigning at the coalfield to leading the battle to create the NHS, Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan is often referred to as the politician with greatest influence on our country without ever being Prime Minister. Confronted with death, Nye’s deepest memories lead him on a mind-bending journey back through his life; from childhood to mining underground, Parliament and fights with Churchill in an epic Welsh fantasia. Michael Sheen (Under Milk Wood) is Nye Bevan in this surreal and spectacular journey through the life and legacy of the man who transformed Britain’s welfare state. It’s written by Tim Price (Teh Internet is Serious Business) and directed by Rufus Norris (Small Island).
After careful consideration, I decided to pivot my approach from result-based education to fiction. I stopped with education mainly because of the stakeholders. I realised that teachers and students and guidance councellors were not what I wanted to form as a network for my future career, so I decided to change my topic. To redirect it to the area of fiction.
Intervention on May 13th
For my project, result-based education acts as part of the “compost heap” in the mind for me as a writer/creator of fiction.
For my intervention on May 13th, I created a fictional, exaggerated version of results-based culture. My aim is NOT to create change in the structure of the Chinese education system(it’s impossible). It’s to use the negative experience of an individual to create something beautiful. A piece of speculative fiction like Black Mirror is only going to reveal an incident to possible stakeholders rather than change the incident itself. But revealing as an action does create change.
The word “fiction” has to be part of the research question. If I edit it out, it will cause confusion amongst my audience because simply writing a tale inspired by result-based education is not going to change the system itself. I have tested internally at school and the audience, both tutors and fellow cohorts, has given me advice solely on the education part and nothing on the fiction part. That explains how I didn’t “reflect” on the advice and feedback received, because I had trouble with identifying the focal point of my topic, and conveyed it in a wrong way, therefore receiving feedback in the wrong area.