Last week, I identified my topics to explore further: BJDs, the London Underground, Hair Braiding/Ancient Ghana, and Nightcore (The Genre). I will be exploring these topics in my research page. This Monday, we had to write down our themes and tell the class what we had settled on.
The exercise for this Monday’s class was to break down the different systems related to the topics we had chosen. The system includes all of the processes and related tasks associated with the idea/concept. The example system was one of Moustaches, an idea of my classmate, Xane.
Here is an example system of Moustaches:
- Grooming
- Trimming
- Shaping
- History (How they came to be)
- Culture (Hipster culture, etc.)
- Bacteria (Stuff getting caught in it)
The system I chose was Ball-Joined Dolls. I think the unusual nature of the subject would be interesting to choose specifically, as it’s such a niche community and hobby. Some additional things I would have included in the line-up are sanding and drying, as they are both important parts of making sure your doll doesn’t deteriorate during the process.
There was also a “Theme Dive” prompt given on the board that went into various subjects that you could relate to your chosen word.
Riya and my theme dive was based on her chosen subject of “Magic”, where we used parts of the theme dive to inspire different topics that come to mind, and how they relate to each other. For example, with locations, a castle might relate to “Harry Potter” as the main setting is there. Spells might lead to witchcraft, which goes into the historical context of superstitions, where people thought unfortunate things would happen to you through spells from a witch/casters (think the Salem Witch Trials). I like how this task forced us to think outside of the box and what each of our chosen topics could lead to.
Blackout Poetry
The second task we did was “Blackout Poetry”. It is a type of poetry where you create a new poem from existing words by “blacking out” or crossing out words. Adam gave us UN statement sheets to choose from, and I chose number 17, “Partnerships For The Goals”, as I found the title intriguing, so I ended up picking it.
This was how my poem read out:
Cooperation is Needed to Achieve
fragile resources remain scarce
Me, 6th October 2025
threatening past achievements, with trade,
all projected to decline in 2020
the global population divide persists
we will need both existing and additional resources
partnerships will be crutical and impact progress goals
civil society will share experiences,
while they will take progress identifying issues
create a local community
encourage your governments
inform, and be inspired!