In Mama's Eyes
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Background: Love & Intimacy
Growing up, mama has been my greatest inspiration and support. She loves me unconditionally and shows me by example how to love someone as they are. It is from mama that I first learn the meaning of love.
I would have loved to connect with mama as openly as possible, if not for all the stigma against queer people in China, especially among her generation. Quite ironically, therefore, mama and I rarely chat about love or intimacy, despite the abundance of it between us and the pivotal role she plays in my learning of love.
Not yet out to mama, I often wonder: what would happen if I die today, and she gets access to my social media accounts? Would she recognize the 'daughter' she thought she had? Would she understand my gender identity and sexual orientation? Would she resonate with how I feel about love and intimacy, the kind with significant others, the sort with families, the type with friends, and everything in between or beyond?
It was with this background that I started In Mama's Eyes, an interactive autobiography on love and intimacy. It contains two viewpoints: mama's and mine.
Data: Social Media History
For mama's viewpoint, I sourced data from Wechat posts and private and group conversations both mama and I are part of. The dates range from Aug 14, 2023 to present, which coincide with the timeframe during which the only access mama has to me is through digital interactions, because I've not been home since then. For the design, only select data around of love and intimacy are represented
For my viewpoint, in addition to the data above, I also sourced data from my Instagram account, private chats with close friends, as well as Wechat posts or comments that mama has no access to. These data directly correspond to the data selected for mama's viewpoint. They reveal a different side of me that mama may have a vague sense of but never gets to look at clearly.
Process: Exploration of Given Forms
My process centers around the exploration of given forms. I began by looking at a variety of form factors, from traditional data representations like charts, to quirky ones like cookbooks.
At first, I tried to take a more reductive approach, counting social media data to inform the shapes of jigsaw puzzle pieces (i.e. shape with blank vs. interjamb, size of the blanks, size of interjambs, height and width of the overall piece, the logic of how pieces connect with one another).
This approach unfortunately did not work out and I began to explore other given forms, such as Tetris and more experimental charts for data visualization.
Eventually, I land on Instagram, a platform familiar to most of my audience (i.e. the instructor, TAs, and classmates in CS8803: Creative Design Practice in Spring 2024). At the same time, Instagram contains many given forms within itself, including posts, bio, and chats, thereby providing ample opportunities for design.
Design: 4 Main Features
Interactive Prototype
Please feel free to play with the autobiography yourself. Thank you for reading through!