Reflective Log:

Relinquishing Premature Forms for Unrestricted Material Empathy

1. The Creative Setback & Critical Realization

I’ve reached a crucial turning point in my action research when I consider my original WHAT-WHY-HOW-IF structure and the insightful criticism I received during Monday’s presentation and tutorial. I came to see that my earlier approach fell victim to an epistemological trap: I was pushing my study too quickly to converge into a fixed aesthetic form (the particular fox/shiba-inu plush companion). Although actual first stakeholder talks and primary interviews gave rise to such concrete character, interpreting it as the final “outcome” was unintentionally eliminating countless possible paths. I was limiting the agency of the folks I wanted to empower by defining how homesickness should seem by establishing the sensory enclosure so early.

2. Interrogating the Research Question

This insight profoundly alters and improves my analysis of my main study question: How may Chinese populations that have been temporarily displaced find solace through tactile and olfactory familiarity? The object becomes a passive product for consumption rather than an active, specially constructed somatic anchor if I dictate how the physical companion should look. I must abandon my role as an authoritarian designer and take on the role of facilitator of an open experimental framework in order to fully comprehend the psychological variations in how “home” appears in people’s thoughts.

3. The Framework of Absolute Freedom

My approach will change from product design to systemic infrastructure design as I continue my summer fieldwork around China. Any predetermined visual storylines are being eliminated. Rather, my next interventions with the extended pre-departure cohorts and the Shenzhen Foreign Language School International Department (SWIS) network will function under just two essential, non-negotiable boundaries:

A calming touch.

A scent trigger that brings back memories of home.

Participants will have complete flexibility within this dual-boundary perimeter. I’ll provide a blank canvas filled with unshaped elements, including neutral scented carriers, different weights of fillings, and raw textiles.

4. Expected New Knowledge & Future Impact

I will collect rich, primary qualitative data on cognitive and emotional diversity by recording how various people naturally shape, compress, weigh, and infuse these materials based only on their inner desires.

This innovative change turns my project into a participatory repository of user-generated pluralism rather than a single therapeutic novelty. It demonstrates that genuine emotional health and a feeling of community cannot be mass-standardized; instead, they must be independently formed by unpredictable, unprocessed human memory.