Our theme revolved around digital sex work and how it links to gender/sexual identity and body autonomy.
online brainstorming map: https://sketchboard.me/VB9GVuaHZiRW#/
communication channels: Teams, Whatsapp, Instagram, Google
google account: edoylevanderplaetse@gmail.com
Lisa is a product design student interested in breaking stigmas towards the sex industry through design. She wants to learn more about sex work and how it links to identity and product design.
- missing link to her podcast
Emma is currently completing an exchange from Manchester School of Art at Willem de Kooning doing Illustration. She herself also wants to learn more about sex work and about how information gathered can be represented in her own work, and how it can visually represent her own identity in a public and digital space.
EYES ON QUEER SEX WORK : PROCESS BLOG (SCROLL TO SEE FINAL ->)
Mapping our bodies in relation to the subject
Emma explored mapping her physical body using digital open source tools.
Lisa mapped a brainstorm linking identity, sex work and products together.
introduction
exercise 1:
itinal maps
step 2:
brainstorm
After discussing, we brainstormed on methods to find people interested in discussing with us about their body autonomy, identity and relation to digital sex work.
step 3:
web search
As we were preparing to create Instagram polls, we also started researching the web about digital sex work.
NEXT STEPS
1. Create google doc with more in depth questions + a wayt to gather visual information as well?
2. Send it to people + give a deadline so they send it back
3. Review findings
Spoken Word Podcasts from Preceding Research
Emma
On the left are three screenshots showing our process for 'interviewing' participants on Instagram. This information was taken away, and Emma then worked out the average scores and percentages in relation to the topics addressed.
From these initial findings, it became clear that we could focus our research on one of a group of specific topics - Sexual expression in a a digital context, sex work in itself, representation of minority group in online sex work and personal body autonomy, just to give some examples.
The topic which seemed to produce some of the most thought-provoking questions and answers was sexuality and sexual expression in a digital context, i.e. on online sex sites, and the representation or lack thereof of a queer demographic. This is something which will be homed in on in a more personalised and specific google form which we will give participants the chance to fill in at a slightly later date.
Link to our Google form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfQHf0dZkmKXbHoAPeKPvYQmxEtw8ZD0pyOROouuN3GpsP05g/viewform
What you can see above is the format of our second-stage questions form, aimed at getting to the root of participants' opinions on how effectively online sex sites cater to a queer demographic as either content creators or consumers. Once we have had a satisfactory number of answers to this form, we will set about visually interpreting the collected data in the same way as shown below.
SURVEY RESULTS
MIDWAY FEEDBACK
Lisa: was not able to upload audio but it is on teams since before the class started.
Above is some experimentation with data collection and visualisation. We took the average results from our first instagram poll and after working out the corresponding percentages, though that this could be an easy and effective way to show our working. By splitting an image into 100 small squares (above top left) with one square representing one percent, we were able to lay out our findings in a visually interesting way, as shown above. However without a key or legend it was slightly unclear, and so we waited until we'd had our mid term assessment to re-think our plans for the map's visuals.
What you see above is the result of our workings in our final maps.
A much smaller pool of people participated in our google form survey when faced with giving longer answers, but this was expected and made the data we collected more specific, which worked well with our choice to ask more specific questions.
The visuals for our maps came from using the webcam AI software Javier had shown us in our first practice session, and I feel that recording images of my own body, a queer body, was the right choice, as it has helped to contextualise our questions and the data we subsequently collected from them. I also knew that these visuals would likely be seen by a small number of my other queer and male friends and acquaintances, who made up the best part of the participants for our first poll and audience of online sex sites.
Using a key for ease of reading the visualised data in conjunction with a short explanation of some of the statements which emerged from our research also allows our maps to be more accessible to anyone who happens to read them. Although these are issues concerning the queer and online sex work communities, the reader does not need to be either queer or a sex worker to be able to understand our interpretation of the data on an individual basis.
https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UC8bJ3jLb8Zg0phzfpwhDAAQ/videos/upload?filter=%5B%5D&sort=%7B%22columnType%22%3A%22date%22%2C%22sortOrder%22%3A%22DESCENDING%22%7D
^The above is a Youtube link to our walkthrough video assessment of our process and outcome^