Genealogy and Landscape of Personal Possessions Alisa Avigan, Jeff Gadzala, Ke Zhang, Yao Bao
Subject Profile The subject was a 24-year-old Education major at Indiana University. He is currently in the final semester of his senior year. The subject is taking one 10-credit class to complete his teaching degree. The class requires him to assistant teach at a grade school in Monroe county. The participant was recruited at the end of the day on a Friday. He was just coming home from work when asked to participate. It was the bag he brings to work and school everyday that the subject shared with us.
Procedure Due to the fact that the subject was an acquaintance of one of the researchers, we were able to contact him in advance and ask if he was available for a 20 minute study concerning possessions. He agreed and we scheduled a meeting to take place within the School of Informatics and Computing. We reserved a private room for the meeting in order to allow the subject to feel as comfortable as possible when talking about his personal possessions. The subject arrived at the meeting accompanied by his girlfriend.
At the beginning of the meeting, we, the researchers, introduced ourselves to the subject and briefly explained the objective of the study. We sat down at a table with the subject and his girlfriend and asked him to take out the items that were contained within his backpack. We emphasized that he did not have to remove all the items in his bag, but simply the ones he felt comfortable revealing. We gave the subject the following directions: 1. Organize the items in your bag, in an organization that makes sense to you. 2. Talk about an item that has significant value to you. 3. Now, talk about an item that you find to be very different from the previous item you talked about.
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The subject was a proactive participant. He enjoyed talking about his possessions and gave ample explanations. The presence of his girlfriend helped him remember the back-story of some items that also played a role in her life, and she would often chime in to provide further details. The subject spoke indepth especially concerning his agenda notebook and binder. Their genealogy analysis is detailed in the following section.
Genealogy analysis of the subject’s agenda notebook Acquisition: The subject acquired his agenda, which he calls a notebook, by chance. In the fall of 2013, at the beginning of the academic school year, the subject was traversing the Arboretum and noticed a box of free agenda notebooks sitting on a table. There were two piles in the box. One pile was composed of many agendas, all of which were wet and warped. The other pile was composed of one agenda, which inexplicable unlike the others was not wet. The subject grabbed the last dry agenda and added it to his collection of personal possessions.
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Current Use: The subject excitedly shared with us the contents of his agenda. After showing us his agenda, it became evident that the subject more often uses the agenda as a diary to record his thoughts, jokes and prized quotes, rather than as a planner. One such diary entry read, “Last night I kissed a boy and I liked it.” The subject told us laughing that he was unsure as to why he wrote that, because the event never occurred. When the subject does use the agenda to organize and plan events, he puts asterisks next to events that are of extra importance.
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Possible Future Use: Although the subject has noted that he likes to reuse items, agendas are quite difficult to reuse, due to their timesensitive nature. At the end of the school year, it is likely that the subject will disassemble the agenda and recycle the recyclable elements, such as the paper, and dispose of the nonrecyclable elements, such as the binding.
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Values: From talking to the subject about the acquisition of the agenda, it became clear through the subject’s body language and tone that he takes great pride in finding good deals. The subject excitedly noted that agendas are usually very expensive, but through being aware of his surroundings, he was able to secure his agenda for free. In addition, when asked how the agenda was acquired, the subject replied by saying that it was an interesting “story.” The fact that the subject describes his acquisition of the agenda as a “story,” implies that this event has a defined presence in his memory. This memory that has a beginning, middle and end, as well as an emotional trajectory can be considered “an experience.”
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Through examining the subject’s use of the agenda, it also became clear that the subject enjoys using his personal possessions to mediate self-expression. The subject primarily uses his agenda for recording his thoughts, rather than for its intended function of organizing and planning. This indicates that the subject values a personal possession’s ability to be customized and act as a physical representation of his identity. Personal possessions allow the subject to externalize and make physical the otherwise intangible aspects of his identity, such as his thoughts and feelings.
Genealogy analysis of the subject’s binder Acquisition: The subject did not mention where he acquired his binder, but he did mention that it was about 2 years old. The binder appeared to have been getting good use, as it was significantly worn and was even torn in a couple of locations.
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Past Use: The subject mentioned that he has used his binder for previous classes. Instead of purchasing a new binder for his current classes, the subject wished to reuse the binder that he already owned, so he recycled the papers held within the binder and reused the binder casing.
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Current Use: The subject uses the binder to hold lesson plans for the elementary school classes that he teaches. Although the binder is equipped with dividers, the subject does not make use of them. Instead he arbitrarily places papers within the divided sections. Although the subject does not make use of the binder’s dividers to organize materials, the subject does make use of the binder’s pockets. The subject separates his lesson plans from the his Reading License exam materials, by exclusively
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placing the Reading License exam materials in the binder’s front pocket.
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Possible Future Use: Since the subject has already reused this binder for multiple classes, it is likely that he will continue to do so, until his binder becomes so worn that it can no longer be used. If the subject ever needs a binder in the future, the subject will most likely dispose of/recycle the binder’s current contents to make space for future contents.
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Values: It is clear through the subject’s frequent reuse of his binder, that he values sustainable products that can endure multiple usages. He does not enjoy being wasteful and frivolously purchasing items that he already owns. Due to the subject’s frequent mention of recycling paper, it is also clear that the subject values the natural environment and wishes to contribute to its preservation. It is also clear that the subject does not prioritize organization.
What was learned from the genealogy analysis Through examining the past and present of personal possessions, we were able to locate patterns of use, which were indicative of the subject’s values. Understanding the subject’s values is integral to predicting how the subject may use the possession in the future because values dictate behavior.
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For example, the subject has a history of reusing his binder for different classes. This indicates that the subject values resourcefulness and sustainability. These values will guide the subject’s future use of the product. It is likely that due to the subject’s desire to be sustainable and resourceful, he will continue to reuse the binder, until it is no longer possible due to wear and tear, at which point he will recycle the elements of the binder that are recyclable.
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Identifying the subject’s values is also integral to deriving design implications for digital possessions, as his values will dictate his behavior in not only the physical realm, but also the digital one. For instance, his desire to be resourceful may inspire design implications for the future of Gmail. Perhaps Gmail should recognize letter types and provide him with templates based on past emails that he has written that are of a similar variety. This would encourage the subject to be resourceful, by allowing him to utilize the format of past emails he has already written.
Landscape analysis of the possessions This part we talk about the extent to which each possession participates in the subject’s system of possessions and the possible interaction and relationships among each possession. We classify the possessions into three categories based on their relationships with each other.
Landscape analysis: Competitive Pens The subject has 3 pens, one of which is a propelling pencil. And the other two are ball pens. He can’t use more than one pen at same time. He said he likes the propelling pencil because it is well made. So the pens should be counted as competitive to each other.
Landscape analysis: Independent Key set The key set is a combination of the subject’s apartment key, the key of his car, the key of his bike lock, and some other keys. There are also some value cards attached to the key set chain. The key set has a decoration of “Sponge Bob”, which is a gift from his girlfriend.
Though the key set as a whole is independent, keys are collaborative, and so are the value cards. The key set helps to get the subject where he needs to go. Each key has its own place to use. And each value card has their particular usage. Kroger card is used purchase grocery stuff, Speedway card is used for gas, etc.
Landscape analysis: Independent Skeleton drawing
Multiple choice test
The subject said he found this drawing online and thought it’s cool. He printed it down and wanted to add some color to it but hadn’t had time to do that.
As the subject is now an assistant teacher at a grade school in Monroe county. He has a multiple choice test prepared for his class.
Landscape analysis: Independent Agenda notebook The subject more often uses the agenda as a diary to record his thoughts, jokes and prized quotes, or anything interesting he met, rather than as a planner. The agenda has its special use and we think it is an independent artifact of his possession system.
Landscape analysis: Cooperative Hawaii books The subject is teaching things about Hawaii in a grade school. And he needs these books to help writing his research paper. These books talk about Hawaii from different perspectives. So they are cooperative in providing knowledges.
Landscape analysis: Cooperative Hard drive VS binders Both the hard drive and the binders are used to store information. The subject said he stores music and some digital documents in his hard drive, while he uses the binder to keep paper documents. We regard them as cooperative because they store information in different forms.
Landscape analysis: Cooperative Lunch The subject also put his lunch in his backpack. The food collaborates for his sustenance. Different kind of food could supply the nutrients he need for that day.
What was learned from landscape analysis Based on common sense and the subject’s description of his possessions, we classified the artifacts into 3 categories according to different interactions and relationships among them: Competitive, Independent, and Cooperative. But we found the interactions among them are not always the same case. And the relationships seem more complex than we thought.
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For example, we regarded the whole key set as an independent artifact. However, there are different keys and value cards hanging on the set. Each key is used to different locks. And each value card can be used in different stores with different purposes. In this respect, all the keys are cooperative, so are the value cards.
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Another example is the pens. We regard the pens as competitive artifacts because the subject cannot use more than one of them at the same time. But when the activity needs more than one pen to collaborate on, like sketching, then all the pens are cooperative. What’s more, the subject did mention that he could draw with both his left hand and right hand at the same time. So at this rarely-seen situation, the pens could also be cooperative.
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Through landscape analysis, we can clearly see the interaction map of the subject’s possessions, in another word, the “Internet of Things”. This could help designers generate design implications more efficiently.
The strength of combining genealogy analysis and landscape analysis The genealogy and landscape analyses offer complementary lenses from which to understand the role of possessions. The genealogy analysis illuminates the human to possession relationship, by revealing the subject’s values and behavior towards his/her possessions. In contrast, the landscape analysis illuminates the possession-topossession relationship, revealing whether possessions are cooperative, competitive or independent within the larger ecosystem of artifacts. It is important for designers to engage in both genealogy and landscape analyses, because in order to derive design implications, one must understand both how humans relate to their possessions and how the possessions relate to each other and their environment.
How genealogy and landscape analysis can be applied to digital possessions Applying genealogy and landscape analysis to digital possessions can provide a unique scope of understanding the particular item and the relationship between the item and user. It is often neglected that digital artifacts have history, trace of growth and environment other than their digital format per se. In fact, historical information and context of digital possessions are as well important. A wide range of social communication tools and platforms are using timeline as a way to organize and showcase a person’s posts, likes, shares and etc. The timeline itself is a clear and accessible function for researchers to carry out genealogy study. For example, tweets on Twitter and postings on Facebook. To analyze changes of postings through time reflects how the person changes and also how his/her habit of using Twitter or Facebook changes. The information can inspire designers to distinguish needs between
expert users and new users. However, unlike physical notebooks, the applications often automatically organize all the data based on their own system settings and use a certain format to display. It’s hard to trace or even to see the techniques how the person will customize the information, such as handwriting, color, composition and etc. The relationship among postings in clutter allows landscape analysis. Sometimes several postings including texts, photos, emoticons and even music links cooperatively work to address one event. Within a larger scope, applications like Facebook and Twitter are collaborative or competitive depending on personal preferences. The “digital ecology” is fuzzier than material one because the boundary of the context is not in nature. Although, things like folders do play a role as bags or purses in some situation. For example, Facebook pictures are organized by folders which are created by users and also by timeline which is
automatically generated by the application. So landscape and genealogy analysis can be applied correspondingly.
Reflection In using genealogical and landscape analyses of personal possessions, researchers gain a mostly qualitative understanding of an individual’s possessions. Landscape An analysis of how an individual organizes their possessions on a table will reveal a hierarchy the owner attributes to their items. This hierarchy can say many things about the relationship between the owner and her items. For instance, a stack of books may show what is most important, expensive or highly regarded and, by contrast, multiple books spread across the table could represent an equal prominence of these items.
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It’s also important to view the arrangement of items in relation to the owner and researchers. What items does the owner place farthest away from them, what does she keep close by, what is closest to the researcher?
Genealogy The history of an individuals items reveals much about the items themselves, but, perhaps more importantly, about the owner herself. How did the item come to be in her possession? Was the item hard earned? Stolen? These questions and their answers can dig deep into the morals, values and ethics of an individual.
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In addition, a genealogical analysis can allow researchers and designers to judge, by the past of an item, potential futures, other uses or implications of uses. Reappropriation can become a common theme in a genealogical analysis.