Xi'an Archives
Specialised Vocabulary
Dec 21, 2009
Trade
Dec 21, 2009
Extrapolating the notion of micro-markets - how small, dynamic, location-flexible can the marketplace for labour become? This is the zipcar of labour.
Augmentable Realities
Dec 21, 2009
Who creates the platform for serving up 'advertising/experiential' augmentable realities? What is their delivery mechanism?
Will consumers have a choice whether to tune-out?
Will subsidised consumers have a choice whether to tune-out?
Fish Amongst Sharks
Dec 13, 2009It looks innocent enough, but these ladies are sharks.
The scene - a local theatre up two flights of stairs in a neighbourhood close to our team accommodation in Xi'an. That we even knew of this venue was the result of an interview with a local (male) sex (shop) worker that left both yours truly and our heroic local fixer with a compelling desire to disinfect - playing the role of impartial interviewer is difficult when the topic is so loaded and the context so unloaded upon. I digress to the point of flashbacks.
It works like this: the ladies take their turn in singing, during which time they fight to catch the eye of patrons - old geezers from the neighbourhood, and the gaggle of new money that's just blown through the door. Like what you're hearing, or just succumb to the intense social pressure of a half-dozen 50-something ladies intent on squeezing every last drop out of you? Hand signals trigger payments: a scarf costs 10RMB (1 Euro), a bouquet of flowers 100 RMB (10Euro). Pay on the way out.
Implied Modernity
Nov 24, 2009
Behavioural/aspirational poster in this Xi'an McDonalds. At what point did the laptop replace the mobile phone (which in turn replaced the luggable laptop) as a symbol of modernity? How long before the mainstream prevalence of netbooks pushes another displacement?
And as the technologies that we associate with 'modernity' miniaturise, blend into the background of everyday life, at what point will posters such as this highlight behaviours rather than technologies? How will future designs support our socially driven need to show both action and intent to people around us?
Related video talk at the LIFT conference: 9 trends shaping the future of social interaction.
Dispensers
Nov 24, 2009
The difference between a chopstick and a straw?
Steriliser/dispenser - with chopsticks already paired up to be pulled by the handling end (above, en route from the Chaerhan Salt Lake) compared to a McDonalds straw dispenser where the straw is pulled from mid-body (Xi'an, below).
Rent-a-Dance/Snog/Feel (Video)
Nov 23, 2009How do you hide illicit earnings? And indeed what makes your earnings illicit? These were two of the questions that we explored during a recent study into money and transactions and which is a roundabout lead into explaining why some of the team spent an evening trying to track down a specific Xi'an KTV (karaoke and hostess bar). Hostesses often hide their employment from family members and/or boyfriends, and because it pays relatively well compared to, say a teacher's position or shop worker it creates the illicit earnings dilemma.
The video above isn't from the KTV joint - that movie would have included short skirts, overpriced tequila, medium to bad warbling, a few solid research/human behavioural insights and a backroom gurney freshly wiped down from the exertions of the previous occupants. No, this movie is something far more subtle, delightful.
This video clip starts with what you might assume to be a regular ballroom/dance hall - off to the right are a gaggle of girls standing waiting for the guys to make the first move whilst the guys are mostly seated at tables around the dance floor trying to pluck up enough courage for the same. Except that in this venue most of the men pay the women 10RMB (1 Euro) for a dance and that for most of the time the entire venue is pitch black - not artistically lit, but rather where-the-phuck-am-I hands-in-front-of-face dark. It's an environment that provides the privacy desired for the slowest of slow dances, an actual ~snog or whatever both parties consent to, or equally the perceptions of the same should you need to report back to your possie. For the other customers in the venue it's a matter of sitting in the dark watching people's faces light up from the glow of cigarettes in the corners of the room and fervent use of imagination.
As any decent business-owner knows a consistent customer experience and a predictable profit margin come from standardising portion sizes - something that is equally applicable to what's served on a plate in a restaurnt to song lengths in a lap dancing club. (The latter learned from a long night of interviews in a Uzbekistan pole dancing joint), and as here time on the floor is tailored.
In the Chinese context this venue and the practices within sit somewhere between a regular slightly awkward high-school disco and a KTV joint offering paid sex services. Culturally a real find, and certainly not a million miles away from the paid for taxi dance halls found in 1920s and 30s era America or modern day dark rooms.
Boom
Oct 19, 2009
Convenience Calls
Oct 19, 2009
Typically #s for: prostitutes; fake IDs; coal briquette or water delivery. Everything you need for a night out/night in, natch. Not.
Choreography
Oct 19, 2009
Beautifully ritualised. From a day gathering data in the suburbs of Xi'an.
Personal Spaces (For Hire)
Sep 03, 2009
First watch this video taken on the Rokko Liner train that runs from the Port of Kobe to the (artificial) Rokko Island - the switchable glass moment occurs about half way through the video.
Where the railway tracks run very close to residential homes and passengers can glimpse intimate details of people's lives as the train trundles by. Except that the train includes switchable glass - blocking the view for most passengers. Switchable glass has been around for a while, interesting to see it put to this use outside the home/office environment.
As the earth's population to continues to urbanise we're faced with packing ever more people in ever smaller units of space. There are strong cultural and personal norms related to 'personal space' needs and expectations, but to what extent is some degree of personal space a human universal? A few exhibitionists apart - most people need some privacy during the course of the day to wind down, mentally switch off, to prepare themselves for the 'front stage' - combing hair, applying makeup, choosing the right clothes - the stuff that makes us 'presentable' for public life.
If personal space/privacy is a must and transparency is optional then it's just a business model waiting to be exploited. Who will be motivated by what means to offer by-default opaque, but switchable housing? Behaving anti-socially? Prepare to live under the spotlight of the community. Transparency is power.
A few questions spring to mind sitting here on the deck taking in the Los Angeles dawn: What happens if every transparent surface in your city is switchable to opaque? And vice versa? Who gets to decide what is switchable and for when? Whose finger on the transparency switch? Or more likely, whose mind will be behind the switching algorithms? And given that people will increasingly carry their own augmentable lenses of the city (handhelds, glasses, gosh even lenses in the current sense of the word) in what ways will people augment their already augmented city? New business models based on degrees of transparency.
Photo: a very odd bathroom stall in Xi'an.
Chinese Labour Mobility
Sep 02, 2009
The engine room of the Chinese economic growth: cheap manual labour flooding into the cities. We spent a couple of mornings mapping the dynamics of the labour exchange on the edge of Xi'an - hundreds of manual workers scrambling for a day's work. Given that the labour exchange was run by the local council, was surprised at the level of access afforded to the research team by the market officials - tea, and a ring-side view of events unfolding.
The Rise of the Super Fakes
Sep 02, 2009
What happens when a large % of your target market wants your brand cachet but is happy with a decent-enough quality fake? An essay on the current state of the fake mobile phone market in China, and what the shift to services means for the manufacturers of fake products here.
The Future of Contextual Advertising
Aug 30, 2009
When your reality is significantly more augmented than today, you gotta ask whose motivated by what reasons to augment, and the extent to which that augmentation will be in your face. Your hood de-contextualised by contextual advertising.
From the suburbs of Xi'an.
The Knees Have It
Aug 30, 2009
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The art of fire-cupping (拔火罐儿/ bá huǒ guànr). Ta @papajohn, @twitanita & @PBSIdeaslab.
Something (Personal) At Stake
Aug 30, 2009
Ever donated blood? How about in another country? How about at a mobile clinic in China?
It's one of those experiences that frames and challenges our cultural stereotypes: with vague recollections of tainted blood scandals - what is the risk of infection; whether needles are sterlised; for the blood-bank - whether foreigners are more likely to be carrying transmittable diseases and whether those diseases will be picked up by their standard screening procedures.
As with taking a loan from a loan shark, there's something compelling for the experience-researcher about exploring a topic (identity, sharing, giving, ...) with something at stake - whether it's social shame, functioning limbs or a potentially fatal infection. In a world of experiences, what are you really going to learn when there's nothing to (personally) lose? What if the pain from the lesson is being borne by one of your assistants?
What are the legal/moral boundaries? To you? Your team?
And what of the insights? Does the intensity of the experience overly distort the value of the experiences compared to the more nuanced? Or does it become the battering ram/vehicle through which other more subtle research findings can be introduced?
It's been a good month for pushing the boundaries.
As well as the warm fuzzy (light-headed) glow that comes from donating blood, received a booklet providing proof of donation. Was (maybe) useful in navigating roadblocks in Xinjiang province - nestled in the pages of my passport.
Contexts
Aug 30, 2009
Health care information and product pitches being delivered to customers of this Xi'an marketplace. For every culture a suitable context of delivery.
Breaching Behaviours / Nokia Money
Aug 28, 2009
A little anti-social experiment between running interviews in Xi'an - the team takes cash out of their wallets and places it on a table of served food. It's worth asking why in most cultures the practice of placing cash on a table would be considered anti-social behaviour: the close proximity of a unit of transaction and something that is placed in the mouth; that notes are considered dirty; that the food might sully (otherwise) clean notes; revealing how much cash one has compared to one's peers - and how it might relate to, say, social hierarchy; the risk of theft or loss; ...
Breaching behaviours? Pushing the team to do things that go beyond social boundaries as a way of exploring why the norms are indeed so. The experiment usually leaves one feeling slightly disturbed - a good sign that the anti-practice is indeed deeply engrained in our assumptions of the world. Hence the challenge.
Related: the Nokia Money announcement.
Addictive, Subtractive
Aug 06, 2009
The restaurant starts the week with a multi-layer table cloth made of dozens of thin layers of vinyl, after each sitting a layer is removed and binned. Vinyl is widely used in contexts in China deemed inappropriate elsewhere: as lining for soup bowls in street markets - saves washing the greasy bowls after use and can be used for take-away; in bath houses/massage parlours as a liner for a large wooden hot tub - as protection from other bathers germs. This feels somewhat like bathing in a large floppy condom, or at least what imagine it feels like to bathe in a large condom, not personally had that pleasure.
The conveniences and costs of addictive or subtractive processes.
WTF
Aug 06, 2009
Reasonable fake Vertu - they have the weight down pap.
Social Form
Jul 30, 2009
Beautiful street scene with strong cultural assumptions about what makes for a viable seat, what activities can take place on the street, use of public spaces
It's inherently social. Why don't you see this in your neighbourhood?
Stud Norms
Jul 26, 2009
Objects that Build Trust
Jul 26, 2009
Pills (but not thrills, unfortunately) sold in this rural Shaanxi street market. Note the role of the mat in creating a viable 'street pharmacy' complete with white-coated, stethoscoped 'doctor'. Trust? You got far to little of it.
Objects Between Use
Jul 26, 2009
A row of hot water/tea canisters for the work crew of this Xi'an petrol/gas station. Heat wise the polar opposite of this.
Lets Pretend
Jul 26, 2009
Heading off into rural Shaanxi Province for a round of interviews and farm visits - today's driver pulls his seatbelt across his chest but stops short of clicking in. Yeah - a scene from a thousand car journeys, but this being China a relatively novel experience.
To what extent is what you do in your car a private affair? Running through the shopping list/daydreaming/listening to music/sexual stimulation/text messaging - there's a line there somewhere its just a matter of where it's drawn. Do your fellow road users/pedestrians have a right to know that you're actively engaged in non-driving activities whilst at the wheel? That you never passed a driving test? That you're high? That you're not wearing a seatbelt?
To what extent could status transparency - your/vehicle's current status available to anyone become the norm - either through legislation or through the desire to self-broadcasting. For a crude rendition imagine a dashboard projected on the outside of the vehicle.
Today's Office: A Lesson in Street Dynamics
Jul 24, 2009
Navigating the saturday night back from a contextual interview: streets teeming with people, 3 generations hunched around a couple of mahjong tables lit up by bare bulbs; beer flowing; smokes being smoked; and the kind of intensity that comes from a hunched body focussed on the act of eating to the detriment of everything else. It's good to be in Xi'an, good to living in a neighbourhood that operates on such human scale.
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