Field Research
Hosted by the University of Texas, the ST.ART Summer Intensive hosts rising high school juniors and seniors from Texas to Oman for four weeks of creative exploration. Supported by grant and scholarship options, ST.ART is able to welcome a diverse group of young adults, representing a variety of life experiences. Immersed in the creative process, each student attends daily classes in core 2D and 3D, alongside focused concentrations, weekly community critiques and independent studio time. I spent four weeks of summer alongside a group of forty-three students, primarily from Texas, utilizing a variety of field research methodologies. This was in pursuit of a more personal understanding of the realities of Texan high schoolers to better support my thesis design exploration.
“The ST.ART Intensive is not focused on perfecting traditional skills; it is rather an open door for students to discover their style and voice as an artist.”
Amelia Fleming, ST.ART Summer Director.
Objectives
How can I most effectively communicate with high school seniors when designing and developing an educational civics product surrounding political systems to contribute to each student’s foundation for holistic, individualized civic enlightenment?
Goals of Field Research
Seek an understanding of students' relationship to creative media from the perspectives of aesthetics, functionality, and personal connection.
Identify the level to which students can utilize critical thinking to prompt personal relations and community implications.
Gain perspective surrounding the players and the conditions that prompt and inhibit student empathy and group connection.
Explore behavioral assets in prompting students’ attention.
Research Methodologies
Observation
Engagement
Journey Mapping
Resilience & Networks
Day in the Life
Interview
Primary Insights
Media, Aesthetics and Content
High school students in Texas actively reject standard western media aesthetics, seeking out vibrant, complex visuals communicating the creator's authenticity.
High school students in Texas seek media centered around emotionally grounded self-expression, anti-establishment, and rebellious narratives.
High school students in Texas center media use around video content by and for themselves through Tik-Tok and YouTube in response to standard media’s exclusion of stakeholder voices within all parts of content development and production.
Politics and Social Responsibility
High school students in Texas retain a well-versed, personal awareness of the political realities and relevant social inequities and their relation to the American political system.
High school students in Texas’ recognition and rejection of the intentional strategies of forced patriotism within their schools creates individuals primed to explore civic critiques.
Identity
High school students' use of clinical vocabulary and empathetic communication surrounding mental health showcases an increased capacity for human-centered critical thinking, enabling them to catalyze more critical conversations around their own and other communities.
Expanded by broad internet access to niche content, high school students in Texas continue the long term use of the body as a canvas of self-expression, providing the opportunity to use specific aesthetic identity signals to form an immediate relationship between the audience and the content.
High school students in Texas value freedom, both physically and mentally, as a primary commodity. With adults and the ‘establishment’ as a primary inhibitor, this position creates relevant archetypes and foundations for sustained systems of politics & political figures.
Boosted by the development of critical thinking, high school students in Texas are experiencing instances in which the truths their parents or trusted adults described are not the reality, prompting students to question their assumptions and challenge established local and global norms.
