may 2008

In May, I managed to conduct my first interviews with ‘constant travellers’. I was very excited about the whole interview process and I found listening to people’s stories very inspiring. My scientific advisors were also very excited about the fact that I managed to engage people to participate in my research so easily. Apparently, this is one of the major concerns for psychological surveyors. After word-for-word transcribing of the interviews, my advisors introduced me to a qualitative research tool called TAMS Analyser or the Text Analysis Mark-up System. This software is specifically designed for use in ethnographic and discourse research and it favours issues of objectivity in science. As the psychologists suggested in order to avoid any bias, different people should analyse the collected data. For me, the most important aspect was to comprehend the meaning of the scientific language, one that actually ignores claims or statements and instead describes findings as possible indicators. These requirements may be too ambitious for one person, but it was interest- ing to borrow some of the scientific methods for my research. However, I realized that it is not necessary to follow all scientific conventions as a media artist and architect. As a next step, I took the careful design of questionnaires from science, as this was necessary to support my findings by using quantitative research.

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