Final Blog: Research Project

Upon conducting the research project, I would encounter many discoveries and be faced with varying opinions from many walks of life in relation to people’s cultural, religious upbringings. The responses that would come from the participants both in the online survey and in the face-to-face focus group session depicted the values and attitudes that university students believe should be addressed and further discussed.

Overall, I am thoroughly surprised and pleased with the majority of the responses from the general and specific questions both asked through my process of gathering intel on the subject of nudity within the media and within the confines of the creative industry. Through exploring nude photography and analysing it with the background knowledge of Asian culture sensitivities towards this issue, I am able to interpret and articulate both the ways in which people of Western ideological descent are able to express their attitude towards this topic and have an understanding as to where people of Asian descent may perceive this same situation.

Conducting such research that is outside of the confines of what is appropriate displays acts of inspiration, dedication, passion and courage as I challenged myself into straying away from what others may decide to research their own projects on. Throughout the progression of this topic I was able to conduct research that I found enjoyable and rewarding as I express an interest within the creative field and within representations of a previously represented minority in the media.

The experience of conducting and producing my own personal research with little to no constraints allowed for the freedom of topic, which I enjoyed. I was able to appreciate the practice of research in align with utilising and implementing research values into my own practice that would ultimately form and shape the final end result from gathering as much information from a variety of sources. I’ve decided to discuss about three (3) research values that have been explored throughout our lectures, they involve; reflexivity, socially responsible research design, and respect.

Reflexivity accounts for the high standard of self-awareness and involves the practice of critical thought. It encompasses accepting an individual’s own upbringing and understanding the world around them – being culturally aware of others. I like to think about this topic as a chain reaction, it ultimately gauges an event that runs throughout, affecting their course of thinking and alters the views of individuals on a particular topic. This research value is heavily applied throughout my project, especially within the focus group session. This session held within class, ultimately lead others into speculating their own thoughts and approach to the topic and allowed for their insights to be heard and made aware to others around them. This allowed for others to speak out and create their own answers on the basis of the previous person speaking about a particular question within one of the questions I proposed to the group. This chain reaction can be seen clearly between participants and portrays the reflexivity value in the progress of my research.

The umbrella of socially responsible research design surrounds aspects of methodology, positivism vs. constructivism and quantitative and qualitative data. Knowledge had been gained through my own personal research on the background of nude photography in Asian communities and how their reaction stimulated controversy through erotic and overly sexualised imagery. Positivism deals with the reality of which will be uncovered and is examined through the raw results of participants in both survey and group sessions. Constructivism involves that same reality and how it will ultimately shape the overall result and can be seen through my way in which I have interpreted their opinions and beliefs. Quantitative and qualitative includes the extra work put into my research practice through conducting online surveys and focus groups to gather information that is relevant and important that would assist in my understanding on the practice and products of nude photography.

The final research value to be discussed is that of respect. I believe this value is most crucial when conducting a project, especially if it is being targeted towards a diverse and multicultural community such as the university. This research value contains stages of respectful research that have been incorporated into my methodology. Stages of project design, reflexivity, information and consent, data collection, transcribing and analysing, reporting and impact are all contributors that aid to the finalisation on the concept I have proposed at the commencement of my research. Principles for conducting human-centred field research involves that of being; rigorous, respectful, relevant and right-sized, which is applicable when contrasting the aim for my research which can be identified within my final report.

These research values informed the process of my research to a great extent and have shaped the results I have interpreted from my approach to reaching out and informing others of this relevant issue that is still prevalent in the twenty-first century. The research values can be further explored through weekly lectures held for this particular subject. In relation to any major problems, I did not encounter any challenges or hurdles that would affect my research, however I had to consider the content of which I planned to show among my peers.

What would I do better next time? I would conduct more background research into nude art, nude photography and the movement of nude imagery and employ those behaviours and attitudes into my questions that would be further specified and allow for a more condensed and narrow topic question.