Residency Planning

(Alejandro, 2018)

Residency Objectives:
Explore opportunities to foster development of new ideas
Test different possibilities with master practitioners/researchers and measure which approach works better to encourage healthy digital/life balance - I may tie in with my proposed design briefs. (Hackathons/Workshops)
Understand more about different concepts (Slow Living, Digital Wellbeing, Sociology) to inform my research and build a better design framework at a later stage.
Areas to focus:

(Reyes, 2018)

1. Digital Wellness (Humane Design/Technology)
Facebook: Contacted several people to check if there is a team currently working on the 'Time Well Spent movement, as mentioned by Mark Zuckerberg: He described feeling a "responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people's well-being", announcing "a major change to how we build Facebook" so that time spent on the site is "time well spent."
Till date, I've received responses from: Hedirman Supian, Strategy, Partnerships & Product Manager at Facebook Singapore: It's a very relevant topic. Unfortunately there are currently no residency programmes in APAC.
Pei Hua Zhou, Solutions Engineer at Facebook Singapore: I don't think there is a team working on the similar topic here. Singapore office is mainly sales and operations.
Google: Contacted several people to ask about their Digital Well-being domain as there is a team dedicated to it.
Till date, I've only received a reply from Lian Yuanlin, Engineer at Google Silicon Valley: I've not heard of this project before so I'm really not sure, Google has 70,000 employees and I only know a few teams in my building. I'm still waiting for more responses.

Contacted Bjorn Lee, founder of MindFi.co (Found him on CTR Community) - Meditation application. I'm watching his interviews and may arrange for meet-ups
Contacted Qing Ping Lee Lim, Programme Manager at Padang & Co (Found him on CTR Community), I am meeting him tomorrow to discuss potential options for a Humane Tech Hackathon or a Time Well Spent challenge.
Contacted Centre of Humane Technology to check if they offer residency programmes or if they're holding any potential talks of distractive technology in Apac. Still waiting for reply.
Contacted GovTech Singapore. I saw a healthcare cluster in their organisation structure and I've emailed to check if they have a team working on Digital Wellness and if there are any possible residency programmes. Li Hongyi replied and shared: Potentially yes, but it’s still very nascent. We’re still figuring out the scope of our work in the healthcare sector. I’ll reach out to let you know if we end up working in this problem space.

I also asked a few friends at different local tech companies for contacts and most of them have not heard of the 'Time Well Spent' movement or are involved with the idea of Digital Wellness. When I approached Qing Ping from Padang & Co, he shared that they have not done a Humane Technology Hackathon before as they don't have clients or organisation that have developed this awareness yet. I believe this idea is still very new, CHT (Centre of Humane Technology) was founded quite recently in 2018.

Steve Tan, Engineering Manager at Ninja Van Singapore:
We don't do that kind of research in Singapore.

Xie Zhenjia, Manager, Technology at Lazada Singapore, Alibaba:
I've not heard about it yet, it should be a new concept which most companies are not exactly aware of at this point.

Andric Tham, Product Manager at TenX Singapore:
I don’t think we’re home to any companies that’s large enough to have an ethical impact honestly. It probably applies to companies like Alibaba, Tencent, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Twitter, Salesforce, Atlassian, Tesla, Palantir and Apple. I think the design ethics “movement” (I think it’s a fad) is due to the leaders of these companies being consequentialist libertarians and their design workforce being largely deontologist neo-liberals or virtuist conservatives.

2. Mobile Device Deterrence (Fun & Imagination, Slow Living)
Contacted Active Health SG to discuss projects relating to minimising screen time for Singaporeans as they have a domain 'Screen Time' on their website. I am meeting Tan Bee Lian, Head of ActiveSG next Monday for a discussion
Contacted Bella Koh, Founder of Slow House, she has been leading a slow life with well being and self care in mind since 2009. She holds cooking workshops that promote slow living and I wrote to her to see if she is open to explore and test slow fashion workshop options (sewing/craft) with me. We can also encourage and promote the concept of conscious living on social media if she is open to the idea. Currently waiting for her response.
I'm not sure if I should contact media/entertainment companies and look at creating multi-sensory/immersive experiences such as teamLab or Multimedia people. Or if I should also look at TimeOut, to inspire people to make the most out of their leisure time.
3. Socio-Cultural Awakening (Inform & Educate, Spread Awareness)

Contacted Sun Sun Lim, Professor at SUTD as I came across her programme with Digital Humanities Minor - Human Behaviour, Technology and Design. I'm checking with her if they offer residency programmes or have any students who are working on projects that are bridging the scale and speed of technology with the need of humanism and compassion in our society. Currently waiting for her response.
Contacted Ivy Lau, Professor at SMU, School of Social Sciences, her research includes Cultural Psychology, Technology-Human Interaction and Social Identity. Currently waiting for her response.
Contacted Andrew Yee, Faculty Fellow at SUTD, His research focuses on understanding how social and technological environments shape the health and well-being of youths. I am in discussion with him on his research projects (media use and health/well-being outcomes) He comes from a social scientific perspective and his research is more on measuring the effects of media use on individuals and subjective well being than utilising design to reduce media dependency. I am in the midst of arranging a meet-up with him to understand more and see if his projects can help my research.
I am also considering to spend some time and learn filmmaking from Dion Heng, a local cinematographer and director of photography while I work on my storyboard for the awareness film.