As I decided to do interviews as primary research to understand home and displacement, I need to figure out who I will be contacting and then start the emailing process to hear from them. The first person I wanted to talk to was Melin and Esma, they are the creators of ME studio. I heard of them back in RSA project as Katie a graduate recommended I should speak with them as the project was about migration but I didn’t have the time back then so I thought this is the perfect time to interview them as ask about their experiences. I believe they are both Turkish so it was perfect as they would talk about their experiences in UK and I would be able to hear a different story other than mine. So I decided to email them and explain my project and who I am and that I want to speak to them if they are free at any point.
Melin replied back to my email couple days later and said my project sounds really interested and that she will speak to Esma to see when she is free and then get back to me. This was a huge step for me because I got my first response and it was a confidence boost how she thought it was interesting.
A couple went past and I still didn’t hear back from her I was getting worried because we have milestones that we need to meet and I can’t move onto visuals if I don’t have the content and figure out what I will be doing. I decided these interviews will result in something and it will give me an idea what approach I would take.
Couple more days past and I was waiting for an email back from Melin, I decided to check out Michals website as I was writing my word press, I saw he included his email address in the contact list so in a moment of confidence and hope I started to type an email to him just to try my luck and see if he would respond. I wrote a very similar email as Melin’s but included how important his project were to me as well.
IN 5 MINS HE REPLIED!!!!!!
Michal responded in 5 minutes and said he would love to speak either today or next Friday! I was so shocked and so happy I didn’t prepare anything as questions so we arranged to meet next Friday through zoom and I would set it all up for me and email him consent forms and the zoom links.
I couldn’t believe it I was going to speak to him on zoom and interview him. I was very nervous and I had to figure out what was this interview was going to be about.
So I had one meeting organised and now it was time to prepare more.
I started to create a sheet of who is best to speak too. As I was watching creative morning talks I came across Meltem Arikan, Turkish novelist and playwriter that she did a talk on Cardiff Creative Talk, her talk was very inspiring and she spoke about her experiences and her move from Turkey to UK. I thought maybe I can speak to her about her experiences. In addition, in the same Creative Talks I came across Pinar Ogun, her talk about Taboos focused on women and gender inequalities and how we should get past these taboos and how she dealt with it. She is also Turkish actress that lives in Cardiff and I found her talk very moving and inspirational as a strong woman she talked about her experiences that pulled her back from learning english and other experiences she had which shaped her identity. I knew she would also be a great person to speak about with my themes as she also moved to Cardiff couple years ago. I was staring to have a list of Turkish artists designers I could speak with that can shape my project.
In addition, I knew Memet Ali Alabora also lived in Cardiff as he is an actor from Turkey I remember watching his TV series when I was younger so it would be an amazing opportunity if I could get ot talk with him to hear his migration and his experience living in a new culture and how he adapted. I created a sheet of potential interviewees and started to email them. I messaged him on instagram as I couldn’t find his email anywhere but I haven’t heard anything from him for a week I didn’t have much luck.
Melin responded and she said she’s happy to speak to him and she wanted to know more about the project and wanted to see some questions so she knows what we will talk about. In the emails I also mentioned how I messaged Memet Ali and haven’t heard from because it’s from instagram and she said she can contact Memet Ali and ask if it’s okay to give his email! I was really happy as I knew they worked together in a poster branding project for a theatre show. Melin replied back his email and said you can email him he’s willing to talk to you. My potential ontervieww list was growing and I arranged a meeting with Melin next week.
Things to do:
-Write questions and send it to Melin
-Email Memet Ali Alabora
-Create consent forms and send them out.
Things done today:
-Sent out the consent form to Melin and Michal before the interviews.
-Emailed Memet Ali Alabora
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.
I have never interviewed anyone in my life, let alone actors or designers. This was all very new and exciting for me and I knew it would be so beneficial for my personal development. I started to research into how to prepare questions for interviews and the main thing that every website said was make them open ended. I knew my interviews would be quite formal but I also wanted them to be relaxed and comfortable with questions that they feel like they can open up as these are very intimate and personal themes.
I have friends who study product design and as I always see them interviweing and doing primary research so I asked them for advice. As they are master students their recent project was user testing. They interviwed me before so I aksed them for tips about how to set a good interview. We had a small chat and it was so helpful, the layout goes like this:
–Introduction
Who am I?
Why am i doing this interview?
About my project
What the structure of the interview will be
Check consent form is filled out yes or no
–PRE – STUDY (mini questions to get to know them a little)
Where are you from?
where do you live?
when did you move to UK?
What’s your profession? maybe?
Age? maybe
–ACTUAL STUDY (3 categories)
always ask why
Ask follow up questions
and chat back about their answers.
10-15 questions
Ending
Thank you for your time
Is there anything else you would like to add.
Each interview will be recorded just for myself as then I can write up transcribes, it is all included in the consent form. This will also be checked right at the beginning just as politeness.
My notes:
QUESTION DEVELOPMENT
Potential question topics about food, home and language.
Do you speak in your home language regularly?
Do you feel like at any point you are mixing two languages together? if so, please give an example.
Is there any words which sounds similar or mean similar things to your home language?
The importance of food and language for migrants connection to home and identity.
I think this is the potential question for my project I want to work on.
Please describe what home feels for you?
Do you have any memories about language or certain Turkish words?
Can you remember any memories related to food? It can be from your childhood or recently that had a positive impact on you?
Can you describe the feeling you had the first day you moved to Cardiff/wales away from home.
Is there anything you do which makes you feel like you are in Turkey again.
these were the type of questions I thought about asking, all related to memories, home, food, language and feelings when they moved away. I want this project to be shaped from real human feelings and experiences which is why these interviews are so important to me. I know many people in my course are already designing visuals etc and im not there yet but this is the research that I need to do to be able to get to the visual stage and shape my project.
QUESTION CHECK WITH HOUSEMATE
I finished my first draft of the interview questions and I needed to check whether it runs smooth and whether the questions make sense so I asked my house mate to help and I interviewed her. In her case, she is welsh and she moved to Cardiff from university so the she would answer questions focused on university movement rather than different countries.
I ran the interview questions as if its the real thing and I think it went well she answered all of them easily and understood the question. I asked her couple of questions outside of the structure which I think is okay as my interviews will be more like a chat with them but I kept it as formal as possible and structured each topic. I asked my friend what she thinks of the questions she said they were good and she was able to answer them easily. They are straight forward questions but I realised I need to dig deeper and ask why when they mentioned something I feel like is important as then it will be useful for my project at the end. If I ask why it will allow them to explain there thoughts more
THE FINAL QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWEES.
This is the structure I want to follow for my interviews, I split the questions into three categories and I will be able to develop their answers from the other questions. I believe it is easy to answer and not so complicated. I practiced it with couple of my friends and also practiced the Zoom call with my friend to see how it works and how I can save each interview. I feel like I am ready for them and I just want to read my papers related to migrants, food and language to develop my knowledge until I finish the research process and I can evaluate.
Busra Yildiz 