Who and How

The main group we anticipate using a2a is Williams College’s student artists across all media. Other groups include potential employers, local community members, and other students who are interested in the arts but do not participate in creating it. Each of us is involved in or know people in different areas of the arts, and our social circles generally don’t intersect, so we can arrange the interviews with ease and have it so that we don’t speak with people we know. For example, if someone knows a dancer who’s willing to interview, they can set up a meeting between them and an interviewer who doesn’t know them.

Here are some people we can contact

Potential employers of local artists: We would interview the owner of Gammelgarden Creamery, who employed student artists on branding projects. Local/non-student artists: We reach out to a retired art professor who has been an active participant of the local art scene. Variety of student artists: We use our connections to interview students in dance, music, theatre, visual arts. People who’s interested in art but doesn’t participate (art consumer): We use our connections to arrange interviews.

Participant Interaction

It is hard to locate and observe our users in a work-in-progress context, as the process of learning about the local art community is non-linear and non-continuous, unlike other self-contained processes such as making art or using a tool. Thus, we decided to interview our users about their recent behaviors.

Our interviews would begin with broad, retrospective questions. Some of them can be general:

  • Describe your experience as an artist on campus.
  • How do you feel inspired?
  • What do you think of the creative community here?
  • Have you ever done a collaboration before?

Others focus on a specific process:

  • How did you begin to search for artists/designers in the area?
  • How did you look for collaborative opportunities?
  • On what platforms do you advertise/search for opportunities? (Be specific, ask for anything involved with the process (including Google Docs, a shared drawing pad, etc.)
  • Could you walk us through how you use such platforms?

These process-focused question would provide us with opportunities to take up the “apprentice” role, investigating the path of actions users often devise to accomplish a goal and assessing key areas to work on.