Erin’s Digital Journal

https://creativeadaptation.cargo.site/

Introduction

Adaptation is the digital & printed interactive zine created by Erin Xie. This is a platform for recent overseas graduates or someone who does not speak English as their first language and is struggling with the adaptation to the UK creative industries environment. Here we can help you to spotlight yourself and be comfortable to share your feelings and thoughts with the world.

For people who are invited to do the intervention, some of them like the way of customizing which they think is a way of reflecting themselves with the instruction and requirements following with the zine. And the intervention brings them curiosity about other’s stories of success and struggle. The intervention connects the reality and the imagination of the participants, which I think could help someone especially those who lack of experience in the UK creative industries to engage with their ideas and passion, for preparing for a good start to challenge themselves in the real world. And the online website gives them a chance to share and learn from each other’s stories and opinions.

Interview participant 4:

Shine Sha- Cuator and AR jewellery designer

Hello, this is MA researcher from Central Saint Martins. Thank you for contributing your time for this interview.

This interview is for the UK international creative graduates who’ve worked or engaged with the UK creative industries, or who are currently doing it.

Questions:

Could you introduce yourself? What is your practice and how long have you been working in your role(s) in the UK creative industries since you graduated?

Hi, I am Shine. I graduated from MA course last year from Kingston university, currently working as a AR Jewellery Designer and exhibition curator. 

2.  Were there any difficulties you experienced when first adapting to the UK creative industries environment? Have you since overcome these?

There were some difficulties, like the policy and management differences. 

3. How have you found your role(s) or your value in creativity or any other contribution from yourself when you were engaging with the UK creative industries? 

I enjoyed working in the UK creative industries. It offers me more challenges and opportunities at the same time.

4. Does anyone or any organisations help you with adaptation or contribution of value to the UK creative industries?

My friend helped me. 

5. Have you engaged with the creative industries of any other countries? Can you think of anything in particular that you need to do or pay attention to in that country as well as in the UK?

I also curated exhibition in China. I have to make sure the concept and interpretation of the exhibitions are educative to audience in all age-group.

For my fourth interview, I have updated a few of the interview questions in order to have more information about how the adaptation works for every individual. From the response of the fourth interviewee shown, there are aspects such as policy, management differences, social skills and net-working for her adaptation to the UK creative environment. This result concludes the point that the adaptation in the UK creative industries reflects the adaptation of the personalities. On the one hand, people would do things and present the “personalities” that can benefit themselves to fit into the environment with the process of communication, collaboration, publicity, and so on, on the other, people will adapt to the “personality” of the UK creative industries, which they start challenging themselves from it.    

Adaptation meanings/definitions for international graduates

-Adjustment of the sense organ to the environment.

-Acceptance of the modification of the working environment.

-organism’s fitness and survival.

Aptitude test-(usually testing for career and employment decisions.)

What is the relationship between the abilities of international graduates and the needs of the aptitude for adaptation?

The success of fitting in the UK creative industries for a international graduates depend on some aspects of the individuals such as talent, abilities of foreign language and social interaction in the industries and so on. According to the list of the aptitude test, those aspects are basically what they need to prepare for in order to match the aptitude for adaptation in the UK creative industries.

types of Aptitude test:

• Mechanical reasoning: These types test your knowledge of physical concepts and are generally used to evaluate you for technical positions.
• Situational judgment: These tests gauge your reactions to situations and your decision-making.
• Diagrammatic/spatial reasoning: These tests see how well you can reach a conclusion based on processes contained in diagrams.
• Abstract reasoning: These measure problem-solving abilities and identify relationships between abstract arrays.
• Numerical reasoning: In these tests, your abilities with numbers, math, and data are tested.
• Verbal reasoning: Your language, reading comprehension, and vocabulary are tested in these types.
• Inductive reasoning: Under the pressure of time, these tests see how well you analyze patterns and data.
• Logical reasoning: Logical reasoning tests measure how well you recognize patterns and sequences and identify relationships between objects.
• Clerical aptitude: Clerical tests measure how fast and accurate you can be, seeing how well you can concentrate.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation

Reading note

Over time, through continuous activities of new cultural learning, most people are able to attain increasing levels of functional and psychological efficacy vis-a-vis the host environment.

Couched in various terms such as culture shock, acculturation, adjustment, assimilation, integration, and adaptation, the field is fractionated by differing perspectives and foci. 

cross-cultural adaptation takes place through the communicative interface of an individual and a new and unfamiliar cultural environment in which the individual needs to carry out his or her daily functions.

As such, cross-cultural adaptation is defined as “the entirety of the dynamic process by which individuals who, through direct and indirect contact and communication with a new, changing, or changed environment, strive to establish (or reestablish) and maintain a relatively stable, reciprocal, and functional relationship with the environment” (Kim, 2001, p. 31).

Acculturation entails the acquisition of the new cultural patterns and practices in wide-ranging areas including the learning of a new language, thereby bringing about a development of cognitive complexity, or the structural refinement in an individual’s internal information-processing capacity with respect to the newly acquainted host culture. 

adaptation is a continuous stream of activities, actions, decisions, and attitudes that inform decisions about all aspects of life and that reflect existing social norms and processes.

Reference

The Six Components of Social Interactions: Actor, Partner, Relation, Activities, Context, and Evaluation https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.743074/full

Aptitude Test: Definition, How It’s Used, Types, and How to Pass https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/aptitude-test.asp

Young Yun K, (2017), Cross-Cultural Adaptation, available at https://oxfordre.com/communication/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-21

During this week’s tutorial on Wednesday, my tutor and I discussed about the research question for this project, how can I improve it, and make it specified or how would I test the question. However, I have different options for the question and need to figure out which one I would like to go for the most. As my last research question is too long which I want it to be more clear and specific at the same time, there are four new updated versions of my research question:

1.How can international creative graduates adapt and contribution to the UK creative industries?

2.How can Chinese creative graduates adapt and contribution to the UK creative industries?

3.How can international creative graduates, who do not speak English as a first language, adapt and contribution culturally to the UK creative industries?

4.How can international creative graduates adapt and culturally contribution to the UK creative industries?

When we were discussing these questions, we talked about the adaptation for the graduates which the adaptation would be one of the most important aspects for the international graduates in order to fit in the UK creative industries. Despite they need to adapt themselves with their own abilities of communication, social skill etc, we’ve talked about adaptation here is about personal aptitude. Each person from different countries has their way to adapt, which also is an individual behavior. For the next actions, What kind of ADAPTATION are they? How can they do to adapt to the environment and the intervention I can test for it from my ideas as an international student who is taking the step to the UK creative industries>

A ‘portrait Gallery’ is a collection of Lucy Orta made by 40 large format canvases depicting the maker involved in the workshops, they recall the immigration stories of the makers.

The participants of the Traces: Stories of Migration workshops came together and share their textile knowledge, follow the threads of community migration in the context of the East End rag trade, and celebrate East London’s history of clothing and textile industry.

Updated research question-How can international creative graduates find their sense of belongings for adaptation and the contribution of their creative values in the UK creative industries?

The responsibility of this research question is for who?-UK creative industries or international graduates

Test it for intervention-Should the UK creative industries be responsible for helping with the research question or it mainly should be the responsibility of international creative graduates?

The UK art university aspects-The oversea students make up a large proportion of art and design universities.

Why the phenomenon is happening? -The UK art university accept a large number of oversea art students?