Erin’s Digital Journal

Rebuilding the environment through the microcosm

‘Pocket’ as an environment of microcosm – Being presented in any places with people

Physical interactive installation

When I think of defining the questions, I will consider the factors such as emotions and behaviors, spatial geographic patterns, atmosphere, culture, power, and so on.

Question options

1. Recalling back to the time that you are trying to integrate into these new places, can you line up from the easiest to integrate one to the least easy one.(1.in-person classroom, 2.online classroom, 3.breakout room, 4.student accommodation, 5.library, 6.workshop, 7.lecture theatre, 8.canteen, 9.school cafe, 10.common study area)
2. As an international student, have you ever been overwhelmed, lonely, or had any other depressed feelings when you are living in the country for studying? Why do you think it makes you feel like that?
3. Do you live in student accommodation? If yes, tell me a bit about how do you like it? Or don’t like it?

Target interviewer: international student in the UK

The number of people: At least three persons

Ages: From 15 years old

Student A answers:

-6，3，4，1，8，2，10，9，5，7

-yes，When I first arrive in a country, I don’t know anyone and I may encounter difficulties in life. If I don’t get along well with my teachers and classmates, I will feel very depressed

-yes，I had，People with different cultures and lifestyles may have conflicts with each other，sometimes it’s hard to deal with.

Student B answers:

-412367，10，895

-sometimes the feeling is not lonely or overwhelmed for me,  compared the first time to UK to study, the most difficult thing for me now is I have to handle the study at the same time to spare lots of time to discuss with my partner about the business we plan to do ( earning money is also important for me). Quite busy and sometimes annoying. At the same time, this time I also want to experience something different, like to be a barista:)

-Yes. I think I enjoy living in the student accommodation. Because my flatmates are from different countries and regions in different ages. We also study in different courses, different colleges. They are friendly. Living here, we respect each other’s privacy, at the same time, we can cook, eat, and chat together. This is a multicultural environment and can not only improve my language but also boarded my mind. A very good experience as an international student here.

Student C answers:

-10&9 .8.6.4.1.7.5.super hard 2.3

-Yes. It takes some time to adopt a new environment which is every different from my country and culture.  Like my Indian flat mate is hate the wether here, he said it was a bit depressing cuz it’s always cold and cloudy. Also language barrier is also an other reason that makes me feel like I just don’t belong here.

-Yes I have been living in few kinds of student accommodations in London. It just depends, if you are, I would say very very lucky  to meet friendly and out going flat mate it will be very fun and be less lonely but I I also have some terrible experiences of living with some propels who would never clean up and never talk to u.

Student D answer:

-5 6 4 10 9 7 1 3 8 2

-Yes, I have. The biggest reason comes from life. For example, I can’t eat a delicious meal when I’m not feeling well, and I must remember to take care of bills when I’m very busy. I feel like I’m alone abroad facing all the things I have to do with my studies and life, which can make me feel lonely and sometimes overwhelmed.

-I don’t live in the student accommodation.But I like living in a student house because it takes a lot of the stress out of the little things in life, such as bills, repairs and collecting deliveries. It also makes me feel more inclusive as there are students from different countries in the accommodation.

The research question to be defined for this project:

How can the environment for international students be adapted to help them cope with their emotions around social belonging

Definitions of environments related to emotion and belonging could be narrative environment, microcosm, geographical environment

For this week’s research, I researched psychogeography which was inspired by the article I read last week mentioned about Halls of Residences being read as ‘micro-geographies’. The study from the field of student geographies. They all describe how it influent emotions because of the environment, raising awareness of the natural and cultural environment.

According to the reading I did last week, there are three kinds of loneliness identified in the article related to the sense of belonging. Among collective loneliness intersects most closely with aspects of belonging that reach into narrative environment(Lim et al.,2021). Collective loneliness concerns voluntary associations, wider social networks, and connections on the peripheries of ‘attentional space'(Cacioppo et al., 2015:240). Collective loneliness is especially at stake in the university environment, which organises itself as a public space with thousands of people in its purview.

Loneliness and belonging in narrative environment

This week, I read this article which is related to the topic of what emotions and the sense of belonging with the perspective of narrative environment. This article demonstrate the relationship of social well-being/ belonging with the environment, which is helping me for ideas to define the ‘environment’ can make impact or help international students for social-belonging. Below are some of the review for some parts of the reading.

Within the field of student geographies, scholars have commented on the impact of campus environments on student wellbeing, including everyday ‘lifeworlds’, focusing on leisure and living spaces off campus and on campus (Riley, 2010; Holton and Riley, 2013). Some of this research has also focused on the ‘housing biographies’ of students and ‘student identities and homemaking’ (Reynolds, 2020: 7; Holton, 2016; Chow and Healey, 2008; Fincher and Shaw, 2009). Others have focused more specifically on the emotional geographies of students, and the university (especially student accommodation) and students’ experiences of home as ‘transitory, multi-sited and open-ended’ (Holton and Riley, 2016: 640; Worsley et al., 2021; Holton, 2017).

Loneliness and belonging in narrative environments,2023

Factors of belonging for university student: built environment, university infrastructure, and the university’s relationship with its locality.

It is possible to experience loneliness or lack of belonging independently of the other – i.e. feeling lonely without feeling a need to belong as well, and there are instances when loneliness may be desirable and occasionally vital, in supporting opportunities to instigate new forms of belonging, or repairing broken connections (Qualter et al., 2015).

Loneliness and belonging in narrative environments,2023

Emotional experiences of loneliness and belonging are not simply caused by the physical or architectural shape of an environment, but through the way an environment constructs and circulates narratives that offer or inhibit qualitative affordances for experiences such as belonging. The narrative aspect of narrative environment means that it ‘emerge[s] from feelings, and represent personal experiences that are socially constructed through language and other representational practices’ (Fenton et al., 2012).

Loneliness and belonging in narrative environments,2023

For a further research of how student sense of belonging and emotions being influent by environment, I have read this article Loneliness and belonging in narrative environment. The author talk about that this article argues for the importance of narrative environment as a theoretical approach for evaluating the significance of environmental factors influencing the emotional experiences of loneliness and belonging. Emotions and belonging not only show and depend on the built environment but also through the personal feeling, communication, language, power, culture etc. in the narrative environment.

Positive influence-natural environment

We not only feel more connected to the natural world, we also feel more kinship with our human community. Exposure to nature increases social cohesion which consists of shared norms, positive relationships with others and feelings of belonging. Studies on populations, such as public housing residents, show that those who have access to green space and green views have more social ties with their neighbours and a stronger sense of community. We know that attachment to a place or a group is highly protective for positive mental health, especially for youth and older adults.

Reports by respected organizations including the World Health Organization, the American Public Health Association, Canadian Parks Council, and Toronto Public Health, have all documented the positive impact nature has on our personal sense of belonging and wellbeing.

Sherry N, How Nature Supports a Sense of Belonging and Well-being, available at:

Loneliness

Loneliness corresponds to a discrepancy between an individual’s preferred and actual social relation. The definition underscores the fact that feeling alone or lonely does not necessarily mean feeling alone (see J.T Cacioppo et al., this issue). One can feel lonely in the crowd or in a marriage. Reciprocally, one may enjoy being alone (a pleasant state defined as soliude; Tillich, 1959).

Although this crucial component of loneliness helps better differentiate subjective social isolation (loneliness) from objective social isolation, it has led occasionally to a conflation of loneliness and other dysphoric states (e.g., social anxiety, depression) in which a person’s subjective experiencing of their social environment plays also a crucial role.

Collective loneliness refers to a person’s valued social identities or “active network” (eg., group, school,team, or national identity) wherein an individual can connect to similar others at a distance in the collective space.

It is normal for a human to express their emotions with specific “others”. However, as I started living in a foreign country alone four years ago, I started to fight the loneliness, as time passed, I got used to it gradually. As an international student living in the UK, I always find that it is common and important for me to cope with my emotions independently. So for this project, the change I want to see is for the improvement of international student social-belonging, helping them to cope with their emotions independently in order to get involved better in the unfamiliar environment. According to the survey results I have done with some of the international students, although most of them will share their emotions with someone else, there are 43.8% of them not sure about if they received any useful responses for helping them handle with their emotions while there are still 18.8% of them didn’t receive any help at all. Therefore, based on the result data, it’s clear to see that awareness of being independent on coping with emotions is important for international students, also helping with improving social-well being and happiness in their independent life. 

Before I narrowed down the specific ideas for making the change, I have done some research from resources for knowledge and questionnaire about the general ideas of how emotions influence physical human health conditions to be the supportive point of view for how I find the importance of caring about the emotions. Neuroticism, defined as the tendency to experience negative emotions and display aggressive, hostile, or angry behavioral patterns, is well-known to be a risk factor for a range of physical health outcomes like cardiovascular disease, asthma, and hypertension. (Liji Thomas,2022) And according to the data from my questionnaire, 86.7% of people have physically felt bad or uncomfortable or have any other physiological response when they are coping with their negative emotions, especially anger and depression. However, it is also important to engage with how they feel individually especially when they have some personal situations when they come up with their emotional problems. So for my next possible step, I will try to take a step forward on the primary research to engage with their stories and feelings towards their emotions problems and also find out some organizations related to international students such as student union for more primary resources.

Lastly, I would like to point out an idea for the theme I would use in this project: “pocket” as a functional feature to create an emotional companion for people experiencing loneliness to express their emotions. It will become a trustworthy relationship between you and your pocket. The emotional companion helps us to empathize ourselves with the function of collecting our emotions, representing the other side of “us”. 

Do you usually share your negative emotions with someone?

If you have experience of sharing your negative emotions to others, have you received any useful solutions to make you feel better?

Do you physically feel bad or uncomfortable or have any other physiological response when you express your negative emotions such as anger, anxiety and upset?

In which way do you think will make you feel better if you feel stressed or depressed when you are living in a foreign country?

Brainstorming ideas

Brainstorming ideas note

• Emotional inhibition
• Emotional self-regulation vs. emotional dysregulation
• Coping with emotion
• Cause of the health problems (mental & physical)
• Self Empathy and Self Awareness
• Way to engaging negative emotions
• Disguise yourself
• lifestyle
• environment
• Emotional roller coaster
• dairy
• Sad Clown Paradox
• Self worth
• International student
• social well-being
• social-belonging

A Day with Facai

In order to get close to a pet for exploring more ideas, I have a one to one interaction with a male cat called Facai. In this video, when he was leading me to the garden, we did a lot of eye contact with each other, which show there is a ”communication” happening. At the end, of the first clip, I also lead him back to the house without any treats toward him.

It is also interesting to see that he was more attracted by specific type of things such as the location of where his owner is, and round shape object even it is not a toy for him.