Project blog 5: Memories Through Touch

Welcome to the fifth in Lyes Oussaiden’s blog series reflecting on his Alzheimer Scotland Student Research Programme journey throughout the ‘Memory Through Touch’ project.

Well, what an exciting past couple months this has been! This week, I’ll talk to what I’ve been up to, including external engagements and project developments.

First off, I want to thank the Active Voice groups in Glasgow for our recent research session. Bearing in mind the limitations that project ethics imposes on what I can share about participation in the research, I can say that it was great to speak with everyone and I am so grateful for the feedback.

The session was split into two sections. The first session on “how you keep busy” encouraged the group to discuss their experiences with various activities in and away from the home. This then focused in on targeted discussions on reminiscence activities.

After a quick tea break, the session pivoted to design. Using some of the talking points brought up in the first half, design targets were set for a tool that could, in theory, solve issues around issues. This also presented an opportunity for me to ask some specific questions relating to the rationale behind some of the group’s selected themes, as well as some questions I had surrounding art direction (i.e. realism vs. cartoon styles) for project outputs. The enthusiasm expressed for this project at the session was not only very kind but also highlights that this project has some potential in prompting a deeper discussion around reminiscence in dementia care.

Following this, I attended the “Celebrating Scottish Research” conference ran by Alzheimer Scotland, the SDRC, and NHS Scotland. It seems that views held by participants of my research in Glasgow were also shared by other academics too. Both days had academics, interest groups, and practitioners from a range of backgrounds and disciplines present their latest work. This included findings from medicine, policy, as well as art and design engagements. I particularly enjoyed the poem writing session on the Thursday afternoon. Everyone seemed curious about that project, and it was not only an engaging way for the researchers on that project to collect some data, but it also clearly communicated what it was they were doing.

The presentation I delivered at the conference about Memory Through Touch.

Then came my time to present on Friday morning. One concern I have long held about this project is that I have found it difficult to communicate what it is. Memory Through Touch is exploratory and has strengths in being somewhat amorphous, but even with this there is a clear direction. Getting a solid grasp on that direction has been difficult, however. This thought sat as a pit in my stomach as I went up to speak. In fact, I barely remember even speaking. I am more than certain that I blacked out. However, I must have said something; speaking to other attendees afterwards, they thanked me for the clear explanation of what it is that I am doing. Once I got the photos from my supervisor, I was astounded. I am quite proud that I have managed to get as far as this, and I am also rather proud of the preparation work I put in to make everything happen.

The presentation deadline for the conference surrounded a couple separate deadlines, including a poster presentation for an internal Abertay conference. Rest assured, everything got completed and sent in on time. Continuing on from general message communicated in the previous blog, this pinch point did force me to confront what it was that I am doing. In qualitative research and reflexive thematic analysis, Braun and Clarke note that we need to be comfortable with uncertainty and that eventually, uncertainty becomes a strength of the reflexive researcher. However, they also encourage that such a researcher should interrogate uncertainties too. In doing so, I really focused on the important aspects of my research.

I needed this for the focus group, so I could structure and ask the right questions.

I needed this for the conference presentation so that I could communicate my work to a multidisciplinary audience who haven’t heard of my project before.

And, I needed this so that I could make my poster for the internal conference succinct and approachable.

Mock-up created in a 3D modelling software to demonstrate project in a living space.

Pivoting from the tone of this blog so far, I also worked on some more practical developments. In the week leading up to the first group, I worked on “polishing up” the physical readers for the RFID tags (discussed in this blog). There are currently three of these readers. This new reader – compared to the old circuit board from before – is exciting as it is a lot more compatible with a lot of different types of tags and tends to run cooler, meaning that it should be cheaper to run over a long period of time and should be more reliable.

Have you ever drilled into cardboard before?

For some next steps, I want to try and figure out a way to get multiple of these readers working with the software simultaneously. (More on that in a future blog!) For the theory, trying to get up to speed on reflexive thematic analysis as best as I can. I have typed up the transcripts from the engagement and will begin to analyse it in due course. I have also written more into

my reflexive journal so I can maintain my understanding of my biases in my interpretation of themes.

For now, that’s all from me. If you have any questions or would like to lend some of your time to contribute towards this research project, please contact l.oussaiden1900@abertay.ac.uk for more information. Thank you for reading and make sure to check in again soon.