21/9
Tonight, well yesterday-today sorta merged in when I went to KV’s birthday party, which was good, I was unable to attend their talk show, since the tickets for the show as well as the event were outta my budget, but I went to the main party, and it was good, when I got there, the members’ queue was longer than the non-members’ queue which was funny and I got chatting with people in the line, who were all just as surprised as I was, but one look up and we could see the people in the smoking area balcony in their beautiful outfits overlooking the street. I would say there was a line for pretty much everything including the social lounge and toilets. Key points to be noted was that I noticed a decent ratio of POC, as well as people expressing their sexuality freely and personally my outfit isn’t something I would normally be comfortable wearing, but in the space I felt comfortable enough to wear it and own upto it, which I think is a powerful emotion to recognise and create. I saw someone who was in strict violation of the dress code getting kicked out of the club, and the person in front of me, responded by saying, ‘They should be’, since they’re in clear violation of the dress code set by the club and it sorta spoils the vibe in the space. Another key thing I noticed was that I was unable to check my handbag into the cloakroom due to the long queue, but I carried it around everywhere with me, and I did have the fear of people taking things, since there are a lot of people but I would say there was a level of conscientiousness amongst people, which is important, but I also remember an interesting conversation from elsewhere with another person, who had mentioned that people who do attend these events and so on, do have a good level of disposable income and I think there could be a connection within financial security and exploration, which adds in, and I have a friend who has worked on a dissertation similar to this so talking to him would be a good idea to gain some perspective.
I had also reached out to Enhance, and I am talking to their CEO on the 30/9 about my project and see how it goes, I am definitely excited about it. I am also noticing that my interactions with people have become more personal rather than professional and sometimes that kinda makes me feel unproductive, but I was talking to someone in queue who told me that products would be a huge market in terms of being able to sell them in the community.
For the pop-up showcase I created something which is a jigsaw style to show the parallels, tangents and development of the project over the past couple of months, but it also incomplete which shows the room to improve and change as a result of past work, and I was thinking about the colour I wanted for this project and I came up with a pinkish sorta colour, which to me represents the mixture of red and white, where red depicts strength, power and wildness, whereas white depicts beginnings and the uneven combination of these two produces various shades of pink which depicts the flow and dynamics within ourselves and our relationships with others, and it is also a colour often associated with sensuality and pleasure.
30/9
Over the last week, I had gotten feedback during my tutorial that I was working in two different directions which is counter-productive and I chose to do the product design direction so that it’s productive and more useful, and innovative in the sense that it is useful to people and hence would gain traction!
I did pretty much nothing over the weekend since it was birthday weekend, definitely had fun, so small break much required.
The course leader, Richard was kind enough to make a personal introduction to a faculty on the industrial design course who would help provide some guideline and context to the process and lend their expertise.
The other event is Pinky Promise over the weekend, and the games of Sensual Bingo and Pleasure hunt were suggested by Jared, which would overall fit the vibe of the event, and it’ll be done twice one at the pre-drinks social and the other at the entrance of the game, I had expected it to be a booth sorta-setup but Jared felt it’d be more personal if I were to personally engage and this would actually be better since I can also map out different experiences, interactions and feedback alongside, and I am going to design the cards and prompts so on for printing!|
I met with Jen today, who is the CEO of Enhance, an organisation focusing on sex and disability and they also have a product line of accessible sex toys, and there is a possible collaboration because we talked about making BDSM gear more accessible and this was something I did not expect right now, but Jen talked about their process of developing their lines, and that Rocks Off who carry the products are always looking for people and it wouldn’t be a conflict of interest since I am interested in different toys, and now I can focus on drafting a proposal for Jen before Pinky promise so that they have time to go over it and work alongside it, because I have had issues with creating focus groups in the past, but Jen had mentioned that they’d be happy to help and it wouldn’t really be a conflict and would be quite useful actually, so hoping this kicks off soon! I was also able to offer to book a learning pod if it is less than 8 people as a venue to do it in-person in London!
Overall I would say I am taking this project in a way which is more beneficial to my long-term goals, which is being an entrepreneur, and this is meaningful work according to me and encompasses my skillset and abilities, but creating spaces would also work into this somewhere in the future, but I am going to focus on creating these products since it would be a gateway into my future, and I am quite excited about it, but also nervous and scared since I am literally stepping into something I have dreamed about for a while ever since I realise that kink is something I am passionate about, but didn’t know what quite exactly would stick, but I definitely think this has good potential and entrepreneurial capacity!