Are tourists who take more photos happier? Our study investigates the relationship between tourists’ photographing and happiness based on two proposed theories: photographing as a behavior that society expects from tourists, and photographing as a mechanism for social interaction. Questionnaires measuring photographic behavior and components of happiness such as positive emotions and life satisfaction were collected from 417 tourists at three destinations in the Netherlands. Additionally, we carried out participant observation to explore the potential roles of fulfilling cultural expectations and social interactions. We found a positive relationship between photography and tourists’ levels of happiness. People who take more pictures on holiday and rate photographing to be important experience more positive emotions and a higher life satisfaction, respectively. The participant observation data reveal that this relationship is strengthened when photography is used to build relationships, but weakened when people photograph to fulfill cultural expectations.
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Every journey is a story and every story is a journey.But not every journey is the same. The only similarity between each journey is that the main character goes through a variety of experiences and gains wisdom and insight on the way. This is the starting point of the “YOUR JOURNEY” project. We developed a methodology using both photography and storytelling to connect people with and without refugee experience, inviting them to share their views on “feeling at home”.
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The quality of the built environment can impact the quality of life and the sense of home of nursing home residents. This study investigated (1) which factors in the physical and social environment correlate with the sense of home of the residents and (2) which environmental factors are most meaningful. Twelve participants engaged in a qualitative study, in which photography was as a supportive tool for subsequent interviews. The data were analysed based on the six phases by Braun and Clarke. The four themes identified are (1) the physical view; (2) mobility and accessibility; (3) space, place, and personal belongings; and (4) the social environment and activities. A holistic understanding of which features of the built environment are appreciated by the residents can lead to the design and retrofitting of nursing homes that are more in line with personal wishes.
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PRICCAPractice (Photographic Research in Cross-disciplinary and Cross-cultural Artistic Practices) is an online platform aimed at the artistic research practices of artists, designers and photographers into the status of photography in our society. The focus lies on newly developed methods concerning photography as part of an interdisciplinary artistic (and critical) research practice. PRICCAPractice’s objective is to examine how photography as a means of research can make reality visible again, and wants to investigate various photographic dimensions of reality in images that are not merely representations but also a commentary on photography itself and that, at the same time, explore the narrative and communicative possibilities and limitations of the photographic image. We are looking for artistic research practices in which a new, authentic relationship between the photographic image and reality will be researched. Our aim is to give photography a new position within art education and the artistic practice. Next to photography’s representational power we want to focus on its numerous research possibilities.
In this project I conduct a combination of both artistic and design research that produces an intervention in the domains of Photography and BioArt. BioArt is an art practice where artists work and/or collaborate with living organisms and life processes to create works of art and/or artistic processes. This research connects to the description of the ‘Arts + Creative PD programme’ on the basis that this – again: both artistic as well as design – research responds to a question arisen from the very centre of my own creative practice, but that its relevance focuses on an intervention in specific social-political contexts. Further detail on this can be found in the ‘Praktijkprobleem’-section and in the ‘Domeinspecifieke onderdelen’- section of this proposal. The research is grounded in a combining of artistic, design and scientific (microbiological) methodologies, resulting in an intervention not only into the practice, but also in the ethical foundations of the domains of Photography and BioArt.
