4. Analysis and Synthesis

Task: Review the research undertaken, analysis and synthesis to gather insights

Methods: Thematic analysis

Team: Tanya Singh, Zuzana Galova, Roshni Suri

Timeframe: 11th September - 22nd September

Psychogeography and AEIOU

Reviewing the AEIOU and psychogeography notes, while they served as catalysts for our research and shaped our early ideas about the direction we wanted to take, these methods ultimately fell short in providing insights into people's emotions and behaviours concerning money.

Systematically reviewing the data. Image by Roshni Suri

We learned that:

Banks are functional, interactional places where people do not dwell
Southwark Cathedral is tourist-focused; therefore, we only took away observations about tourists rather than about the structure of the religion.

We felt it was better to omit this from our research findings and focus on the methods that generated more helpful information.

Artefact Analysis

Artefact analysis allowed us to question the concept of digital and physical money.

Systematically reviewing the data - artefact analysis of cash. Image by author

The psychological and social aspects of bank cards and cash were the most significant here, as we learned that physical money has worth, originally by its weight and now just by its presence, which isn’t true for the digital version of money.

Another insight was that digital money can come with a status symbol: different banks offer material differences for their bank cards and exclusivity towards membership. Lastly, digital money is based upon trust between the user, their bank and the seller, as the interaction is unseen.

Music Lyrics

The review of the music lyrics gave us the following insights:

Money difficulties feature most commonly in music across the decades until 2010
Reflections also feature in terms of what would be different if more money was had and that money isn’t everything (people/love still matter)
Rap lyrics tend to feature gloating about wealth as opposed to other genres
There is a lot of gendered language making claims that men have a financial advantage

Systematically reviewing the data - song lyrics Image by author

These observations provided us with the insight that money has power over people. Whether wealthy or not, it is a significant and influential topic that artists want to share their thoughts and feelings on.

Love Letter/Break-up Letter

The letters and Instagram responses showed a vast range of recurring themes, including:

Dependency
Freedom
Journey through good and bad times
Consequences and effects
Questioning the role of money.

Systematically reviewing the data - love and breakup letters. Image by author

The above topics were paired with many emotional responses, ranging from despair to hope, depending on the context and the writer's experiences with money. This tells us that money is no longer just a tool for our use; it has impacts in ways it should never have been able to if it was simply a token for transactions.

Directed Storytelling

We noted in the results of the directed storytelling interviews a difference between the participants below 30 years old and those above this age.

The younger participants were:

more considerate of religion and its structure,
were more overpowered by money,
considered it a less private topic,
are less concerned about social obligations and judgements.

The participants over 30 were more dismissive of religion, more comfortable with their finances, and considered money a very private topic.

One of my most interesting observations was initially answering, “Do you own your money, or does your money own you?” 66% of participants responded that they owned their money. However, in talking through their answer, this dropped to 33% of participants still believing this. The remainder couldn’t commit to a solution; having thought through their interactions with money, they couldn’t be sure they owned it.

Directed storytelling clips. Collated by Roshni Suri

These insights indicate that our control over our money is fragile, as many participants cited the current financial climate as contributing to their concerns about money.

Thematic Analysis

With many different research methods and multiple responses inside this, we used thematic network analysis to help systematically synthesise the research into a clear set of ideas and statements we could move forward with.

Systematically reviewing the data - pulling out key themes. Image by Tanya Singh

Producing the thematic analysis. Image by author

Producing the thematic analysis. Image by author

The outcome was the theme that money now has the power to control our lives, and we have to let it.

This will form the basis of the designs we now progress towards.