Skip to main content

Experimental Design

Michael Tsang

Michael is an experience designer and researcher from Hong Kong. 

After completing his BA in Advertising Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he worked in the advertising industry for companies like McCann Shanghai and UNIT9 ’s London and Los Angeles offices. Having delivered over 100 experiential design pitches for brands like Nike, Google and Netflix, he began to question how our surroundings interact with our cognitive and emotional response. 

In 2018, he moved to London to study Information Experience Design at the Royal College of Art, where he further developed his practice. Inspired by his experience in big cities, he has developed an interest in public space and urban lifestyle. 

During his study, he ran the workshop, Listening Ears, with fellow student Akvilė Terminaitė and Debbie Poon at V&A Museum as part of the London Design Festival. 

Contact

Portfolio

Linkedin

Degree Details

School of Communication

Experimental Design

Living in big cities for most his life, including Hong Kong, Shanghai, London and Sydney, Michael has developed an interest in the urban lifestyle, especially commuting on public transportation. 

In June 2017, he has started the instagram @mtr.fashion where he documented his observations on trains and buses in big cities. 

Shortly after a panic attack following his tube ride, he increasingly paid attention to the relationship between his daily commute and cognitive response. 

He began to write the essay Public Transportation and Well-being in London where he investigated the effect of transition time during our commute and the idea of positive commute. It became the starting point for Mind The Gap.  

Click to see the project

Mind the gap is a research-led video essay to rethink what our commute means to us through looking back in time. Is commuting on public transport beneficial to us?


In a recent conversation between Ezra Klein, journalist and political commentator, and Jenny Odell, artist and writer, they talked about how working from home during COVID19 lockdown has made them feel the collapse of boundaries between work and home.


They are not alone.


From internet memes to blogs to newspaper columns, the collective experience of going through, as dubbed by Jenny Odell, “enforced prison of nothingness” has made us to discover and to pay attention to things that we have gotten used to, such as our daily commute.


Commuting in London, especially with public transportation, was often said to cast a negative influence on our well-being. However, when it is ripped from our lives, we start to realize there’s something that we miss - but what is it?


Until about a decade ago, researchers Glenn Lyons and Kiron Chatterjee started looking into positive psychology in commuting on public transport. They suggested that it could provide an impermeable “protected space” away from the world and transition time for us to “shift gears”.


Through looking back in time, we can see that commuting has enabled us to experience crossing space physically to achieve the sense of distance and difference. The transition time created the temporal opportunity to translate, adjust or prepare ourselves for different social settings and social identity at the destination.

Medium:

Digital

In Collaboration with:

React Web Developer
city of londoncognitive responseDigitalEmotionsexperimental videoLondon Transportnon-spacePublic SpaceTransporttravelUrban Living
Index Page
Launch Project

Index Page

Click to enlarge the video

Click to enlarge the video

Research Findings

Research Findings

The Video

Medium:

Digital
Observation 1 — Location: Primrose Hill
Observation 2 — Location: London Underground
Observation 3 — Location: Oxford Circus
Observation 4 — Location: Oxford Circus
Observation 5 — Location: Oxford Circus
Before the COVID-19 lockdown, I've been working on a collective-voice video about Londoner's commuting experience. However, the lockdown has made me rethink the meaning of commuting and the purpose of urban space.

Here is a series of observation done before and after the lockdown around London.

Street Interview — After learning about the basics of societal engagement research in the societal engagement workshop with Dr Helal Ahmed, teaching fellow at Imperial College, I partnered with Catalina Pino, a PhD candidate in Electrochemical Science and Engineering. We developed a research method trying to understand London commuter’s commuting emotions. We conducted the street interview on Exhibition Road. Although the sample size is small, it provides an insight into London commuter’s idiosyncrasies.

Travel Diary — The travel diary lasted for three weeks in May 2019. I documented my emotions and observations whenever I commute on public transport. I would draw (see header image) when I have paper, pen and seats available and take photos with my mobile phone otherwise.

How would social distancing potentially change how we feel on public transport? — Proxemics is the study of personal space. It was first defined by Edward T. Hall as “the spatial dimension of nonverbal behavior” in 1963. Through observations of our nonverbal communications, he described the interpersonal distances of people in four distinct zones: intimate distance, personal distance, social distance and public distance. One might feel uncomfortable when strangers intrude their personal space.

Public Transportation & Well-being — More about the research
Design research conducted during 2018-2020

Previous Student

Next Student

Social
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Royal College of Art
Registered Office: Royal College of Art,
Kensington Gore, South Kensington,
London SW7 2EU
RCA™ Royal College of Art™ are trademarks
of the Royal College of Art