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.
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.
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.
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DigitalIn Collaboration with:
Medium:
DigitalHere is a series of observation done before and after the lockdown around London.
