Data-probe 11
02 May 2024 (WS2)
London (UK)
Participant 11
She is a service designer working for a consultancy agency. She suffers chronically from cystitis and has experienced a severe episode in the past, which led her to hospitalisation.
Written description:
I have suffered from cystitis in the past. Once the cystitis turned into a more serious infection. For a period of my life, the continuation of the symptoms led to the inability to perform various daily activities, such as going to the office, leaving the house in general. As remedies, my general practitioner always advised me to hydrate more and take blueberry supplements, and if the problem persisted he would then prescribe antibiotics. Following several episodes I began to carry the antibiotic with me at all times and use it even at the onset of symptoms, especially to avoid changing plans, experiences, and ongoing vacations. Through more care and attention I started to take better care of my diet and especially hydrate myself, and the situation really improved. To this day I can say that it was also related to the state of stress and a very difficult period in my life.
Picture of the probe:
List of components:
Oral description:
“Ok, let me take my notes. I’ve tried to represent my experience. I start from below. In my case, in my experience is such a journey. So I start from the lower part. Still... something that is ok to manage still OK to manage as symptoms, so kind of discomfort but not so high. And while going up, it is a kind of climax, so I also add material that is more solid, but also something that in terms of size and edges and also weight is higher. I added also these spheres, smaller ones, because I'm thinking something also that is not stable. I wanted it not stable because you don't know where this is going to go. So you start from some discomfort and then you don't know if it's going to go away or transforming into something else. And also because in my journey it depends if I'm going to call the doctor or if I manage by myself or maybe it depends on the kind of multiple direction, because it can be like horizontal. And actually I choose this material [polyester] because it's something that you can destroy with your hand. So it's kind of something that you could spread, but it's not going away. So when I got the cystitis, maybe it's going to go back and you never know like plastic... that you cannot cancel it. And going up, I added a cube made of wood because I wanted also to represent the weight or something that is going to be worst. So like burning or the sensation that you will feel maybe tired. And you feel like that is not going away. So it's getting worse and also the sensation to... we said oh, sorry. We said “blooded”, so I added this. I added this [triangular prism] just because it has multiple edges there. So it's getting worse and then the last one, that happened in my case just once, that it's fever. So it becomes infection and I tried to represent with this [peg] I think I need it more like because it was really, really painful and it's not stable because you never know that is the going to going to go away or getting worse also depending on the doctor, because if you not find the doctor right away and you don't get the antibiotics. In my case, you have to wait and it's getting worse. But yeah, it was difficult to represent all the symptoms in one. Sorry, I got you confused [eheh] but yeah, this is my view.”