Exploring Possibilities
- maria laporte
- Jan 21
- 1 min read
Updated: Jan 27
Early Beginnings:
January 27, 2026
How do you find an applicable research topic?
This question has been lingering in my mind since the start of the semester. The chapter reading assigned to our class has been helpful to an extent, but the snow seems to have other plans in store for our class. For the past couple of days, I believed this time of isolation would be a great opportunity to focus on potential research topics and hone in on specific ideas. However, this proved harder than I thought. With the limited conversations and being stranded in one place, I'm feeling pretty uninspired. This hasn't stopped me from trying. As I mentioned, the reading for this week has been helpful in a couple of ways.
Even though I haven't had many conversations surrounding potential topic ideas for my capstone, I attempted one of the exercises listed in the book, requiring only myself, a piece of paper, and a pencil: freewriting. Honestly, this offered a lot of new insight for potential capstone questions I could ask, so there is already some improvement there! I'm still struggling with slimming my topic down from a broader scope and formally establishing a question. I know that I'm not supposed to have my final question yet, but having only three questions to discuss for this Thursday seems like such a small amount to slim down the plethora of ideas that I created from this writing exercise. I guess we'll see how it goes...
Hi Maria! I love your topics of set design and dollhouse design. I definitely think that storytelling can be the why of studying these topics. I feel like dollhouse design is especially interesting with the idea of storytelling since so much of the creativity comes from the user. Dollhouses are also very adaptable. Maybe an idea could be sitcom sets are the human versions of dollhouses, since the entire plot has to remain in one-three distinct places. I'm just spit-balling here and take it or leave it. Excited to see what comes out of this journey! :)
Hey Maria! I love these topics! One thing that's helping me narrow things down is stepping away from seeing this topic as a representation of myself or my personality, but as a strategic entry into professional practice. Also, you can always make stuff up now and back track later!
Looking at your topic list, I think there's an element of storytelling in several of your topics, with set design, dollhouses, history, and "storytelling" lol. I also think there could be a connection with seeing buildings as objects to interact with, like with dollhouses, McMansions, ghost towns, set design, and surrealism. Maybe looking for more trends can help you narrow it down to three. I'm cheering you on! ✨
I totally feel you on the 'snow day' struggle, sometimes having all that quiet time makes it even harder to focus! It’s great to hear that the freewriting exercise helped break the ice, though. Don't stress too much about narrowing it down to just three questions yet; usually, the best 'final' question is just a combination of the best parts of those three anyway. You're definitely on the right track, quality over quantity for Thursday! Good luck!"
Hey Maria!
I LOVE your ideas! Seeing what you do in studio I’m especially excited by the potential uniqueness of them! My personal top three as an opinionated classmate - anything fashion related, loss of color in architecture, and OFC littlest pet shop architecture! These are just my opinions lol. I am excited to see your spin on whatever you choose! And I’m sure you know that Dr. Sexton would love to help you with the historical residential architecture! Keep us updated :)
I have also wrestled with narrowing down what I might want to research. The snow days have been helpful in making me sit down and think about it, but the lack of discussion with peers has made it difficult to know what might be a strong idea versus a weaker one.
Looking at your list of interests, I think that set design within silent films sounds really interesting! It could speak to how the built environment impacts storytelling and supports the characters.
There is a lot to explore in all of your topics and I am excited to see what you come up with!