Based on previous literature and semi-structured interviews, I have decided to design my intervention from the perspectives of psychogeography and cognitive geography.

Firstly, from the perspective of psychogeography, through food experience activities, participants will not only be experiencing the food itself but will also be guided to discuss their emotional experiences in the new environment. For example, participants can explore how certain urban areas or ingredients evoke memories of their hometown and help them find a sense of cultural belonging in the new environment. Additionally, I believe participants can be guided to share their interactions with specific foods or dining places in the new city, such as their favourite restaurants or markets. This sharing of emotional connections to spaces can reveal how participants find familiarity or establish new connections in a different cultural environment. Lastly, participants can be encouraged to discuss how they search for ingredients from their hometown in the new city, and how this exploration helps them adapt emotionally to the new culture. Through these discussions, the study can foster dialogue among participants from different cultural backgrounds about how they connect with and adapt to spaces in a new environment.

From the perspective of cognitive geography, I believe food can be considered part of a “cognitive map.” I plan to design the intervention around a specific spice or food, where certain ingredients may represent a participant’s memory of a specific area in their hometown. Finding the same ingredient or a substitute in the new environment would be part of their cognitive geographical adaptation. Discussions can focus on how these ingredients are reinterpreted in the new environment. This approach also facilitates cross-cultural cognitive comparisons, where participants can explore how people from different cultural backgrounds perceive spatial differences through food. I will also guide participants to compare food differences between their hometown and the new city, and how these differences influence their understanding of both environments. Such comparisons can reveal the significance of food in cognitive models, and how people reconstruct their perception and understanding of a new environment through food. By doing so, participants might associate certain foods or drinks with specific places in their hometown, which in turn affects their perception of space. Through discussion, participants can also share how they gradually adapt to and form a new sense of space in the new city through food.

By integrating these two theories into my research design, I will focus on the following three points:

1. Guiding participants to explore their “spatial perception”: Through food experience activities, I will encourage participants to discuss which foods or spaces in the new environment make them feel familiar or strange.
2. Combining “spatial exploration” and “cultural memory”: I will guide participants to share and discuss how they search for foods related to their hometown culture in the new environment. They will then share how this exploration helps them find a sense of cultural belonging in the new environment.
3. Interaction between culture and city: During the discussion, I will explore how urban spaces shape participants’ cultural experiences, and conversely, how food influences their understanding of space. For example, participants can discuss how they use food to integrate with the local culture in the new environment, and how this process reshapes their emotional connection to the city.