Tuesday 21 February 2017

Everyday Spaces - Reading the Quotidian - BCOP100

This lecture highlighted the fact that when we are in any environment, our brains are incapable of taking in all of the information around us. This means that everyday we are missing small details and hidden treasures that make up the world around us - "The world's too full of complicated things for your brain to deal with them consciously" ([1] Wrights and Sights, 2003). Our minds 'gloss over' the mundane and ordinary occurrences, and hone in on the unusual and abnormal.

When going about our daily lives, our routes that we take become automatic and don't require concentration. It is only when we are put into an usual setting that our brains 'switch on' and take in every little detail. Being familiar and comfortable in a setting determines how much information our brains absorb in the moment. So even when you go about your daily life, you can still experience the extraordinary by stopping and forcing yourself to acknowledge these little details.

In response to this I decided to document an environment that I experience every day: the bus. Normally I switch off, plug in my headphones and become oblivious to the events around me. Instead I took the opportunity to absorb and document the setting by recording the overheard conversations during my journey to and from university. Even if I only hear several words of an entire conversation, it acts as a window into their lives. The journey for everyone is a time for people to chat and to make the time go faster, and each conversation can tell me so much about the person's day, personality and relationship with the person that they are talking to. The bus is an everyday space, but it can act as so much more when you force yourself to listen and use your senses.

*click to enlarge*

I decided to further my response and chose to observe the environment of the college library. I carried out a range of quick observational sketches that capture the essence of the space around me. It has since become apparent that even when carrying out a simple task such as observational drawing, you are stopping and forcing yourself to look and take in what's around you. 


[1] Wrights (2008). [online]. Wrights & sites. Available at: http://www.mis-guide.com [Accessed on 21st February 2017]. In-line Citation: (Wrights, 2003)

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