On Thursdays class we brought all of our A5’s together to do an exercise with the selected list of words. Through this and the discussion, I started to look at the spaces we had chosen in more abstract ways instead of literal terms.
I have decided to choose the traffic crossing on Mayoral Drive outside WG building as my site because I wanted to pick a space that is given meaning and context and is created by the people that occupy and interact with the space. I like how the space is not solely defined by physical constructs, but is also largely dependent on movement, interaction and people.
The two words I chose that associate with the space are EXCHANGING and JOINING. I also chose a series of words to help us to start thinking about the space that I found really correlated with the crossing.
SPEEDS
REACTIONS
NEGOTIATIONS
OVERHEARD CONVERSATIONS
EXCHANGES
ROUTES
UNSPOKEN
RULES
EYE CONTACT
I read Species of Spaces by Georges Perec before I went to observe at the site. I found it helpful as an instigator to observation. His work gave me ideas on what to look out for and notice.
I then spent over an hour sitting at my site, observing, and taking notes. I thought I would get bored and sick of siting there but to my surprise, this was not the case. Once I allowed myself to stop, sit down, remove dissociated thoughts, and observe, I noticed that my surroundings were so rich with information that ideas and observations flowed consistently out of me and onto the page. The whole time I sat there, I was taking notes; just as I wrote one observation or idea down, another popped into my head. Below are the notes I took over the hour.
The reason why I decided to take notes in a chronological order in bullet-points was because I wanted to document the breadth ad depth of the site in the context of time. The crossing and its surroundings are constantly changing due to their temporality. documenting like this highlights the importance of time and how dependent the analysis of the site is on it.
Gravitational Pull (100 words):
What originally drew me to the site was the way it acted as a social space but wasn’t confined by the traditional constructs of walls, floor and a ceiling. I have an interest in the way people interact in public with each other and space and the role that unspoken social expectations and rules have on the way a space is interpreted and portrayed. Traffic light crossings are a place where people from all walks of life, with different stories and destinations meet, wait and move together. The crossing is an easily accessible site that allows me to sit and observe in comfort, allowing me to investigate and explore my interest in the role of societal and social expectations, and psychology in space.
Spatial Design by Ciara 