Auto-ethnography 3 - Strapping on my watch

My third autho-ethnography is strapping on my watch in the morning. This is an interesting activity to me because although this is something I personally do every morning, the cold nature of the strap reminds me I am doing it every time. To me, my morning shower isn’t what wakes me up before I head to class, it is putting on my watch that really wakes me up. The unique snapping click sound of the strap clicking into place that tells me it’s on properly the pinching of the hairs on my wrist, and the heaviness of the watch itself are all things you wouldn’t normally notice unless you really thought deeper into it. I think this is quite unique, and is something not everyone relates to which is why I have chosen to study further into this banal activity of my everyday life. 

100 word analysis 

The cold metal clatters as I lift the mechanism to my hairy wrist. I snap the clasp firmly into position and it ever so sharply pinches my hairs, sending a furious shiver up my limb as I shake the object off my hairs to fall into position.  The strap remains cold, bringing my senses to life. Fingering the glass face as I listen for the constant ticking that aligns my days into position; hours, minutes and seconds.  My arm feels heavy, dragged down by the weight of the watch as I place it on my arm.

Auto-ethnography 2 - Walking through gravel

My second auto-ethnography is walking through gravel. This also is something I believe is something that has become such an everyday activity, there is so much inner detail left unnoticed. When I see gravel I think dirty and relate my feelings to pain and discomfort, I link this to what I feel when I walk through gravel. I feel the uneven texture underneath my feet which gives me an uneasy feeling like walking on broken glass. The sound is like short bursts of noise much like an old tv searching for reception, also I think it is a very intrusive sound as it is loud and sounds like someone is walking slowly and uneasily. 

100 word analysis

I hear the rigid hard gravel traffic beneath my feet; a sharp tingle is dispersed through my spine. I feel pain and discomfort as I surge through the thick, dense layer of scattered rock. Every small step feels uneasy as I try to keep quiet, the gravel sounds and feels like broken glass, just waiting to pierce through my shoe soul as every step I take feels one step closer to pain. The uneven surface fails to secure my place on the rippled ground as I slip further into the gritty surface.

Auto-ethnography 1 - Crossing the road

My first auto-ethnography is crossing the road in a big city.  I chose this experience as I believe it is something that becomes second nature to us, and has become a mundane everyday activity.  When we cross the road, there are quite often more things we don’t notice than things that we do notice. Because crossing a road has become such a normal action I don’t think we realize the subtle, and usually unnoticed extremes of such a simple activity, all we take in to account is whether the road is clear and safe to cross, and where is best to cross.  I find this interesting because there are so many things happening at once, the sounds of everyday life, the cars, horns, people talking, the beeping of traffic signals alongside the smell of the cars, fresh air, food and trees, the crisp wind against our faces and in our hair.  

100 word analysis

My eyes are alerted by streams of bright lights flickering throughout the open city streets, as the distinctive soft sound of rubber meeting the road fills the dense winter air. Uncertain yet aware, my mind is lead astray as I swiftly glance left, glance right and step foot into unknown territory.  I feel the cold rain soaked road underneath my feet, all vision becomes a vast blur, and all I see is a stream of overpowering bright colours. A sharp beep followed the harsh sound of car tyres screeching is my only reminder that the road is unclear.  

  

 

Experimental Design Ideas - Sensory Ethnography

For the first project for Experimental design ideas i have tries to select 3 everyday activities which i think are very mundane to our everyday lives. I think it is interesting to observe the subtleties in activities that we do almost everyday as there are so many things we do not think about.

 I went out and wrote down a list of everything i do in a normal day, here are  some of my initial ideas for this sensory ethnography.

-Walking in the rain

-Walking through gravel

-Turning my alarm off

-Biting my finger nails

-Shaving my facial hair

-Drinking water

-Crossing the road

-Taking a photo

-Strapping on my watch

-Shaking someones hand

-Calling someone on my cell phone

-Texting

From this list i think i will look further into walking through gravel or in the rain, strapping on my watch in the morning and crossing the road, as i think there are a lot of feelings and emotions involving our senses that we don't take into account when we do these things.

Project1 Redesign