Catching Sleepers (with Speaker notes)

Presenting: Catching Sleepers INTERESTING NORTH 13th November 2010 E: hello@olishaw.com T: @olishaw W olishaw.comHi Im olishaw, I’m talking about a study I’ve been doing over the last 12 months

What is ‘catching sleepers’ ? “The art of noticing and capturing a person sleeping in public”So what is catching sleepers? Put simply its the art of documenBng someone asleep in a public place, I came to think of it a bit like wildlife photography, where you enter into the subjects habitat and document them

Who am I ?A bit of context... I dont have a PhD and I’m not a trained anthropologist, but I am lucky in that I can pracBce certain aspects of it in my work

Why did I do this study?A year ago I changed jobs resulBng in me traveling through 5 zones of the London underground and back each day, spending an hour or more twice a day on the tube I quickly ran out of things to keep myself occupied. I began to noBce a frequent number of people a sleep on the tube, with an interest in cultural research I thought I would document this phenomenon and turn it into a study...

Developing a methodologyI quickly realised that like any study i needed an approach, a methodology

How to catch a sleeper You can’t use an SLR, I quickly discovered that discretion was the key to success.What became quickly apparent is that you need to be discreet, you cant go poking a big SLR in peoples faces, even if they are asleep, everyone else in the carriage starts to look at you funny

How to catch a sleeper + An iPhone and ninja cam was invaluableI have no aﬃliaBon with ninjacam, but I will champion it as a great app for being discreet, basically it can make you iphone look like it’s oﬀ while you snap away. It does make you learn how to shoot from the hip

Some times you get spotted “It’s one of the few times you dont want someone to look at the camera when your taking their picture”Even with these precauBons, you someBmes can sBll get spoQed, it’s not foolproof

You think he’s asleep

oh, no I’ve been spoQed

spoQed again

This guy was an interesBng one, he noBces the camera

wonders what I’m doing doing, but even when I move seats (to capture a diﬀerent sleeper)

he came and sat in front of me and went to sleep, clearly not that bothered

Who are the sleepers?So who are these sleepers?

...all types of people “The bum on the sidewalk can enjoy the same tasting Coke as the president of the USA” Andy Warhol (possibly)Well they come from all walks of life, I like this quote about how a can of coke is the same no maQer who drinks it (theres not premium can). In the same way sleep is one of those social levellers

So everyone sleeps, older people

younger people

all types

no maQer who the are

...all time of the day & yearand it happens through out the year

Winter Summerthrough all the seasons, hot, cold...

It’s happening all over europeAnd its happening all over europe

(well I found sleepers in Berlin and Paris)Well its world wide, but I was fortunate enough to go to france and germany whilst doing the study an have documented sleepers in Berlin & Paris

They’re not just on the tubeAnd sleepers are not just on the tube, public sleeping happens all over

On buses

On the overground trains

And even in Starbucks

at lunchBme on saturday (it wasn’t exactly quite)

Some people could quite make it onto the tube before they fell asleep

Some points of interestSo, a few points of interest that came out of the study

Habitual sleepers There are some sleepers are habitual, getting the tube at the same time (same carriage) every working day. ...They must be factoring it into their daily sleep quotaI was amazed that they would always wake up in Bme fore there stop

Where as...Where as there are other unplanned sleepers whowould sleep though there stop...

...even if it was the end of the line.

This lady was on a busy bustling tube

Even when people got on and of she remain undisturbed in her slumber

Now this guy

Was fast asleep long aZer the train had pulled in an everyone had disembarked the train (I stayed around for a while to see how long before he woke up)

Busy or quite a sleeper willsleep on regardless...

An empty tube, apart form these two seaming unconnected people at one end of the carriage (and myself)

This lady was fast asleep on a busy rush hour tube

An slept on oblivious to it all

On a Eurostar trip at 5pmreturning from Paris...

walking the length of the train I discovered a whole train full of sleepers

Some more prepared then others

Some more asleep then others

Behaviours of the sleepers

Personal security: What do with your belongings?One of the biggest quesBons I asked myself was what about their belongings, and I noBced some techniques employed by the sleepers

The holding tight,

This guy had white knuckles because he was holding the bag so Bght

Or use the bag as a head rest...

Strap it on,Dont think you have the mind to hold your bag when asleep? Try strapping it to yourself for security

This lady clearly prioriBsed her bag, one (more precious) strapped on and the other sat beside her

The Conﬁdent(between you legs),

One strapped, one between the legs

This behaviour was typically a male favourite

This guy looked like he might drop he’s phone he was in such a deep sleep

The Over-Conﬁdent(the offering)

Here is my bag...

...please take it from me

Now this was my favourite, almost a zen like prayer

The Berlin technique,And then there was the Berlin technique

as seen at 3am on Friday evening

Getting ComfortableContrary to what you have seen it’s not easy for everyone to ﬁnd a comfortable sleeping posiBon

This guy was swaying for about 30mins one side then the other

She thought she was comfy, but nope, she slumps over

This guy relaxes into it... aZer a Bme

This lady without any fuss moves seat mid sleep to gain a more comfortable posiBon

This lady moves seats and gets really comfy

Am I comfy? Ah maybe now... oh this is beQer... Ah thats the spot!

Has a yawn and then give into the sleep

The train goes over a bump, and he slumps forward

This guy is denying hes sleepy, he slowly starts to succumb to it

Then the sleep takes hold

What to do with your head ?

You can hold it

The head back technique was quite a popular one

This lady was well insulated and cushioned, a 360 pillow

The head forward slump...

Use what is around you,Or you could use the structure around you

Make the most of the space around you

I have to bring special aQenBon to this guy, he has got his head balanced on 2 inches of plasBc, its an art form

I’m not really sleeping!Then there are the people who pretend that they aren’t really asleep

Hiding behind their bags

The readers...

Now I’m not sure if they fall asleep reading, or if they make it look like they are reading then fall asleep

Listening to a lullaby

This guy slumps of a bit later in the journey

Its summer, sunny, you have your sunglasses on...

But then you slump forwards and everyone can see your fast asleep

I’m asleep and I don’t care!The unashamed sleepers

Hood up and I dont care

No hood, use what you have

This guy looked like he could have almost be posing for me -‐ if it wasn’t for the snoring

Is it infectious, like yawning?So I began to wonder, is sleeping infecBous like yawning is?

This guy seems to be infecBng the lady next to him

3 strangers sleeping together in public

The most I had in one tube was 5

This guy managed to infect two diﬀerent people sat next to him

How do you know when its a deep sleep?Apart from snoring...

Lets take a closer look

it’s the mouth open imminent drooling

Catching sleepers gameSo to maintain my enthusiasm for the study throughout the 12 months, i made up a game

The Game of catching sleepers + A Cross between noticin.gs and pub cricketIts a bit like noBcings and the old game of pub cricket

+1 The sleeperSo... 1 point for a sleeper

+2 The improvised pillowmore effort to make a pillow, an extra point

+3 The pillowit take some preparation to bring a pillow so more points

+2 The unique2 points for a unique pose / position

+2The end of the line* extra points for an empty carriage

+10 The yawner * must be caught in actionThis is an especially hard one to catch in action

+3 The hiding3 points is you can rumble a hiding sleeper

+3 The shameless3 points for a shameless sleeper, theyre more rare to ﬁnd

+5 The open mouth * mega points for documented drool!You get extra points for documenting some drool!

+1 +1 x2 The Multiplier * times by the number in shotMultiplier points

+1 +1x3The Multiplier* times by the number in shot

+1 +10 x2 The Combo MultiplierComboʼs!

+20 The offering * such a unique poseAnd mega points for my favourite pose

Things I learnt on the waySo a few things I learnt about sleeping on the tube...

Tips for sleeping on the tube• Don’t have a bag or any belongings your not wearing• Get an seat at the very front or very back or the tube• If you think you might miss your stop, dont sleep

Tips for sleeping on the tubeMost importantly:Don’t fall asleep if you dont want some one to takeyour photo! :)

Insights from desk researchOnce I had completed the study, I thought that I should (retrospecBvely) do some desk based research on sleepers

I found this this venn diagram...I’ll leave that with you[Sorry cant ﬁnd a link to the source -‐ FFFFound]

Even superheros sleep on public transport[Sorry cant ﬁnd a link to the source -‐ FFFFound]

CensoredAnd it could be worse...you could be; Drunk, Naked and Asleep[Sorry cant ﬁnd a link to the source -‐ FFFFound]

THANK YOU…E: hello@olishaw.comT: @olishawW: olishaw.com

Catching Sleepers (with Speaker notes)

by oli shaw on Feb 18, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 32

Statistics

Catching Sleepers (with Speaker notes) — Document Transcript

http://www.olishaw.com	30
http://www.soup.io	2