Hey guys, I’m Mark, you guys probably won’t recognise me because I’m actually doing first year design and managed to sneak into this course.
So I thought about what activities I wanted to look at for this assignment. I first looked at my daily routine and I tried to break down and analyse my day to find small unnoticed habitual actions I’d find myself doing without actually realising it.These activities all ended up being a kind of side product of something else I was doing. And they are‘Page Flicking’ while reading a book,‘Pen Fiddling’ while in-between writing sentences etc.,and for my third activity I looked at ‘Points of Physical Contact’ on my journey to University from home.
While reading,I realised I would run my fingers along the top corner of the pages.This action relates mostly to touch and hearing, with the texture of the pages and the sound produced when played with. I wanted to look at why I did it and what the variations in proficiency and speed meant. A couple of times when I was reading this week, I found myself getting quite into it. This seemed to be when I was most absorbed in my book. So the longer I read, the more absorbed I would get - the more absorbed I was, the slower I would flick the corners of the book.Inconsistencies in flicking through the corners could indicate things such as the age of the book, or if my hands were sore.
This is a very quick representational drawing highlighting the inconsistencies of rapidly flicking through pages
While studying, drawing, or writing, I found myself absent-mindedly toying with the pen I was holding. I would tap, click, flick, twirl, and pop the cap on and off if it had one.Again, it was mostly touch and hearing that experienced the most. The weight of the pen in my hand seemed to determine exactly what I’d do with it, and different sounds were created by these different actions.I wanted to look at Speed, Rhythm, and Proficiency with pen fidgeting to interpret what they mean. And I wanted to ask WHY I compulsively fidgeted with the pen to make these little soundsI came up with a couple of possible correlations between variations in the activity to the emotional or physical responses.I’d find myself fidgeting most when I was desperately trying to remember something to write down. I’d usually bang the desk or something with my pen, almost to try to wake my brain up. Also noted that if there was music playing, I’d tap the rhythm on my hand or desk.
Here is the action of popping the cap of a pen on and off over a small length of time as a visual representation.
I was interested in analysing main points of sensory contact on my journey to university from home.There were obvious points of reference, and from these I could tell how far from home I was or how far I had to go to reach uni.These references were not only visual landmarks, but sounds and physical points of interaction as well. Visually I could identify the buildings around me and mentally map how far along I was in my journey. I heard variations in traffic density that also added to this mental map, and smelt different forms of pollution as well.I came into physical contact with traffic light crossings, although things like low hanging tree branches forced me to duck down and change my path slightly.
This is a quick diagram showing levels of sensory contact on my journey to school.Thanks
