Sensory Ethnography

3 Sensory Ethnographies.

I will write out a sensory ethnography for each of my three chosen actions
Using these senses:

Sight

Smell

Sound

Touch

Taste

Poetic Description
An interest of mine that hasn't really led me anywhere is to try to write songs or poetry about anything of interest.
Using my sensory ethnography' as inspiration this is what I will attempt to do.

1 Playing Guitar
There are many ways to play guitar, I want to focus on finger picking on my accoustic guitar, especially the movements of the picking hand.


Guitar/Sight
I can see the strings vibrate as they are played. I'm conscious of how I look and my body look whilst playing. I sometimes close my eyes and forget sight.

Guitar/Smell
A mixture of the wood of the guitar, sweating calussed hands, metal coils. Wherever I may be.

Guitar/Sound
Light notes that fade into nothingness, emotive

Guitar/Touch
I can feel each of the strings as I pluck them, each string has a different weight to it. Occasionally I feel the wood of the guitars body. The scratchy top strings. The light bottom strings. The impact of the strings which blisters calluses my thumb and fingers

Guitar/Taste
There is an imagined taste of the things I touch, a woody taste whenever the body is rubbed, A metallic, oiled or rusted taste when feeling the top strings,
no taste when feeling the nylon

Creative Writing

Twisting and turning.
Head full of nails.
Feeding on coils.
Soft?
Loud?

Picking at twine.
Blistering me.
Colour my fingers in calluses.

My fingers are like giraffes.
Each joint, each knuckle, a cervical vertebra.
Fingers feed on guitar strings like a ruminant feeding on foliage.
Grasping and then plucking.
Each bite bringing satisfaction.

2 Driving Scooter
Driving a motorbike/scooter is a lot different to driving a car, instead of turning a wheel you must lean your body from side to side. Also, pulling the throttle instead of putting your foot down on an accelerator is an interesting experience.


Scooter/Sight
The sights of locations. The edges of my helmet. The globe of brightly lit area when driving at night.

Scooter/Smell
Depending on where I am driving and what I am driving past. I hold my breath as I drive past dead possums,

Scooter/Sound
The continual droning of the scooters engine is quickly forgotten when drving through serene rural areas or drowned out when driving through the city. Other sounds hold much interest.

Scooter/Touch
I grasp the handles and throttle with my hands. I am usually gloved and when I forget my knuckles freeze white. The cold attacks me, finding its way through my clothing.

Scooter/Taste
I breathe in long rushes of fresh air. the occasional fly. I restrict breathing to my nose when vehicles emmiting much gas or diesal are ahead of me. Dead possum tastes bad.

Creative Writing

Fall to the left but don't let go, fall to the right still holding on.

Pulling tight. Moving forward.The faster I go.
Air roars around me my chest inflates.
Breathing life? Breathing ice!
Bleach My knuckles. My face is white.

To shake the cold I must go faster
The faster I go the colder I get

Breathing life? Breath of death.
Decomposition taints my throat.
I pull ever tighter and grow ever colder.
Is this my life? Am I getting older?

3 Using a Wallet
Almost everyone has a wallet, our wallets contain a slice of our identity, and are imprinted with our daily movements. I want to focus on taking and putting back a card e.g. eftpos.


Wallet/Sight
A wallet. Stacks of cards. A bulge in my jeans pocket. Sometimes I can see all but the card I want. It is worn, it has an imprint of my character.

Wallet/Smell
Rubbed Leather. Plastic. Money. A piece of Christchurch.

Wallet/Sound
Jingling of keys and coins. Clip opening and closing.

Wallet/Touch
An automatic process I do without thinking. Feel a lump in my jeans pocket. My wallet contains many textures

Wallet/Taste
An imagined taste of the smooth leather.

Creative Writing

Heavy.
I am heavy but I am not rich.
Curious?
More of a reflection than a fruitful wish
Contents
Methods of unlocking. Change.
Heavy
Weighing me down. A reminder not a burden


Public Transport
Pull out, Scan, Stuff it in.
Grocery Shopping
Pull out, Swipe, Stuff it in.
Building Access
Pull out, Scan, Stuff it in.
Every day
Pull out, Use, stuff it back in.

Lost
Without you I cannot live my day
Need
Without you some things block my way
Have
In my pocket first thing every day

Makara For Photography

Makara really lends itself to landscape photogrpahy. Especially during the golden hour.

The above image just fits my current interests perfectly, the two themes I want to focus on is the use of television and the use of discarded/forgotten objects. 

Unfortunate how TV's are becoming more and more redundant as technology advances more and more quickly.

8AM in the morning looking up the Valley of South Makara Rd. The fog hasn't yet lifted and the man made structures of windmills and transformers rise from the green trees and mist.

The sun brings warmth and light. The neighbours horse is silhouetted against a backdrop of morning sky and sunlight. Of central importance is the sun, followed by the horse, followed by the spacious sky.

Contact Sheet

Below is the contact sheet for my first shoot which I did on the 22 July 2013 at approximately 5.00 PM.

I found this location whilst driving from Lower Hutt towards Wellington. I pulled into Belmont Domain near the river and climbed through some trees and over a large pile of tree scraps.
I approached the place with a little bit of caution, remembering being told not to die whilst trying to take photos, with a bit of caution I continued.

Just looking around was incredible, I could see the old shack which I used as my starting place. I saw the tractor which was the only useful looking thing there. I saw the orange Ute which stole most of my attention, it looked awesome.

I love the images of the Ute. I love how naked the vehicle appears.
9 Profiles the truck, emphasizing a lack of doors and pickup tray.
10 Is looking through the Ute, emphasizing the lack of glass in the window, the sight of the steering wheel almost gives life to the vehicle, but the forgotten location ahead reminds us of its uselessness.
11 Shows the empty space in the front where there were no seats no carpet, a puddle of water, and no signs of human life.
12 Shows off the empty front of the vehicle, no motor, nothing to give the vehicle life.
13 Shows the lifeless machine against a backdrop of the motorway where other vehicles are being driven by people, helping them throughout their everyday lives. This shows off how disposable this pile of metal is.

I chose to title them with numbers as it shows the order I would like people to think I shot the images in.

Introduction

The first week back studying has been and gone and at the time I didn't think I accomplished much, but I think I must have been listening.

I am a student in my second year of study, continuing design in culture and context. In the past year and a half I have been the person in the group who has always thought of really crazy even slightly silly ideas and thought them plausible, not that that is a bad thing, it just means it takes longer to create some decent work.

So my first idea was television. Is it relevant? I don't know. Last year as a part of my DSDN101 stop motion project, I took a computer out into a forest and set it up to work using lots of extension cords, it worked really well. (I also have this idea that smashing a working television with a baseball bat would look awesome but maybe that's besides the point at the moment). Setting up televisions in a forest and photographing them is cool but what does it mean?

I expanded on the idea. I have noticed with my niece and nephew and other young children too that technology is become more and more a part of everyday routine. I wanted to use the television as a metaphor for this, completely removing the children from typical child environments and replacing them with the television. For example, a television in a baby cot, a television on a swing, a slide, in a sandpit, in a car seat, etc...

In reality this was harder than I expected, televisions are REALLY BIG. I am currently thinking of something else I could do, however, on my way back home from my Television attempt I saw a place that just looked really interesting and just went exploring with my camera. Here is where listening becomes important, I remember hearing the words "You will never get better at taking photos unless you take photos". This was a place that looked interesting to photograph so I went for it. I also remembered something along the lines of "Don't Die!" and this stayed in my head as I was unsure if I should have been there.

I shot some cool pictures. I will get these up in a contact sheet soon.

Mock-ups for sign

Here some digital mock-ups for the sign, one is the original size, one is stretched.

Here is the finished design, text included for my Aunt's sign. It is to be made with Macrocapa wood, I will show pictures when all is complete.

Still Designing, Rosy Sign

Christmas break and I am still designing. As soon as the family recognizes that I am studying design they all want a piece.

This is a design that will work its way into a sign for my Auntie as a present for her husband.