In this seminar, we were tasked with individually going to a location and noting down everything we see in a 25 minute session. We needed to pick out small, specific observations using all our senses. This linked back to the reading we were given for the week by Georges Perec called ‘An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris’. I sat on a bench just outside the Minerva building which looks out onto the Brayford. This place was very busy and had several different areas to look at. This is what I noted down:
- Red bricked hotels and student accommodation
- A series of restaurants
- Car park, visibly five stories high
- Cars are exiting out of the bottom
- Odeon
- Bridge leading into town
- Cathedral sits above the buildings on a hill
- House boats, canal boats
- Tied to a few jetties
- Footsteps along path
- Two people are in a kayak, they pull up to the bank and talk
- The water is rippling
- Trees are blowing in the wind
- Kayak people are talking about six minute rest
- They drag kayak out of water and walk away
- Pigeons are flying in the cloudy sky
- Level crossing warning sound
- Sound of drilling
- Sound of a two-carriage passenger train
- Blue, orange and red carriages
- The lift descends in Double Tree by Hilton
- The car drives and pulls up beside Minerva building
- Rain splatters hitting pavement
- Cars beeping horns
- Wind is blowing rain diagonally
- Man puts hood up
- Hands are put in pockets
- Ducks swim around boats
- Swan walks out of water
This exercise helped me to become more aware of my surroundings and made me notice things that I wouldn’t if I was just passing. It made me question the positioning of buildings, how people move and talk and why different colours and shapes have been used e.g. the colours of the train were bold, block colours that made the train stand out and allowed pedestrians to see it coming.
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