Documentation Beyond Presentation

This week was about alternate ways to document, with documentation beyond presentation meaning ways of showing process in its raw form. We discussed varying ways to document, and the importance of trying different ones. I feel I still need to work on broadening my ways of documenting. Using multiple ways of documentation helps show the process in projects and activities with a wider scope, which can help the viewer and myself understand better what went on. We did an activity led by Kate called “storytelling spaces”. We were able to choose a prompt to explore in our guided meditation moment. The one I chose was texture, which asked me to sit in a quiet space and identify two opposing textures and get to know them. I chose the asphalt of the street and fuzzy seed pod droppings from a sycamore tree. I worked on identifying them through descriptions and feelings without directly stating what it was. Some words/phrases tied to the asphalt were surprisingly cold, unexpected, bumpy, intricate, dark grey, and scars. For the seed droppings words were soft, hairy, natural, prickly, fantasy. Reflecting on the space, I realized it was one I walked past nearly every day on the way to and from school but never spent an extended period of time in. With this exercise, I was able to take it in and appreciate it in a new way. The space, an intersection, changed so much in the short period of time I was sitting there because of the sun going down. We then did an exercise that was meant to show us how documenting can take place from different perspectives. To do this, we attached our phones (and their cameras) outside of how we would normally hold them. I attached mine to the side of my arm with a rubber band and interviewed Pippa like so while she had hers tied to head with her scarf, covering her eyes. I could barely interview her because I was laughing so much about how she looked, all covered up with the mask and scarf, a phone tied to the front of her face. We watched the videos back, and felt that though they weren't taken how they traditionally might, they still captured the essence of the moment very well.