Observation

During the hour of 2pm in Garden Place, two people of olive complexions and jet black hair, sat down on a bench. I decided to focus my attention on the female subject. Female being the operative word as I could only note her body shape, the way she was dressed.

She wore a cream suit of medium length jacket and pants. She sat down with her right leg crossed towards the man sitting beside her, hands resting in her lap, hip pressed against his. She sat more forward, creating the very little space they had between them. A glint of gold on her left hand resembled that of a wedding band.

Not long after she’d sat down she uncrossed her legs and began swinging her arms back and forth. Back behind her shoulders and out in front of her chest; her legs were slightly bent at the knee and her feet were placed under the seat. She opened her mouth wide and shut her eyes briefly. I noticed this sequence of events because I was feeling restless and open to something spontaneous happening. How do people act in public when they know they’re on display? How do we act when we forget? In my subject’s case, we behave at our oddest when we are unaware. When we’re aware, it doesn’t last for the duration. Our suspicions aren’t constant.

She looked left, past her company’s head for a few seconds, and then straight ahead. She placed her hand on the man’s leg. After a brief time she began lifting her arms up and down in a rapid, flapping motion. She did this for a while before raising her arm up and looking at something golden on the inside of her bent wrist. Her arm was slightly bent at the elbow while her other hand touched whatever was on her wrist. Before placing her arm back down on her leg she pushed away the man’s hand that had been placed on her inner thigh.

Why did I notice this interaction in great detail? Maybe I have an underlying covet for a relationship myself…if so, people who appear to be together, how they act in another’s’ line of view, would be of interest. After that moment, my subject bowed her head down and crossed her legs again. Still towards the male chaperone but her back she straightened, more so than before.

The idea of it not being chemistry that conveys your words, but your words that convey your chemistry, in this case does not apply. Since without the dialogue that was taking place I had to rely solely on the subject’s body language in order to understand how social stances are affected when put on the spot, placed in the open for all to judge, observe and analyse.

The subject looked into the distance, at her feet, all around. She watched the man, looked at him for what felt like a long time before she reached out her right hand, and cupped it behind his ear. While turning her head towards him she had nodded and placed her same hand on her own ear. Though I saw her mouth move very little, they were talking.

Maybe subconsciously I wanted to know how certain people display affection. Maybe my own wants of companionship influenced what I noticed. Her previous movements had me wondering what kind of conversation was talking place there. Was it one of intimacy or was it more obvious?

Her handbag, she picked up and bunched towards her chest, folding her arms. Her face was calm and non-expressive. So, when creating and managing personal space, do we act the same? Were her actions typical of how a female would foster distance?

As a skateboarder rode past, she turned her body to look around. Once it had passed, she looked directly ahead before talking to the man. Her head she bent intently, and faced her body in his direction. She talked, she rocked the upper half of her body back and forth, and her feet were twitching and shifting on the ground. While turning her head to the left, she looked down at her foot and shifted its position a little.

She looked at his feet and leaned away from him, tilted backwards as she still looked at them. Picked her bag up by the straps and slowly walked away, followed the man along the footpath, about half a step behind him. This may have been some form of respect, or a pressed custom, where the woman lets the man lead.

Max Weber (1980) idea of the human race being “each, essentially a constant, unchangeable, absolute individual” is questionable. After observing my subject for quarter of an hour, I noticed that no-one else mirrored her actions, her ways of expressing her varied emotions.