This morning Abi and I went to Sharon's Snack Bar Cafe in Castle Market for some strong tea, huge pieces of cake and to explore engagement with people in a wholly different situation. I continued with some crochet and Abi re-learned how to make a pompom, something she hadn't done since primary school.
Our activities certainly created interest from passers by and cafe goers and invoked lots of smiles and comments.
We had a lovely chat with Jack who goes to the cafe every morning and told us that everyone is regulars. As we sat there we realised he was right, everyone greeted each other like old friends.
I said to Abi that it didn't feel right just to show up and start questioning people about things and she agreed. We decided that it would be more appropriate in this setting to visit once a week or similar and start to build relationships with people and let the questions we wanted to ask come out naturally over time.
It did make me think about the value of engaging with people in this setting. Everybody was already very engaged with the area and the other people. It made me think that you would really have to think carefully about going into a setting like this and why you were doing it. I guess that questions and ideas would come out the more we visited.
On the way back to the gallery I went in search of Kenco jars for my display and found that the jar has been updated and in not the octagonal icon of my youth. I don't know why I was surprised.
From 12-2 I sat in the gallery and crafted. I experimented with chalk adverts on the floor outside the gallery but didn't get anyone walking in. It was a really quiet day on Brown Street.
Lyn and Sunshine joined me and Lyn and I talked about particular stories and words that have been coming out of my documentation to inform the knitting chant.
After I worked with Adam to record the sound of knitting. He taped a contact mic to the end of the needles and I sat and knit. I used wooden needles and chunky wool. When I did knit rows there was a nice mechanical noise but purl rows sounded uneven and not specific to knitting. Adam and I discussed the different sounds and moved the recorder around the room for different effects.
It did make me think about the value of engaging with people in this setting. Everybody was already very engaged with the area and the other people. It made me think that you would really have to think carefully about going into a setting like this and why you were doing it. I guess that questions and ideas would come out the more we visited.
On the way back to the gallery I went in search of Kenco jars for my display and found that the jar has been updated and in not the octagonal icon of my youth. I don't know why I was surprised.
From 12-2 I sat in the gallery and crafted. I experimented with chalk adverts on the floor outside the gallery but didn't get anyone walking in. It was a really quiet day on Brown Street.
Lyn and Sunshine joined me and Lyn and I talked about particular stories and words that have been coming out of my documentation to inform the knitting chant.
After I worked with Adam to record the sound of knitting. He taped a contact mic to the end of the needles and I sat and knit. I used wooden needles and chunky wool. When I did knit rows there was a nice mechanical noise but purl rows sounded uneven and not specific to knitting. Adam and I discussed the different sounds and moved the recorder around the room for different effects.
Then Adam recorded Lyn knitting. I asked Lyn to knit as she is a far more traditional and experienced knitter and I was interested to see the difference in sounds. Lyn used metal needles and finer wool. The sound was far more rhythmic and even. The metal compared to the wool sounded completely different.
