On Saturday I did as suggested in my previous post and went to buy my workbook, in the pouring rain, without any lines. It took me ages to pick up the one book that didn't have lines on it but eventually I succeeded. However, as I was walking to my destination to buy said workbook I did observe the different uses of space by people as they also tried to reach their own destination. The layout of the walkways in the city centre allow for three lines of traffic, but with the obstacle of the pouring rain the centre line which I myself was travelling down was almost deserted. It was interesting to see the way in which people chose to cut across this centre path to get to their destination as quickly as possible, but did not choose to walk down it.
It occurs to me now there are a few behaviour patterns that may explain this. Firstly it was raining and so the two edge paths were more likely to shade people from the rain due to the surrounding buildings. Also it is difficult to define a right of way for a third path (the centre one), should people walk up it or down it? The edge paths however allow for the instinctive 'walk on the left' procedure so that the majority of those on the left would be walking down, while those on the right were going in the other direction. This instinctive use of space allows easier travel between A and B as there are less collisions or disputes over what space to walk in. For the centre path to allow this it would have to be split in two and, combined with the rain, choosing the middle path seemed less easy all round. So then I ask myself, why did I choose the middle path and not the left as I was walking down the street? I think the answer to this question may lie in the fact that:
- I did not care too much about getting wet, I was already rather wet by the time I got there and;
- Because there was no one in the centre path the ease of travel was actually better than that in the left path.
Therefore it seems that perhaps the weather has a stronger influence on people's use of space as if it were not raining surely people would choose to use an even quicker line of travel than the left one they were in. I may choose further on in the course to look at this idea further. After I'd bought my workbooks, got very wet and observed such behaviours I headed home.
On Sunday I decided that I had to go out and buy some food from the Sainsbury's out of town before I ran out. This also gave me the opportunity to buy some food for the picnic for IDAT106 on Wednesday, which I went overboard on, and so ended up spending too much. Then last night me and my flat mates went to Revolutions for a girls night out. Both of these visits gave me other opportunities to look at the way in which the world around people affects human behaviour. I wont go into too much detail about this one, you've probably spent enough time reading this already, but both supermarkets and nightclubs also have their own 'space-behaviour' patterns. In supermarkets there is always the influence of aisles in that there is the weaving pattern up and down to ensure that no items are missed and that everything has been observed. This can cause issues with the 'walk on the left procedure as I mentioned earlier, as do other obstacles often found in supermarket aisles such as stock carts and misplaced trolleys. The nightclub on the other hand has a completely different use of space to any regular environment. Dance floors in particular lead to a collective mass of people with no particular passage of travel defined through it. In this way, what with the relaxed nature of a club also, you find that people choose a path that suits their needs no matter how easy the path is to create. This leads to a weaving pattern in and around the collective mass of people often breaking through a space that has already been selected by an individualised group of dancers. In a regular environment this may cause friction between the group and the individual, but in this environment such use of space is seen as acceptable. This already demonstrates that there are many different uses of space without even studying in any acute detail the specific interactions that may occur. This again may be something to investigate further.
So there you have it, my last two days worth of observations and events, a mix of academic analysis and day-to-day lifestyle that part defines who I am. I think the academic nature is kind of noticeable as soon as you open this post, what with its length but I like the ideas I've developed in this and I hope you do to. I am however still currently pair less so all of this may end up being in some ways worthless to my site investigation, I'm still waiting on a reply about what to do. It's a shame I don't have a camera, this is all kind of irrelevant without any documentation of what I saw but it really did happen. Do you really think I could write this much if I hadn't had something to think back on. My next post for today's events will be up shortly and I hope you will still have the time and energy to read it after trying to keep up with this one!
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