[Last modified: November, 26 2024 09:06 AM]
Exploring Gordon Square: A Liminal Space in Early Winter
On a cold but sunny day, my group and I went outside to the benches in Gordon Square, between the archaeology department and the park. It felt like we were sitting on the edge of two worlds: the busy city and the calm, autumn park. The air was cold, but the sun was shining through the leaves, making it look warmer than it really was. We were in this strange in-between space, right at the point where autumn is fading into winter.
We decided to draw what we felt. We made a map of where we could feel the sun and where the cold was. In our drawing (Figure 2), we used crosses to show where the sun hit us, and circles for the cold spots. Some of us felt the cold on our noses, while Mark, who’s bald, felt it on the top of his head! Tarun, clearly freezing, scribbled all over his face to show how cold he was. It was funny,—though the sun was out, we didn’t feel that warm.
Fig. 1
fig. 2
We also wanted to capture the feel of the space. Marie did something cool: she put paper over the bench and rubbed a pencil on it to get the texture of the wood (Figure 1). It was a simple way to feel connected to the place we were sitting.
We also recorded sounds. Mark used his phone to capture the wind rustling through the trees. It sounded like waves crashing on a beach, which made us think how misleading sound can be. The air was cold, but the sound of the wind felt peaceful. It reminded us that sound and feel aren’t always the same.
The sun, the cold, the sounds, and the textures all came together to make a feeling of being in-between seasons, in-between worlds. It wasn’t just about mapping what we saw—it was about feeling it, hearing it, and touching it.
It also made us think about the ethics of ethnography. How do we represent a place without oversimplifying it? How do we show the real experiences of people and spaces, and not just our own perspective? This was a fun but important reminder that even small moments in everyday places can be rich with meaning.