[Last modified: October, 13 2024 11:58 AM]
Emerging from the basement of the UCL cruciform building, my peers look bright and energised about their task. They ask each other in ebullient tones what each plans for their participant observation. Most respond that they are unsure, and some of the anxiety felt the evening before in our WhatsApp group lingers – some talk about the difficulties marrying the exercise with their chosen subject. I mention that my participant observation will be on EA students, and ask them if that makes them uncomfortable. They laugh, and some say yes, some say no. All agree that they do not have strong ideas for a location, and in that absence might as well go where they would be happiest – the park. Overall, the novelty, uncertainty and challenge of the tasks translates into high levels of positivity for these students- and I indulge the theory that perhaps EA students are more likely to be drawn to a green space.
There are many different types of users in the park, spread across the patches of shade and sun – children riding, a drama group conducting exercises, people passing through, people sitting. The bulk of my observation consists of observations of these users in addition to observations of my peers, themselves observing. This is in an effort to overall understand my peers experience.
Park users
Approx 50% hold coffee cups in their hand, and 30% are using their phones. The phone users do not switch their attention from phone to park, but remain for surprisingly long periods transfixed to their phone before coming up for air. I time one, 4 minutes 46 seconds before glancing at a noise. A distinct difference between phone users and other park users is their expressions: phone users look serious, intensely concentrating, while other expressions are more dynamic or engaged with surroundings. I make a point of looking around to see if anyone looks happy. I laugh out loud when I identify the only park user with a smile – Skye Hervas Jones, an EA student, eyes closed and enjoying the sun on her face. Another sun enthusiast stands in the middle of the grass, eyes closed, face angled to the sun, no smile, almost in a trance. Something that becomes more obvious as I attune myself to people and movement is that Londoners outside the park, walking to their destination, walk noticeably faster than those walking through the park. Watching them carefully, I notice that even if their journey would be quicker through the park, more choose to go around the outside, an indication that choosing to travel through the park involves complex factors beyond speed.
EA students
The already buoyant mood amongst my peers is further heightened when they reach the park. I cannot be sure if it is myself or them that feel calmer and slower in their communication. Several of my peers become interested in the drama group. Some sit and frantically scribble. Some attempt to emulate the journey of the parks users. At various points all seek comfort in each others company. Martha agrees to turn our talk into a very short interview. It is full of rich insight into her relationship with nature, and reassures me that I have good grounding for my project (interview notes to be typed up in future blog).
Several of my peers become interested in the flora of the park, perhaps chasing context for their ideas, and latch onto my ability to identify UK species of plants and a trees. They want to know if any of the areas are unmanaged and whether weeds have crept in. They become transfixed by an obese pigeon. They note that a multispecies ethnography angle would respect the pigeon as a park user.
Overall, my peers are drawn to many non human elements of the park. I get a sense that it is hard for them to be anchored in the park through its human inhabitants alone, who themselves are present here to wildly varying degrees, from the sun enthusiast absorbed by the sun, to the phone users, absorbed in tasks entirely unrelated to park.