Pressured Observation

My project at the moment is dealing with people's mannerisms, covering both facial expressions and wider body language. The basic idea was to purely observe people's behaviour (without them noticing me) and through informing myself about theories surrounding the issue by researching both in the library and on the internet, hopefully gain an insight into these stranger's lives.

I started by observing people in Market Square in Nottingham city centre, at first with pen and paper, then moving onto using a camcorder. I found that using a camcorder to tape my observation was far more beneficial as i could focus on filming one person/ group of people and when i watched the tape back i could see other scenes that i hadn't been focussing on and would have missed otherwise. It also gave me 100% of my time for looking when i was there and when playing the tape back i could take notes on behaviour i had observed and then hypothesise as to why this behaviour was being exhibited.

When i put on the tape that i had filmed earlier in the day i was astounded by some of the behaviour that was going on. All the research of psychological, behavioural and body language theory had paid off because there was a lot of things that, without the knowledge that research granted me, would have completely passed me by. In one 45 minute video i had enough to exhibit examples of 11 different types of behaviour which mean more when read into than we would usually expect. Below are a few examples of these different behaviours. Read into them what you want. If you want to know what i deduced from them, then just ask.

Moving on from pure observation i wanted to move into what i would now call 'pressured observation'. The idea for this part of the project was to explore where the lines between explicit and implicit rules for social conduct blur and how far they bleed into each other. I would hide out of plain or direct view and set up my camera focussed on a subject then send in the participant, in this case Ross, to sit down next to them. The hypothesis of this study that i was working under was that there is an implicit rule within western culture, which is very noticeable in British society, that tells us if a stranger is sitting on one end of a park bench we should sit on the other end. However, there is no explicit rule telling us that this action is illegal.

With just the first subject i knew that this project was going to reveal some telling insights into how people deal with being put in uncomfortable spots. This gentleman, in the photographs below, asked Ross not to sit too close almost immediately when he was sat next to. The first image shows how close Ross got to the man, which was within arm distance, but in no way making contact with him.

The second subject was also worthy of note. This gentleman said the following to Ross: "Excuse me, I don't mean to be funny but do you mind sitting somewhere else, it's just that I'm on the drink." He then showed Ross a bottle of cider (visible in the photographs below.)

There is a difference in the reasoning behind both people's response here. The first subject's reason is possibly self preservation, hence acting slightly more aggressive than the second who seems to want to distance himself from people for their safety rather than his. 

The third subject i chose for Ross to stand next to was a girl i actually know. I jumped at the chance of getting a view from both sides of the experience. It's more than obvious when looking through the photographs i took of Ross standing next to this girl that she isn't comfortable with whats happening but she fails to say anything directly to him. The day after the shoot i got in touch with her and she thought it was hilarious that it was set up. She realised that something wasn't quite right but wasn't quite sure what. My guess would be that it would be her uncomforted in the situation that she had been put in. (This is not to write off completely the idea that she may have received a sensation that she was being watched but was unsure where from and was confused by this. This is another theory i came across when researching.)

The main point in this work isn't to show what other people do, (because we all do it in one way or another i'd wager) but it is to question why it happens, and if it happens in some places more than others. I'm going to have to try this in London.