This is the video of the 2016 world's biggest eye contact experiment. It is very touching to see how strangers felt so much emotions through this activity. I have noticed that pretty much everyone's reaction was really positive, intimate and loving, which makes me wonder if the results would be the same if the participants were not strangers, but in fact, know each other very well, like my participants, Holly and Shanti.
Eye Contact Experiment
Head's Up! Act It Out
Another activity I did with my group is a game called "Head's Up - Act It Out", which a person in the group guess what the rest members are acting out or describing without saying a word. It was interesting to see how we use gestures to indicate an action or object. I also found that different individuals may use their body language to describe the exact same thing in very different ways.
Design with Restrictions by Holly
Holly's idea is to explore how restrictions effect people's behaviour, so she had us draw faces with multiple design methods/ restrictions. For example, "draw a face using only triangles","draw a face using own 5 circles", or "draw a face using only dots". With every restriction, I noticed that I stoped and tried to come up with a way to meet the order and the number of steps to that restriction. It felt kind of like solving a math problem, which I usually hate, but I actually quite enjoyed this activity. It was also interesting to see how everyone's decision to the same restriction is so different.
2 Facts 1 Lie
The activity Hanna designed revolves around assumptions and expectations. She had each of us write down 2 facts and 1 lie about ourselves, while people guessed which one the lie was. When guessing people's lie, I found myself picturing the images of the person doing that thing, trying to see if it matches with their personality, hobbies, and basically everything I have known about this person. It was a really weird feeling finding out I had guessed it wrong, as if I didn't know that person enough. I even felt slightly guilty making the wrong assumptions.
This one is blurrier and darker. I wonder what I did differently when taking these photos that caused the difference.
This picture reminds me so much of the ending scene of the movie "Submarine", where the boy and the girl walks towards the sea before looking at each other and smile.
I think another reason why my photo reminds me so much of this scene is because of the aesthetics and colour of the movie is as if it was shot with film camera.
Eye Contact Experiment
In order to explore the emotions generated through this activity in more depth, I designed it into three different stages: 1 minute, 5 minute, and 15 minute. I asked them to write down their thoughts on how they felt right after every stage.
What I Observed & Participants' Experience
As expected, the first stage (1minute) went really "funny and awkward" as they said. Their facial expressions were constantly changing during this stage. Eyes moving, unsure of where to look at. Smiling and laughing out of awkwardness.
During second stage, I noticed that their facial expressions became more relaxed and natural as they stoped laughing. "You became less aware of the person sat in front of you and more comfortable with the situation." "You also become more aware of yourself - my body flinches."
At stage 3, their postures became really relaxed, while their blinking turned slower, as if they got sleepy. "You become very used to the space as well as the person you are staring at. It is almost as if it is a "routine" and not a task" "You drift in and out of consciousness, one moment you and your partner are present, the next I feel very spaced out - you lose your sense of time."
Holly had us build a building as tall as possible with A4 papers.
Commune with Christina's Group - @Brighton by the beach & seven sisters' cliff
People watching - photos taken on film
Besides the activities with my group, I also joined Christina's group for a one day trip to Brighton. I got to experience a different way of working, as we did not design activities specifically related to their project concepts but just spend time with each other during this day like a normal trip.
When we went to Seven Sisters' Cliff, I was observing the people on the beach. I was inspired by how in the image stood a few people, most likely a family, their facial expressions are not shown, but so much love and warmth can be felt just through the composition of a few human bodies in these images.
The reason why is because our brains understand body language, meaning that when we see a few human bodies together, we observe their movement, posture, height, clothing, and the interactions between them to interpret what they are doing, or even their relationships with each other. Isn't it just wonderful?
On this trip I also got to practice my film photography skills - this was taken on my first roll of film, still got a lot to learn!
My favourite picture of all. I love the body movement, the footprints on the beach, the reflection, the ray of purple light in the bottom, and the warmth and happiness I feel through this photo.
The two small bodies holding hands with a tall body immediately makes me assume that they are two kids and their dad. And the lady with grey hair standing near them might be their grandma.