Observe and Record

For this assignment we were set the task of observing people in public spaces. i chose to do this in firstly in Boner Hall while people were donating blood and secondly from my window watching people go in and out of shops in the centre of town.

In Boner Hall i found there was a lot of waiting about and queuing.
The first people i was observing was two nurses standing by the table where they were serving drinks and biscuit for those who had been donating blood. The two women nurses were both standing together, arms folded in a relaxed manner and chatting to one another. One of the nurses was yawning on occasion. I also noticed that they both seemed to be looking at people as they came into the hall, speaking to each other and from what i saw it seemed to be small chat. They're body language suggested the repetitiveness of a day at work, that they are used to the routine and simply trying to kill time between tasks at work. They seemed to be taking in their surroundings and observing the different people that entered their place of work. Their attitudes seemed far more relaxed to that of the people, mainly students, that were waiting to donate blood. Chairs were lined up in the hall and every so often we would change chairs to move up the queue. I noticed that the majority of people seemed to find this a tedious and slow process. I realised that if a person was alone they tended to fidget and look around the room, almost trying to keep themselves entertained or pass the time. A lot of people i found would bring out their phone if they were by themselves. One girl in particular was sitting at a table after donating blood, she was alone, and despite seeming fairly comfortable with herself she was constantly looking about for distractions and playing with her phone to keep herself amused. This suggests that people of a younger age tend to bore more easily, they seem to prefer being in company of others. Being in a situation where you're waiting in an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar people seems to make people slightly anxious. I then went onto consider the body language of people who came in pairs of with a group of friends. Even though they were about to give blood, which to some people is slightly daunting if its a first time experience, they seemed to be able to chat away and laugh amongst themselves. They didn't seem as curious of their surroundings, more so with the people they were with. Although they were still waiting as long as the people who came alone, they didn't seem as intolerant or aware of the time needed to queue. Being amongst other people seemed to distract them from the fact they were about to give blood. The first queue was to be interviewed by the nurses to see if you're blood can be used, this queue was the longest. The second queue was people waiting to give blood. There didn't seem as much of an order to this queue, the seats seemed to be on a first come first serve basis. There was a few people standing about seeming slightly confused at what to do and who to speak to. I found that even if there was a spare seat some people seemed anxious, as if they didn't know to sit there of if it was designated for someone else. I feel that maybe there wasn't so much of an order here as nurses took different lengths of time to interview people, therefore the system from the first queue seemed to be abandoned slightly.