3. Reflecting: What made you stop to record the moments of noticing you did? How did the way you collect relate to your initial research prompt? What did you discover/learn about making media through noticing? What question(s) arise for you out of this making?
I went into this task just looking for something basic to notice to begin with- but still challenging myself to notice things that I never usually do. The idea of noticing something as simple as street signs may seem easy for others, but for me, it was actually quite a task. I have a pretty bad sense of direction as it is and usually just rely on location apps on my phone to take me places. Thus, I never find myself looking up anymore to realise what the street I’m on is called, because that information is digitally provided. Similarly, I wouldn’t even be able to name the next few parallel streets to mine, despite living in the same location nearly all my life.
Thus, I put my mind to it, to try and take notice of street signs at least once a day, something I found a lot more difficult than I expected, because I would usually look over it. I did learn that forcing yourself to notice something you usually would not is hard. Even if I have the idea in my head, actually remembering to check what the street I’m on is called always seemed to slip my mind. Something as miniscule as this challenged me a lot. I think it’d be interesting to know how we can accustom ourselves to notice something all the time- not just when we try our hardest.
I think I’d like to try something a lot more creative for the next task, however, this was a good starting point to understand the initial idea of noticing.