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Day #1 – Field Notes
I’m not sure if we are supposed to talk about the names of the people, we
observe in these Field Notes, so I’ll just refer to my partner from the ARS
240 class as my partner. My partner and I decide to meet outside the
Brockman Commons at about 2:30 on Sunday.
On Sunday, my partner decides to reschedule our meeting. She texts me on
Monday that we should meet at “literally any time” on Tuesday. We decide to
meet after 4. I tell her that I’m a freshman and I have no idea where
Brockman Commons is. She tells me to meet her at the post office.
At 4 o’clock we seem to have collectively realized that neither of us knows
what each other looks like so she tells me she’s wearing a blue UK
sweatshirt. I walk over from my dorm to meet her at the post office and we
walk over to the patio in front of some building. We talk briefly about how
my time at campus has been so far and I admit to her that it hasn’t been
amazing. She understands this. The current situation makes it difficult to
get the whole “college experience.”
We sit at one of the metal tables outside of this building I still don’t know
the name of. We start working on the task of generating lists almost
immediately. I tell her I really don’t know much about art (this is a lie) and
let her take over much of the word generating. After coming up with a few
words, we both quickly agree that it’s okay to cheat a bit.
• I was kind of flustered during all this. She seems extremely
extroverted and does most of the heavy lifting in the conversation.
I’m generally bad at small talk, especially when meeting people I don’t
know. I also hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before so coming up
with words was a lot more difficult when I was thinking about how
comfortable the ground looked at that moment.
We spend about twenty minutes in almost complete silence googling words
for the lists. She occasionally mentions what word she’s writing down as if
justifying its inclusion. I nod affirmatively each time.
• I had yet to make the connection between making these lists and the
final art project we’re supposed to be creating. I could not care less
about which words we chose. I assume this is because I did not hear
the explanation that her professor must have provided for her. The
end goal of the project was and is a mystery to me.
We move on to the next list. I comment on the impossibility of coming up
with 50 words to describe glass. I say somewhat sarcastically “clear” and
“hard.” She disagrees, saying that it's much easier to come up with words if
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we’re thinking about how we interact with glass substances in our daily lives.
She drums her fingernails on her smartphone screen a few times, then nods
as if a word has come to mind. Again, we sit in silence, thinking of words to
describe glass.
We move on to the third list. Automatically, she writes the word
‘cattywampus’ and I laugh because that definitely isn’t a word. This is wrong.
It is a word, according to my partner, it means something crooked or
misshapen. She starts googling more words. I’m confident that I can come up
with some on my own and stare off into space. I think of ‘smorgasbord’ and
she’s already ten words ahead of me. I think Google is probably more useful.
While I start browsing Pinterest, as she mentioned she was using, some guy
appears seemingly out of nowhere. He asks her if she wants food and she
tells him she wants French fries. I write the word ‘paroxysm’ and ask her if
the random guy is her boyfriend. She confirms this.
We move onto the next activity. She says we should start by picking out our
favorite words from the previous lists we’ve generated. I tell her none really
stick out to me and she takes over, highlighting a word and then explaining a
vague idea of how it might translate to the final project. We come up with
the first title. She hesitates before we start on the next one, reminding me
of the meeting she has to go to in a few minutes. She says we could meet
again to finish the project, but that she really only has half an hour of free
time the next day. I suggest that she finishes it on her own because it’s
easier. She agrees. I tell her to “enjoy her meeting” and then leave.