Eye Contact
Exercise:
Location: The streets
Duration: 1 hour
Number of participants: Undifined
Instructions:
1. For an hour drift in flow through the streets
2. Try to make eye contact with every person you meet throughout your trajectory.
3. Observe the reactions: refusal of the gaze, the gaze acceptance, imposing look, deviations.
4. After the hour drifting, write for 5 mins in a free flow form about the experience.
This exercise was carried out by James Turpin in Miguel Pereira, RJ, Brazil - Between 12.20pm and 1.20pm on Saturday 23rd of March 2012
Free flow writing
Leaving the house, a sudden calm came over me, i felt relaxed. I hadn’t even seen anyone yet but just the assignment had already changed everything. Iuna was silent, i was calm but my heart was pumping,anticipation as to what would happen, yet calm.
I heard the city from afar. The traffic. The birds. Children playing. Thunderous car engines. The wind whistling past me. Time had slowed down.
The first few people I saw were towards the end of my road. The time from when i saw then to when i passed them seemed long. I didn’t know them. One seemed embarrassed that i looked at him, one I felt as though he felt threatened and sent an aggressive energy back to me. I thought to myself that I should be open. Like an empty vessel not judging but just looking at people.
Lots of people who I didn’t know responded with an “Oi” or ‘Tudo Bem”, as if they thought they should know me but had forgotten. Many people didn’t look at me but looked or commented on Iuna and her push chair.
When is holding eye contact too long?
Did some people start to think romantically?
Did others start to feel threatened?
In the centre of the city it was almost as if it was easier for people to avoid eye contact. There were more people, movement and velocity of people was faster, there were more abstractions, people engrossed in mobile phone calls, or in pairs talking, not looking at each other but talking.
I felt serene. My speed of walking was notably slower than my normal pace. My listening was more acute. I felt that people were surprised to have met my eye - some liked it, some didn’t - my eye? or the surprise?
It made me think about:
- The distance we live and keep between us
- Time to look - to see - what’s comfortable
- Speech that covers up real moments of contact and connection
- Negotiating our shared space. The city.
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After the exercise.
Continued walking in silence to the medical centre to write my 5 minutes and a lady who was watching me from afar crossed the road and stopped me. she does not know me. An older lady, large wild hair, painted finger nails, large strange rings on her hands, she touched Iuna saying -‘you are beautiful walking with you daughter, is she going for an injection?’
I replied - ‘No , I am ill with my stomach’
she said, ‘ Oh don’t worry about that, forget about you worries and problems, your daughter is too beautiful for you to have gastroenteritis, how can you when you have such a beautiful daughter. Your problems will go.
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Contato Visual
Programa Modelo
Local da ação: na rua
Duração: 01 hora
N° de participantes: indefinido
Instruções
1. Realizar por 01 hora uma deriva em fluxo pela rua.
2. Tentar fazer contato visual com todas pessoas que você encontrar em sua trajetória.
3. Observar as reações: recusa do olhar , aceitação do olhar , imposição do olhar, desvios.
Duração: 01 hora
N° de participantes: indefinido
Instruções
1. Realizar por 01 hora uma deriva em fluxo pela rua.
2. Tentar fazer contato visual com todas pessoas que você encontrar em sua trajetória.
3. Observar as reações: recusa do olhar , aceitação do olhar , imposição do olhar, desvios.
4. Após a derriva, escrever por 5 minutos em uma forma livre em fluxo sobre a experiência.
Este exercício foi realizado por James Turpin em Miguel Pereira, RJ, Brasil - Entre 12:20 e 13:20 no sábado 23 março de 2012
