Initial group idea sprint

Initial group idea sprint
01.0219


Following two short exercises in commoning, we came together to share our initial thoughts about experiencing every day in a sprint project that was to result in an intervention. We took a timed 3 minutes alone to write on post-it notes to give us space to reflect upon what stood out for us each in our everyday experiences. After the 3Mins we recollected in order to share our reflections and discuss things we had in common and things that we experienced differently.

The results of our initial investigation were as follows:

Rickaé: 

• Transportation: the daily lack of interaction between individuals on public transport
• Social media: how social media impacts our lives daily and the massive role it plays in everyday life including the effect it has on our moods.
• Family life: basic interactions between the people in our households

Mylo:

• Access to healthcare and information about medicalised conditions 
• Money, class, access, branding and ways of presenting to the world 
• Planning for the future, Jobs, Self-branding, work/life balance 
• disillusionment, the paralysing effect of Neo-liberalism on student activism 
• power structures in the academy, power dynamics between students, assistant lecturers and lecturers. striking, representation in the union, narratives placed upon the diverse student body by a predominantly homogenous management body. 
• de-colonising thought patterns, liberating curriculum, emergence of commons, commoning, open source programming as a digital commons,

Upon sharing and discussing several of these topics we decided to think about the politics of transportation. The way that phones, headphones and media players intervene with our ways of communication. The older generations would frequently make a statement in relation to the interactions which would take place between them when on public transport before the days of social media and telecommunication devices. Each makes note that they would not so much be captivated in their devices but were more likely to communicate with strangers on their daily commute. We made note of our observations of our daily commutes and the lack of interactions between us as individuals with those around us and that, most our time on the commute is spent on our phones.


Post- discussion reflections from Mylo

I was particularly interested in the idea that we seem to be referring to of a nostalgic benchmark of the "past" before phones and portable media devices. I think it is important that this isn't immediately accepted as a naturalised nostalgic narrative. As someone who experienced travelling quite frequently during a time previous to the widespread use of portable media devices, I wish to interrogate the idea that we were all chatting before and now we never talk. Perhaps there is a grain of truth in this (as one can read in everything) but I think that travelling in city spaces or commuting especially has always been somewhat of a liminal space in which people read books, newspapers and especially in England spend a great deal of time trying to avoid eye contact as pictured below!

Perhaps what I find most interesting about commuting as a phenomenon is that it almost becomes a non-space, a non-time, where you (on the tube/plane) have no access to the internet. If I think about it, it is one of the few spaces where I feel that I actually don't have the pressure to be productive or engaged or feel the guilt of not replying to the 100 emails I have in my inbox, but just get lost in listening to a podcast or reading a book. I think the transportation sphere is more complex than "oh we don't talk to each other nowadays" perhaps we never wanted the train in a busy city environment to be a space we talk to one another but some other kind of liminal space where it is ourselves we spend time with.

It is interesting that it seems much more common to not just sit and think but to have music, a podcast or scroll on the phone and wonder if, with the rise of portable tech and wearable tech that there could be a change in attention spans or contentedness of just sitting on the train without entertainment. 







Post- discussion reflections Rickae 
After our discussion, I became more aware of the interactions between individuals on public transport. I have begun to observe everyone and have realised that we all tend to focus more on our phones which distract us from our surrounds, we only pay attention them when there is an announcement made by either the voice communication on the train or on the bus, we all tend to either be plugged into our phones listening to music or watch the latest episode of our favourite show or the latest novel, we rarely react with one another only is it is to discuss the latest match scores or the announcement which has been made or if its to make faces at babies because lets be honest, who doesn't love babies. Many people don't talk to each other because I guess they feel like they will be shunned upon and thought of as a 'weirdo', I have found myself more likely to welcome conversations with people who are elderly compared to be to people within my age bracket or just a bit older because I often think 'why are talking to me, is there something you want?'. This is the stigma that has been given to people who interact with strangers in public in this day and age, we feel more inclined to talk to strangers in on social media via comments on public posts. 



Ideas for intervention 

1. We could possibly just start talking to strangers in public like we normally do when we are at work greeting costumers? Maybe this would envoke some change in the stigma of daily interactions with members of the public. Perhaps by starting a conversation with "oh girl, you look good?" and see where that gets us. Like a simple compliment might turn a persons day around.