Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
Its slightly unacceptable to stare straight at people on the tube even though the carriages are designed so that you are positioned directly opposite each other. Everyone tends to flit their eyes around, taking in as much as they can without imposing their eyeballs too much on anyone. To be honest it is actually easier to look at people now as so many are glued to their phones but before this technological diversion I invented a game to pass the time on tube journeys which is to take a detail of someone and try to build a picture of who they are without actually looking directly into their face. You need to gather as much information as you can before finally glancing up to see how closely they match to what you imagined them to look like. Its a bit like being Sherlock only you probably won’t be quite as implausibly accurate.
We make snap decisions every moment of every day about people based on their appearance. We feel we can gain a degree of insight from our observations that will reveal the story within and are often convinced what we see is true and correct but we must always remember our conclusions will always be tainted by our own projections. If you are prepared to accept that you are not objective in any way whatsoever you might find your judgements often reveal as much about you and how you view people as the target in your sights. What nugget of self-knowledge did I gain by staring at people’s tattooed feet and hands on the tube? Hmm, guess that’s for me to work out. I’ll let you make your own conclusions but be warned, they might shine a light inwards as well as outwards…
Next time you are bored on a tube or a train and have text neck from playing angry flappy crush why not play the Observation Game and see how you get on…your brain is doing it anyway, you might as well get on board. You can always go back to flicking if you don’t enjoy it.
That is like, just so deep ‘Cakes