Week 1 ~ Taking time to be a flaneur

Whenever I look out of the large 4 pane glass windows that line my lounge, I feel like taking a walk around the seemingly vast space spread out in front of me; the Southern Oval of Curtin University. So one day...I did.



I believe trees are one of the main reasons that we are alive, in that they provide the oxygen we require in order to breathe. Perhaps that is the subconcious reason for the feeling of immense respect I have for everything green (and alive!) Yet do not mistake me for someone who would rather chain themselves to a tree about to be cut down than attend the 175 Multimedia Lecture- Theory & Practise, on Thursday mornings!



Another idea to explore is how we, as humans, try to see, percieve or concieve of patterns in everything we look at. I took a leisurely walk around the Southern Oval located right outside my flat, and as is usually the case I ended up taking photos of trees, and leaves, and bark! Now, I might be barking up the wrong tree, but I believe this assignment's main purpose was to urge students to become "flaneur's"; to stop for an hour or two and take a leisurely stroll around in order to let your mind wander and make connections between ideas, images, sounds and sights.

"...he walks for pleasure, he observes but does not interfere, he is not in a hurry..."["How to be Idle- Tom Hodgkinson"]

"Tree"

"Human as tree"


I took pictures of the tree above ("Tree") as the branches spreading out were intertwined in such a intricate manner, I couldnt help but want to take a photo of it and trace over it in Adobe Illustrator! That got me thinking into shapes and forms, and how we were all organic and pretty much made from the same material, since we eat vegetables...and what are those but the fruits of trees!

I took the other picture of my flatmate in the Oval ("Human as tree") as I was experimenting with shape- human body shape, and what better model than someone who can do "Parkour"! The sun setting over the horizon also gave me a great chance to check out the settings on my new digital camera. I also took advantage of the light as it gave me a good, strong horizon line where the green grass meets the bright sky- a study of contrasts.

After putting all the photographs on my computer I kept feeling like I was missing something. I finally noticed the similarity in shapes between the tree and the body!
I love how the form of my flatmate seems to echo the length, line and simplicity- the FLOW of the line of the trunk from the bottom of the picture frame all the way to the top where it spreads out. The green of the grass is somewhat reminiscent of the green leaves on a tree- remember those big blobs of green paint that symbolised trees during art class- when we were all in Kindergarten?

This experimenting also produced the following two photographs:

"Tree 2"


"Human as Tree 2"
Again, the tree's shape is echoed by the shape of the body. Its a very rough comparison (as rough as the bark, perhaps) but the strong triangular shapes in the lower part of both pictures form a strong sense of connection between the tree and the human body.

Another interesting point is perspective- rotating the photograph around until up is down and down is....you got it! I shall definitely explore that in future posts. Now for one final tree photograph I took after the sun went over to the Other Side.