xinyu zhang 26005853
My research centres on an entrance next to Waitrose, close to Central Saint Martins. I observed people’s directions of travel, walking speeds and group sizes, then translated these observations into shapes, lines, route maps and video footage. During my tutorial, my tutor pointed out that while my graphics captured foot-traffic patterns and movement speeds, they failed to explain how these phenomena relate to the physical site. This pushed me to think about how I could move beyond documenting motion and begin to understand how people use the space.
Georges Perec’s Species of Spaces encouraged me to pay attention to small, easily overlooked details in everyday surroundings (Perec, 1974/1997). I noticed that people used the two sides of the entrance differently, even though their paths eventually converged at the same point. This shifted my focus away from movement data alone and towards the relationship between human behaviour and the surrounding environment. Moving forward, I plan to observe the site layout more closely to investigate whether it influences how people move through the space.
Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I explores overlooked people and objects through documentary filmmaking (Varda, 2000). This connects to my attempt to document an ordinary entrance more carefully. It also highlights how an observer’s choices about what to record shape the final outcome. My documentation captures visible actions, but it cannot yet explain why people move in particular ways.
At the final critique, my peers commented that my shapes and lines conveyed movement and rhythm, while the video made circulation patterns easier to understand. However, some static visuals lacked clarity, and several shapes had unclear connections to the physical site. If I develop this project further, I would simplify my visual language, create clearer top-down route diagrams, and show movement speeds and entry sequences in the video. I would also record more site-specific details to investigate the relationship between the physical environment and how people navigate the space.
Reference List
Perec, G. (1997) ‘Species of Spaces’, in Species of Spaces and Other Pieces. Translated by J. Sturrock. London: Penguin Books, pp. 1–91. (Original work published 1974).
Varda, A. (2000) The Gleaners and I [Film]. France: Ciné-Tamaris.