Having (almost) reached the end of assignment 2, I’m definitely recognising a sort of recurring theme throughout many of my observations – that being a focus on space and feeling and the link between the two. I would describe many of my observations as being externally focused but internally motivated. By this I mean that it is generally the feeling that a space provokes that leads me to write about it, or otherwise I write about the space I’m in whilst I’m feeling some kind of way, drawing links between the two as I go. I certainly have a tendency to couple observations of the space around me together with my thoughts more broadly at the time of writing. Whether or not this makes for compelling writing – I can’t really say, but the last three weeks I’ve definitely made a concerted effort to recognise these tendencies and to try to cultivate them into something worth reading. A big part of this has been trying to get more specific and more granular with the observations I make, thereby hopefully making them more evocative.
Robin’s feedback from my first assignment also suggested my writing could benefit from being a little more open ended. This was honestly something I hadn’t even considered in my first six observations, but I’ve again tried really hard to work on this for this second batch of observations. Rather than being very black and white with my descriptions of space and feel, I’ve attempted to bring out how I’m feeling within the description of the space itself. My hope is that these adjustments have resulted in a stronger batch of observations, even if they still are largely in the same sort of tonality and style as those that preceded them. Going forward I’m really hoping to continue to develop and continue along this path I’m on. In particular I’m really hoping to improve my expressive capabilities – something I’m sure has the potential for far reaching positive impacts on my life and work, should I be successful.