Sensory Ethnography: Page Flipping CCDN231 - Experimental Design Ideas Project I - Sensory Ethnography Mark Wilson 300156343

1. Sensory
Ethnography
Mark Wilson

2. CCDN231
Experimental Design Ideas
Project I - Sensory Ethnography
2013
Mark Wilson
300156343

3. { Contents }
Overview
Methodology
Olivia
Nicole
Nicholas
Samantha
Hanna
Summary
Acknowlegements
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4. Sensory Ethnography: Page Flipping
Sensory ethnography involves observing,
analyzing, and documenting the ways in which the
world is experienced through sight, sound, taste,
touch, and smell.
This is a book revealing unnocticed intricacies,
intimacies, similarities, and differences between
people while carrying out an everyday experience.
My chosen activity is flipping through the pages
of a book.
{ Overview }

5. { Methodology }
To discover and analyse sensory and emotional
entailments in flipping through pages, I observed five
people and interviewed them as they took part in a
carefully considered experiment focusing on three
types of repsonses:
My experiment was formed on the basis
of findings and observations from my own auto-
ethnographic studies.
• Affective
• Intellectual
• Emotional

6. { Methodology }
1 . Affective Response
I asked the participants to flip through a book. First slowly,
and then quickly. While alternating between speeds, I recorded their
affective and initial emotive and sensory responses to this action.
2 . Intellectual Response
I asked my participants to think about why they might have had
this initial repsonse. I recorded their thought process as they began to
understand reasons for their feelings.
3 . Emotional Response
I then gave them a book I had altered. The book had pages
that were inconsistently trimmed so they were different widths, and I
asked them to flip through the pages once more.
Their responses were recorded and documented.

7. { Recording }
To reveal unnoticed experiences, I used indian
ink to track the position of each participants’ fingers
as they naturally flipped through a book. These ‘prints’
are accompanied with photographs.
I then blindfolded the participants and asked
them to gesturally interpret their overall sensory
and emotional experience using a book with pages
covered in a generous amount of indian ink.

8. { The Experiment }

9. Please flip to page 67 for the experiment

10. [ Reader will flip through about 35 pages ]

11. { Olivia }
Olivia’s sensory response was predominantly
focused on touch/textures and the content of the
book. She noted the breeze produced by the pages
when flipping through them quickly. There was much
more focus on her thumb and each page as it slipped
slowly beneath her thumb at a slower speed.
She commented on how she didn’t feel in
control as much when rapidly flipping through pages
of the altered book.

12. { Olivia }

13. { Olivia }

14. { Nicole }
Nicole’s sensory response was dominantly
touch and sound. An interesting observation she
made was of how she felt the weight distribution of
the pages transfer from one hand to the next. She
thought the sound of the fast and slow flipping pages
was similar to the sound of a running or dripping tap.
Nicole responded strongly to the altered book.
She immediately disliked the way the pages were
disjointed, creating a harsh feel about the book and
the overall experience of flipping through pages.

15. { Nicole }

16. { Nicole }

17. { Nicholas }
Nicholas interpreted the action itself literally: a
method for searching through a book. He described
this as “rolling” or “scrolling” through pages. He
largely associated sensory aspects of his experience
to personal memories.
Smells, tastes, and textures experienced were
related to childhood memories.
When asked to flip through the altered book,
Nicholas found the inconsistent page sizes annoying
as they distracted him as he tried to find a page quickly.

18. { Nicholas }

19. { Nicholas }

20. { Samantha }
Like Nicole, sound and touch were dominant
for Samantha as she could hear each page “ticking”
past. She felt a strong sense of control over each page
she flipped through them. She felt stressed and not in
control when flipping through them quickly.
Samantha also related her sensory experience
to personal memories and associations.
Not realising the book I had given her was
altered, Samantha indescribably did not enjoy the
experience. Once again she commented on the
amount of control her thumb had over the pages,
noting that flipping through the pages quickly made
her feel less in control.

21. { Samantha }

22. { Samantha }

23. { Hanna }
Hanna prominently associated soft sounds
and textures created by each page to her unique
experiences and memories. She felt the pages were
delicate in pressure, and tickled her thumb as a
“release” occurred when the page flipped over.
Hanna commented on how uncontrollable the
pages were as she tried to flick through the altered
book. She was annoyed at how the pages were
uneven.

24. { Hanna }

25. { Hanna }

26. Please flip to page 147 for the summary

27. [ Reader will flip through about 35 pages ]

28. Flipping through pages in a book is something
we would normally do without thinking. However, I
have found that if we were to simply alter the sizes
of the pages, the everyday experience suddenly
becomes extraordinary.
I have discovered that flipping through a book
with inconsistent page sizes can be distracting and
frustrating. With a strong sense of not being in control,
the book can cause stress and irritation.
By reading this book, I hope you have had the
pleasure of experiencing flipping through pages with
a more conscious mind. By not only reading about
observations and analyses, but also experiencing
it first-hand, you have consciously experienced an
otherwise unnoticed activity we might carry out every
day.
{ Summary }

29. Thank you
Ricky, Nicole, Nicholas, Sam, and Hanna.
{ Acknowledgements }