ABOUT
CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS
OUTLINE
THE WORKSHOP
PARTICIPANTS
SCHEDULE
OBSERVATIONS
DISCUSSION
DESIGNS
Participants were divided into three groups and sent out into the area around the Bartlett on a scavenger hunt for examples of people waiting.
GROUP 1
Joelle Bitton, Johanna Brewer, David Chatting, Ava Fatah gen. Schiek, Jofish Kaye, Eric Laurier
See more photographs from Group 1..
Cash machines: Labelled broken, make a queue and people join it. Question of trust? Trust a sign or trust people?
Doctor's waiting room in Shopping Centre. An empty space. Defined as an area for waiting
Luggage appropriated as a seat. Is she waiting or merely resting?
The job of bike messenger involves a great deal of waiting. Here one is waiting at traffic lights. Waiting for other people to move.
Taking up a position during waiting to claim territory.
Where is it ok and not ok to wait? Can't wait near sex shops because your intentions and motivations are unclear. Only the owner can hang around in these areas.
Power cut causes collective, public waiting as shop owners come out onto the street.
Boyfriends wait for girlfriends who are shopping.
Unstructured waiting in the T-mobile shop. Not an identifiable queue if you are observing. Is queue system understood by people waiting?
Double waiting in a restaurant - waiting for people to receive their food / waiting for food to arrive
Using waiting as a social deterrent or justification. E.g. 'Have you got a moment?' 'Sorry, I'm waiting for a friend.'
GROUP 2
Arianna Bassoli, Tom Carden, Silvia Elaluf-Calderwood, Mark Perry, Niall Winters, Susan Wyche
See more photographs from Group 2..
Authoritarian, rule-based waiting; signs, electronic voices controlling queues
DHL delivery man waiting. (Delivery services + post involve a lot of waiting?)
People with newspapers and books in the park - but are they waiting?
Do you wait during a journey? Is hanging around a form of waiting?
What is the difference between waiting and being? Is being a type of habitual waiting?
People doing assisted waiting with luggage used as seats.
Long-term waiting: to win the lottery (also speculative waiting)
Inequality of waiting demonstrated by different length queues for ladies and gents.
It is the context that reveals waiting.
Reading maps: one person is fully engaged; other person is waiting, minimally engaged with the task.
Gestures revealing waiting: tapping foot, rubbing nose, looking at watch. These are also signs of embarrassment often. Is waiting a form of social embarrassment?
What is legitimate / illegitimate waiting?
Waiting as a social defence: reading SMS to occupy hands (and mind?) to give the appearance of busyness to other people. To prevent other people perceiving you as waiting.
GROUP 3
Vera Doerk, Marije Kanis, Karen Martin, Alex Taylor, Jonathan Tyler
See more photographs from Group 3..
A group of people is collectively waiting.
Waiting is not an isolated activity, often it occurs simultaneously with other activities.
Revealed through orientation and queue behaviour.
Is there a measurement of waiting? A continuum for the attention given to waiting compared to the attention given to other, simultaneous activities.
What are the social and environmental cues of waiting?
People use space to get visible feedback on their progress in a queue. Movement through space equates to time.
Example of time vs money seen in length of queues at closely located cash machines. Will you wait or pay?
Road crossings illustrate a wide variety of waiting techniques and technologies.
Traffic lights and pelican crossings delegate responsibility for waiting (that is, the negotiation of waiting) to technology.
Road crossings reflect social rules and expectations. For example, turn taking. They are an extension of social rules and gestures, e.g. the inching forward of cars at zebra crossings.
Zebra crossings require greater negotiation for fairness in waiting.
These negotiated waiting situations reflect (perhaps) conversational style. Is the shortest possible wait when you are waiting for someone to finish what they are saying before you respond during a conversation? Each of these situations (traffic crossing and conversations) have rhythms and expectations. How does technology interrupt or support these properties?
And these situations are culturally specific. The rules (legal and societal) for road crossings (and conversation) are different in different locations
There is a power relationship in waiting at traffic crossings. Who takes control and when do they relinquish control?
How is it possible to appear to be waiting?