Observation exercise

Coffee Shop – observation of strangers.

I sat and watched the employees of a coffee shop on Main Street on Sunday morning.  It was a busy day in the coffee shop - the queue was always at least 10 people.  The shop serves coffee and donuts and there is a kitchen to the right of me where the donuts are made.  At first, it felt as though there were too many people working – it seemed as though people were wandering aimlessly.  Everybody seemed to do all the jobs rather than at one station.  From an outside perspective I couldn’t tell how they knew what to do.  How did they know to collect the new batch of donuts from the kitchen? How did they know which coffees to make? Why could somebody move from the till to the coffee station apparently on a whim? As I knew so little about what was happening I was searching for answers – looking for questions.  I think this meant that I missed some of the detail.  Toward the end I noticed that one person was specifically was in charge of milk, one specifically in charge of filling the coffee grinders.  I also took very little notice of individuals – of facial expressions and body language.  I was observing the people as a set, performing a task (making coffee, serving coffee) rather than as individuals.

Observation of people I know

This was quite a difficult task for me.  I have only lived in Vancouver for 5 months and although I have friends, I generally am ‘doing something’ with them rather than just being.  I have housemates, but we do not spend to much time together.  I am not in a position very often where I can observe somebody I know for 15 minutes.  This would be very different at home in the UK where there would be a number of opportunities for me to complete this task.

I did observe two friends whilst they were having brunch, but I didn’t’ make any notes so I am writing from memory. I know both of the girls quite well, but they have only met once before (through me) – I noticed mostly how they were different when talking to each other.  They exhibited different body language as they navigated their relationship at a slightly different stage to ours.  In this situation I was far more conscious of myself as the observer, as I knew the subjects.

Reflection of observations

I think the most significant aspect of the observation task for me was how much it was to do with me as an observer rather than what I observed.  I orientated towards the different exercises completely differently based on the specifics of what I was observing.  The process of observation is as much about the observer as the observed.  A different observer with different connections to the two scenes would have had completely different experiences and noticed different things.