After reading an extract from George Perec’s journal, ‘An attempt at exhausting a place in Paris’, we went out to do our own documentation of the everyday activities on campus. Perec discusses the idea of the everyday mundane, the repetitiveness of many peoples’ lives, and found a ‘language to daily experience’. It could be argued that society today is ignorant of everyday activities due to the varying contemporary distractions, such as mobile phones.
I chose to go to The Swan and take notes on the people and atmosphere.
23/11/17 14.30
- Three boys are playing pool, one of them is wearing a suit, complete with bow tie. The others are in casual wear.
- One of the bar workers dropped a glass on the way into the kitchen, scaring one of the other employees.
- My friend just noticed the mounted (fake) swan on the wall behind the bar.
- A girl sat with friends splutters and dribbles her drink everywhere.
- Two boys walk up to the bar and smooth their hair back at the exact same time as each other.
- An elderly women gets up to leave, then realises that she is going the wrong way.
- Five rugby players approach the bar laughing, holding a group photo of the entire rugby team. They seem to be very proud of it.
- A clean glass with ice in it has been sat on the bar untouched for at least five minutes.
- A tough looking guy plays with a pink cocktail umbrella, talking to his friend, who is eating a panini.
