EXPLORER - How to be an explorer of the world (exploration #1)

Write ten things about where you are sitting right now that you hadn't noticed when you sat down. Use your senses. Do it quickly. Do nog censor. Okay, begin. 

1. I sit with hunched shoulders.

2. 'We may not have it all together, but together we have it all'.

3. I see my hands.

4. My knees touch the underside of my desk.

5. I have glue on my desk

6. A picture of me, my brother and my dog.

7. I collect to much stuff.

8. There are a lot of things on my desk that can be thrown away. 

9. I'm tired

10. There's 10 cents on my desk. 

Photo: made by me

I thought of these 10 findings in like 30 seconds. It's weird to think of things you haven't thought about when you sit down. Right now I sit at my desk. A place where I always sit to make my homework or study for tests. It's so normal to sit here that I oversee a lot of things. Like that there's a picture of me my brother and my dog. I think my mom put it there but I didn't even noticed the picture. So if you thinks quick about 10 things you see that you see much more things than when you just sit there. I think I'm going to apply this on my daily life like in the train or at school. In that way maybe I see more things than normal. 

EXPLORER - How to be an explorer of the world (exploration #4)

Today I made a daily walk with my dog. And the exploration was: collect objects only on your way to work or school every day. Well I wasn't on my way to work or school but a daily walk with my dog is also a routine. I collected 10 items that you can see in the photo bellow.

1. leaf
2. piece of paper from a peppermint
3. straw
4. little feather
5. dandelion
6. little stone
7. piece of rubber
8. maple seeds
9. daisy
10. grass

Photo: made by me

These objects are not very special on its own. But when I did this exploration I lost my tunnel vision. I looked around with a wide perspective. And then in the beginning it's a little bit odd to pick things from the ground. But if you see them together you see the path that I walked today. You see a bit of nature and a bit from humans. You can also see it as an interweaving between human and nature. Because we pollute the world, and because of that the world becomes unhealthier. Also object 8 is a maple seed. But when I saw this I thought of something I did when I was a kid. We used to call them: 'rhinos' because we used to split them in 2 and put them on our noses like we were rhinos. It sounds weird but it made me laugh again. So you don't expect to find things on a walk that have a meaning to you. It was fun to do!

EXPLORER - How to be an explorer of the world (exploration #11)

For this week I chose exploration #11: collect multiples of one thing. Lay them out in front of you. Observe them in detail. List the differences you see. Try to document at least twenty-five things. In the picture below you see 10 pine cones. In the list below I will try to describe twenty-five differences.

1. shape
2. colour
3. old
4. new
5. broken
6. in one piece
7. open
8. closed
9. rough
10. smooth
11. triangles
12. with a hump
13. dots
14. pointing
15. dark
16. light
17. shadow
18. round
19. dirty
20. clean
21. small
22. big
23. in a curve
24. holes
25. long
26. short

I've even reached 26 differences. But it was really hard to find differences. Up to 10 it's easy, but then. You think you've seen everything. But if you look a little closer you'll see that there are much more differences. Most of the differences are also synonyms. What I've learned from this experience is that you have to look further than what you see at first glance. These are 10 simple objects but if you put them together and look at it a little longer you're going to see things that you would normally not see. 

EXPLORER - How to be an explorer of the world (exploration #15)

In the next five weeks I will do one exploration every week. The assignments are from the book 'How to be an explorer of the world' from Keri Smith. In this book you learn how to look at the world from a different perspective. There are a lot of techniques in this book. From collecting things when you're walking to taking surveys.

This week I chose exploration #15: record everything you consume or everything you purchase in one day/week. On Saturyday November 1, I've made a list from what I consumed and purchased for one day. You can see the list below.

What I've learned from this exploration is a little bit about consumer behavior. If you see what you buy on one day you can also see how you are influenced by a lot of commercials. And if you list everything you eat on one day, you'll get a better picture of your consumer behavior. In this case I was so busy that day that I wasn't conscious about what I ate that day. Before dinner I was so hungry that it was tempting to grab a snack. But fortunately I stopped myself before it was to late.

Source: how to be an explorer of the world (Keri Smith, 2008)