[from David Seamon, A Geography of the Lifeworld, copyright 1979, 2003 David Seamon]
APPENDIX B
COMMENTARIES ON THE CLARK ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERIENCE GROUPS
The following commentaries discuss the value of the environmental experience groups as a learning process. Those that were given to me in written form are marked with an asterisk. Although I asked all participants to either speak with me about the group experience or describe its impact in writing, not all did. I include here all commentaries I received. Editorial changes have been made to improve flow of text.
Commentary 1*
I'm excited when I think of what last semester's environmental experience group meetings have done for me. I don't know if I'll be able to express all that I've gotten from the group, but I'll try. I'm gaining a deeper, fuller understanding of myself through an awareness of the factor that seems to have a great influence over me - my experiential relationship with my environment. My mind and body are slowly becoming attuned to aspects of movement and rest that I hadn't noticed before, and to the significance of space. I am more fully aware of certain wants and needs not than I think I was before. Unconscious realms are becoming more conscious ones: it excites me more and more as I realize how much I take for granted in everyday life.
There's a beauty in my body's activities that I've never seen before manifested in flowing order and choreography. I sometimes feel like a whole new world is opening up for me in terms of places and situations - my home. my school, my need for other people and my need for privacy. I appreciate all these things with a deeper understanding of their necessary role in my life. I want to share my excitement. The thought of helping other people understand these things - especially children - brings purposeful meaning to me. I fell like I've never felt of seen these things before.
Commentary 2*
Our discussion group made me more aware of many of my movements and habits that I had previously dealt with through 'body knowledge', but always implicitly. It was both stimulating and unnerving to discover how may assumptions we unknowingly make about our interactions with our surroundings.
I had never before thought about the ways in which surroundings not only alter our emotional state, but also shape our behaviors. Previously, I had known that emotional states are reflected in the ways we organize our living spaces, but I had not been aware of the concomitant effect of that organization on emotional states.
The group was also a valuable didactic setting; I learned about the general characteristics of a phenomenological approach and I began to understand some of the concerns of geographers.
Commentary 3*
One of the most important things about the work we've done for me is that it has shown me a way of knowing that I can respect. In catching phenomena, not manipulating them, and sharing these observations with each other, I feel as if we've been receptive and open to the thing itself. So many of my friends feel a gap between what they're exposed to academically and the rest of their (more relevant) learning experiences. For me, the work we've done in the group resolves this problem. I don't feel a split; learning about myself has been a part of my education here at Clark because of the groups. That is the strongest force which keeps me coming back to school.
Glimpsing completely unexpected, very basic forces that shape my behavior is exciting. Seeing a little more fully that I'm not at all in control of many of my everyday movements, feeling that this is important to my own experience in a lot of different ways - like understanding a hard-to-break habit such as nail-chewing, or working on a new piano piece and being able to tackle difficult passages more effectively, or in adjusting to a new living situation like this past summer - being able to recognize the importance of routine, or center, of familiar paths, and being able to encourage their development.1
For instance, one thing I noticed over the summer was the way the house I was living in became a home. There was a sense of center there that survived moodiness and restlessness. How important that was! All sorts of little things helped - someone lent me sheets, so I didn't have to sleep in a sleeping bag any more, and I moved the bed back to the bedroom - it was in the living room when I came - so that there was a living space and a sleeping space. Having this home, temporary as it was, ended up to be one of the best things about the summer. Real delight in cleaning things up, putting things in their places, having a place that was mine.
What was especially interesting to me this summer was the phenomenon of obliviousness. Catching myself (mostly afterwards) so many times completely caught up with some aspect of the situation, so that I forgot about the outside world and felt afterwards as if someone else had had the experience. I observed that sometimes the obliviousness had to do with a goal I'd set. For example, one day I took a hike up Pelican Canyon, with ambitious plans to take another trail down a different canyon on the way back. With my day all planned out, the actual hike became automatic - an empty gesture. I caught myself at one point completely preoccupied with random thoughts. The whole tenor of walking the trail changed for a few minutes, as if I'd only just arrived, aware of surroundings that I'd been blind to moments before.
It was a frustrating day, with most of it spent rushing to the next landmark. I see this obliviousness orientation in so much I do and often wonder if there's some way to keep myself more in touch with the moments at hand. here is where the group work has been helpful because in the past I wasn't even aware of this obliviousness - at least now I see it and perhaps in time I can find more ways of getting beyond it, of actually seeing and looking at the things that are there with me at the moment.
Commentary 4*
I feel that the group has been, in so many ways, one of the most important experiences of my academic career in so far as it has given me new insight and awareness into myself and my dealings with the everyday world. Self-knowledge is a kind of learning I value highly. I think that our probing into our everyday experiences and the feedback from other members of the group brought out clear patterns of movement, centering and encounter that I took for granted before. It is not that our discoveries are so esoteric that they can't be grasped by others; it is the reverse. We have found patterns that are comprehensible because of their universal nature. That is, we can (perhaps) put forth some general assumptions as to mans role in his day to day world: for example, we are centering beings, and much of our movement is habitual and semi-automatic.
Commentary 5*
I feel that since the beginning of my participation in the environmental experience groups, I have become more aware of two things - noticing my own experience of my surroundings, and generally trying to relate to other peoples patterns of environmental experience and the phenomenological method discussed and covered by our groups.
I always like to apply things I learn in school to my everyday living. When I learn that people do things by routine a large portion of the time, or that there exists a theory of 'body knowledge', I try to notice the times I or someone else is operating routinely or I find that I can draw upon body knowledge as a possible explanation of a specific behavior. I do not consciously make an effort to apply these concepts; they just occur to me when I try to understand something or just observe people's behavior.
I guess that what I am trying to say is that the group work has carried over and become a part of my everyday experience. I think this started due to the weekly noticing tasks. All during the week I'd be aware of looking for my behavior, regarding the specific topic, but I'd notice the week's themes previously and just generally everything we've discussed. I began to notice other people's behavior, too, and in this way, I find that I've integrated body knowledge and concepts of noticing (or not noticing), centering, routine ballets, etc. into my stockroom of approaches to understanding, describing and explaining behavior. I just think that way now. I notice without trying or planning to notice behavior.
Because I've become interested in applying these new (for me) ideas, I enjoy going to the group meetings and sharing experiences, reacting to and getting reactions from people who feel I understand and share my interest and enthusiasm. I do feel a certain special tie to the people in my group - as though we're discovering something personally and all together, at the same time and in the same way. I feel there is a special rapport, probably because we share experience rather than intellectual knowledge or ability, like most school group meetings and classes. This is why I have continued: I value both my interest in the subject as well as my affection for the people involved, who I probably would never have met in any other way.
Commentary 6*
One of the positive features of the environmental experience group is the nice feeling of meeting with the same people every week and discovering that others sometimes act the way I do in my own situation. It's interesting to discuss things we do in our everyday lives without usually thinking about them. The discussions have helped me become more aware of how structured I make my own life and how the 'ordering' of things and people can be a bodily and emotional process.
For example, right after vacation I moved from one dorm to another. When putting things away, I realized that I was organizing books, clothes, etc., in a way similar to the arrangement of my old room. this led to the affirmation of the 'logic' of the placement of things in my first room.
Commentary 7*
About a minute ago I walked into my room at home, thought over the question of writing this report or not, and decided not to. The next thing that crossed my mind was 'What time is it?' I looked over to where the clock was last night, and to my surprise, it was not there. I immediately remembered that I had moved it closer to my bed so that I could hear it better. I laughed hard, as I realized that this was a good reason to write up my observations concerning environmental experience. I think the example of the clock, if stretched a bit, portrays accurately the newly gained level of knowledge that now guides my view of environmental experience.
I was new in the Clark community when I began the group experience, so I was able to notice how I set myself up in the environment as it was taking place. The observations I made of my own behavior were no different than the others in the group, but I was seeing my interactions develop, as opposed to reliving everyday dealings with the environment (which mine were soon to become). I'm sure the minute I arrived at clark I began to order things. I established walking routes to buildings, and chose a particular side of my room and then arranged it in a particular way in terms of which I could eventually move habitually - without having to think where things were.
What all this points to, I think, is that through certain exercises done with the group, I developed a certain perspective regarding myself and my environment, Knowing now, through observation and practice, that we take so much for granted about our environment, I can be conscious of these dealings and so participate more actively with my environment. I can take control of it more easily. That is not to say that I can avoid completely subjective development of a home, centers, habitual paths, etc., but that I can be aware of the possibilities of walking the same way each time, or I can begin to see consciously how attached I have become to a particular place. Changing the position of the clock was an example of taking part in the construction of an environment that I was in at the time. Once a person attunes himself to his dealings with his environment he will be less likely to resume his old ways of dealing with it. He has more of a choice in the way he conducts his day-to-day dealings because he is now more aware of them than he was in the past.
Commentary 8*
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the meetings regularly for the second half of the semester, and am slightly at a loss as to what went on. I was very intrigued by what I did get into; it made me more conscious of my movements in general. Especially good was the week we spent on home as a center; it helped me to crystallize my own thinking on my need to be centered and my feelings while on the road. It also brought into perspective the last two years during which I lived in four cities and even more apartments, dorms and houses, and spent a good deal of time travelling.
Commentary 9*
I joined the environmental experience group not really knowing what it was all about. Right now I am further along, but I'm still not exactly clear about what's going on.
The outside exercises (rearrange your furniture, go a different way, etc.) were one of the most enlightening parts of the group. These combined with the weekly discussions gave me a greater awareness of my day-to-day life. Whether this is good or useful I don't know. I do know that it can be a pain to realize the significance of everything that I do, but sometimes this gain in knowledge helps me to re-examine and evaluate my actions and adjust them accordingly,
Commentary 10
The group has helped me to fit things together - for instance, territorial space and rearranging things. It's given me a chance to explore things, to clarify things a bit.
Some of the themes were more helpful than others. The task of walking a different way than usual helped me to think about where I go in a day and how I always use some routes and don't go other ways. I started noticing what I might be missing. The idea of centering is something I've been thinking about a lot lately because I'm going to move off-campus. I'm wondering where my center will be - the apartment won't be like the dorm, where there are always a lot of people. Will I hang around other places as opposed to my apartment? The group has really made me think more about things I had thought about and think of why I do them the way I do.
Commentary 11
I've definitely gotten a lot out of the group. I think before we started I was looking at how I lived similarly, but here I had a directed way to do it and things made more sense. Last night I was reading something I had written on territoriality at all levels. I had a simulated model, but because of things I've learned in the group, I would never look at territoriality like that any more. The model was a creative idea, but now I don't think it proves anything. I think there's something in territoriality, but not in the way I did it.
I thought that personal scale and national scale were all the same, and now I thing there are many differences. I know a lot more about personal scale now. I don't see how it could work on a national scale. Some of the needs are the same if you blow it up enough, but I don't think the comparison gets you too far - as I had thought before. The group has helped me to see that there are different things going on in the two. Most people in their everyday lives have little consideration for the country they're in as a political unit - unless they're forced to consider it - if you're going to be killed or if you're of the 'wrong' political party. But generally, people are just concerned about their everyday lives. I don't think they think in terms of political boundaries - in terms of 'Because I'm an American, I'm more secure'. They think they're secure for other reasons. I don't think people think of it too much on a regional basis either. Of course, if I'm living in the East that may affect the way I think, rather that if I'd lived in the Midwest, but that doesn't really have much to do with the way I live everyday.
The groups helped me to see this because I was looking at myself in a more organized fashion. I always thought that how I lived my life didn't have much to do with politics and national events. The group gave me a clearer outlook - a clearer way of thinking about such issues. I can't say before coming in the group I had never looked at the things we looked at, but I don't think I had noticed them as clearly.
One of the most significant themes we looked at to me was order - it seems to have come into everything. For example, in terms of having a place for everything, one of the things I want to do when I go home is to organize all my papers, books, and find out where everything is. Centering was helpful too. Noticing things like, 'I'm going home now - ah, yes, the center.' I noticed it in terms of visiting too. I visited a friend in Ottawa, and the first thing I did was to go to her bedroom. That was my center - everything seemed organized around the bedroom. Once I was there I had everything. I was conscious of that feeling while I was there. Centering can have an effect in terms of knowing what you're doing and being in touch with yourself. When I've gone to New York to visit my friend, I've realized how much I've hated it - and it's because my friend knows the city well and I don't. When I'm with him, I don't know where I am, I'm totally disoriented. yet there are times when I go to New York when I like it, because then I have some sense of organization of the place. I think it's because then I have to get around by myself. It was the same in Ottawa - it was more exciting because I had a car and I was doing the driving so I could get to know the city. And I felt better. There's a control you have.
The themes got more difficult - they got to be the kind you could think about. They didn't work well for the group because they weren't concrete examples any more. It's not like 'I'm going here and there' - it's more philosophical. I think they were authentic themes. Especially center-horizon. For several days I hadn't been home much at all: other places, other people's houses. And then suddenly there was this need: I have to go home. You want to be active, and then you want nothing.
I think it's important to know how you live What we've been doing in the group is looking at the part we normally take for granted and in that sense it's helpful. I think I am more aware of what I'm doing, of where I go, of why I'm here, of obliviousness. I was aware of body-subject, too - in terms of forming habits. Like in terms of organizing my papers - I'll have all my papers and books, everything I'll need, in their places, and the places will become habitual. Because I'm now consciously aware of the force of habit, I think I'll be more organized in the next place I live.
I'd like to do more work in graduate school. I think I can, but I'm not exactly sure. I know with planning, controlling pollution - I know they consider all the wrong things. And I think what we've discovered can be used I still think what we're doing is theoretical. I think it's very valid, based on different dimensions, but still a theory. I think it's better - this one is real - it occurs, this is what's going on. You can prove anything - it's like giving the monkey marijuana for four days and then concluding it's bad. Whereas here, we'd have to take people as they regularly smoke it, how it affects them in day-to-day context. It's a model, but it's more in contact with what's going on than many other social science theories that I've learned about.
Commentary 12
The group was useful - I'm thinking about things differently all the time. For example, take my job at the hospital. I noticed a lot of things about how people there got around that I wouldn't have noticed before the group. The people in the hospital weren't willing to learn more than one daily route pattern - they just want to get out and in. There's a beautiful library with comfortable furniture in the building, but most of them have never been in it because they have a regular routine and don't like to vary it.
I seem to be on the look out for the same kind of experience we talked about in the group. I'm trying to understand body-subject - mostly I notice things about buildings rather than outdoor things. It took me a few weeks to get the hang of habit and the possibility of bodily knowledge - it was hard to notice without interpreting it immediately. And it was hard to be open to observing - I'd never done it before and at first I wasn't open to it. It just wasn't a way of learning that I had experienced before.
Centering I understand and feel it strongly. I was aware of it in the past, but I didn't call it centering. I made my room a center so that I'd have a place to go where people wouldn't come unless I wanted them. When I went home, I didn't have much of a center. Like the living room - no one sits in there because it's my mother's and it's for guests, and you don't want to dirty it. But when I was home last I spent a lot of time in there reading - it became a kind of center - though my mother would move my books.
The last themes weren't as helpful - they were vague, and not interesting.
Commentary 13
I didn't get much out of the group. A little. It was funny - the first couple of sessions I really 'got into' it - doing the maps of our daily movements, looking at things more closely. My movements fascinated me - to see how they shaped up on the map. As time went on, I didn't do the themes as a regular thing. I tried to integrate the themes with other things but it was hard - fitting them in with my work. I tried to keep observing in my day, but I was doing it less and less. At the end, I was pulling experiences out of memory. Some of the themes were more difficult than others. I couldn't cope with the one 'deciding where to go when.' There was noticing too. I didn't get a feel for it either.
I didn't want to analyze my behavior I just gave, hoping what I said would be helpful. I like to talk. I don't know if I'd do the group again. I was somewhat passive in it. I like being in psych experiments, I like being a subject. This required me to be more of an experimenter - I found I couldn't think clearly about many of the themes. I like things to be more tangible and graphic. This is more philosophical.
Note
1.This commentary was written in the autumn of 1975, after the commentator had gone to Utah for the summer to work as a Forest Service guide at Fishlake National Forest.