Design Safari : Assignment 3

For assignment three we were asked to observe people in different situations, analyze their body language and make general assumptions about them from their appearance. So on the train down to London I observed the other passengers and soon began making my own assumptions of them.

I found myself sitting opposite a couple who had gotten on the train at Aberdeen and were also on their way to london. I knew this because the ticket reserving their seat told me. They sat quite closely and talked comfortably to each-other which gave me the first hint that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. They were also around the same age 23? and dressed similarly. The man was dressed in baggy jeans a baseball shirt and a baseball cap which said "Red Socks" he wore thick black rimmed glasses which were all cloudy from fingerprints. His arms were covered in tattoos all based around an egypt theme, with a landscape of the pyramids and twenty or so hieroglyphics running the length of his arm. he also had a pendant with a pyramid on it. This seemed a bit strange but made me think he has some sort of connection to egypt or just really likes it. The girl was dressed in black and had baggy jeans on with a long sleeved black top and a ring with a pentagon on it, which perhaps meant that she was interested in the occult. She had very heavy makeup on which was applied poorly which was maybe due to poor eye sight because she also had thick black rimmed glasses. The amount of makeup she had on made me think she was maybe lacking in confidence and felt the need to hide behind it. They both played computer games throughout the train journey and didn't speak to any of the other passengers. On the girls way back from the toilet I heard her tell the man that she was angry at another passenger for walking in on her as she had the door unlocked because she is claustrophobic. He expressed concern about this and gave her a cuddle which made me sure of my previous assumption that they were a couple. They were stoked up with coffee flasks and a bag of food. The girl who was slightly overweight ate a salad some coconut and had a cup of coffee on the journey, where as the man who was extremely tall and thin ate two chicken and sweet-corn sandwiches a packet of crisps, coconut, a lion bar, toffee popcorn and had a few cups of coffee. The man read a book about wrestling whilst the girl listened to heavy rock music. I didn't manage to get a picture of them unfortunately because it would have been too obvious.

The thing I found most interesting about this couple was how unaware they were of everyone around them. they never once made eye contact with me throughout a 6 hour journey and they never asked for anything from the catering trolly. Perhaps the reason they brought so much food and drinks with them was to avoid any interaction with other people on their travels.