Now that I know what it is I am looking for in my project, I can now try and generate a method on participate observation that would be the most useful for my personal needs. For this reason, I chose to look at youtube videos on Dharamsala to get practice observing the foreign place. However, because I am doing a more creative project, I need to have jots that are more aesthetic in nature. There is an interesting balance I try to capture here. They try to be subjective only when I can pull in previous life experiences and observations. I try to be objective when I am defining something I see. Having a writers approach to my jots, however, will make it easier to expand these into something someone would actually want to read.What I have documented here are expanded jots. I would to go one step farther to generate what it is that I need for my project. I watched two videos, which I link below, and was watched them each twice.
Video 1
I turned off the sound. There was background music with a woman singing in a language I do not understand.
It then starts with landscape shots, the green is a brownish green. This is where the writer comes out. I have a theory about different greens, and why the green is different from my experience in Hawaii, Ghana, etc. This is subjective, but something I could add to make more interesting.
There is a stone structure, short, and hidden in the shadows with a red flag waving next to it. They are facing away from the viewer.
The houses seem to be stacked on top of each other. Between the streets there are prayer flags waving in the wind of all different colors. Like a celebration banner we would see here (subjective, but writer jots)
Here I see a woman, who at first I thought was a man from the distance, with a braid down her back. As she walks down the street she hits these round red decorations so that they are all spinning by the time she ducks into the alley.
There is a shot of telephone wires. They are a tangled mess. It is near a house. The streets are narrow.
Monkeys are shown, and another backdrop shot. Zooms in on the mountain, the snow blends into the clouds as if this really were the roof of the world, and there was just a leap before you touched heaven.
A younger woman is shown with a collection of some white balls that look like they could be food. Her sleeves are rolled up.
There is a Buddhist bookstore, then the next shot shows a poster with baby Krishna on the front of it. Sitting outside there are several people in "street clothes" waiting for something.
I start to notice that the video is jittery, and does not seem to jump smoothly from scene to scene. Kind of how my own experience might be if I were to see the place for the first time.
There are monks shown. They wear red robes that are draped over one shoulder. One keeps pushing his up because it is falling down. The other has a brown bag slung over his shoulder. It looks like my paradigm of a purse.
There is a man with florescent orange hair shown next wearing dark sunglasses. She keeps shielding away the sun.
There is a monk with an orange sash who is talking to a woman. The streets are very crowded. There is a cow laying down off the side of the road. Two women are talking in loud voices. I would assume they are angry with each other, but this is one of those things that you do not want to draw accusations, unlike other times when these jots can be more subjective.
There is a guy with a shaved head wearing orange and red. Two monks are shown sitting down on what appears to be a roof having tea. An "OM Hotel is shown," and then the next shot is a "Teen Cavsude," then an art house which shows diversity. Jewelry stores are also shown. Postcards are scattered in neat rows, like grids, over a table outdoors. There is a "Little Lhasa Books" store, also a painter shop.
At this point I see some round red poster type thing called "Vi-John." I do not pretend to have any idea what it is. In the background, however, we can see someone getting their hair braided. We get a landscape view after that.
We then jump to a sleeping black cat on the steps of what may be a temple. We see various images of goat looking animals (maybe cows), elegant pots, and a black idol with striking, large eyes. The Hindu god Gannesih is also on the wall with a bunch of clocks. When the person leaves, we see the cat shown awake with bright yellow eyes. In the distance there is an interesting gradient of blues. The person videoing keeps zooming on those peaks.
Next, we see a sign for the Assembly of Tibetan people. We see other departments shown as well. There is an education, finance, etc. department. Signs are shown in both Tibetan and English, and the order for which one comes first changes.
We are then shown a bunch of white cars in a row. There are purple, yellow, white, and bright orange flowers. When we come to what looks like a shop, there are jars of what looks like spices in the background, like my mothers cooking cabinet (writer use of subjective, see what I am getting at?). There is something that looks to me like a giant cheese grater. A room is shown with stacks of bags stacked along the walls.
We are back to more idols. Shiva is shown. He is blue, has one leg up, and has three horizontal lines painted on his forehead. He is sitting next to an image of equal stature of Ganesh, the elephant headed God. There are cows walking and grazing freely in the nearby grass on the sidewalks.
The video ends with a forest shot. The town is peaking through the trees, and everything seems to be a bit more green from this angle.
Video 2
For this one I left the sound on. There were birds chirping, the sound of children in the distance mingled with some faint music. We are shown the landscape, but it does not focus on the mountain peaks like the last video.
Next we come to a temple. People are doing prostrations in a building with orange doors and sherbet yellow walls. A monk wearing red robes comes out. He is wearing red socks with his black open toed sandals. More women are shown prostrating. One notices the camera, glances over, and grabs her prayer beads.
Lines of motor bikes are then shown. There are fewer cars, but it seems that there are some. A sign that says "Reject the Railway" is shown. I do not understand that. Then we see that the cars are being washed, the doors and trunks are wide open. Near, there are monks. One is spinning a brown and gold umbrella. There are also young monks sitting against the wall of a different building. Near the bikes there are all ages of monks.
We are then shown an open building with stalking, block pillars, painted a light yellow. The stories are stacked, and red cloth is shown hung along the different balconies. Inside the room, there are car horns heard outside. They are not speaking English.
Now we are outside. It is pouring rain. The street is filled with a muddy river, and it looks slimey. There is nothing but the sound of rain. The video empahsizes the rapids caused near the wheel of a white van. The gutter is roaring with a brown stream. Two younger males with cameras are shown in the side, watching the rain. Another two people pass by with umbrellas. Two strange cars are depicted, with only three wheels. They have no doors, and seem to have a removable roof. They reminded me of something between a smart car and a go cart. There is a monk who is trying to get down onto a broken rock step. He has a rainbow umbrella. He is joined by another monk. Others who pass through the street are ankle deep in water. White vans that remind me of tro-tros are then driving past. In the rain, there is a guy hanging a curved metal pole on the roof. Three women with scarves on their heads are drenched, and try to skip through the street, but stop. There is a large telephoto lens that is shown to the side of the video.
Next, we transition to monkeys. There is a monkey on the roof who is fat, and has a short thick tail. He is all one color, light mousy brown. Inside the house we see too people videoing this. There is a monkey eating in a green field with a baby. I cannot tell what they are eating, but the view shows that the rooftops are red.
More monkeys are shown chasing each other, and there are now dogs chasing the monkeys. The woman behind the camera is laughing with a man. I do not know what language it is they are talking in. One monkey climbs the rain gutter, and another one gets into a red garbage can and knocks it over. The woman behind the camera is now doing her own video, and we can see her in front of this video. She is white with brown hair. They must be tourists. The monkey is eating something orange, and eats with both hands. The floor he is sitting on is an interesting blend of shades of gray. It looks like the texture when people paint with grocery bags to add texture to their walls. The railing is made of different geometric blocks, and the video goes until the monkeys are silhouettes.
Can I really do this? I think so. It will be different than the jots I am used to, but I am much more excited about this approach.
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