October 11

Final Spatial

This evening in the library, on the second floor, it is not empty, but it is not overpopulated. The second floor is a floor devoted to computers and reference sources. On the ceiling, there are six fluorescent bar lights, casting a silhouette on the ceiling, and a very harsh, bright light on the floor, but it is what is needed to see. Along the walls, there are small rooms reserved for study groups. Ten all together. In those rooms, there are rectangular rolling chairs, made up of tiny hard circular material that gives the chair a hard texture. They are scattered about the rooms, all each facing a different direction. In the middle of those rooms is a long wooden table, with a glass frame in the center. Above that table is a whiteboard in a wooden frame. Many of them have drawings on them in Expo marker. A lot are math equations: numbers and addition symbols in sloppy columns across the board. One board just has a bunch of scribbles on it, with an array of circles above it. It is undetermined what the diagram represents. A glass door protects the room. On the first room from the left, there is remainders of tape that was once holding up an ad plastered on the glass. All the rooms have a large flat screen computer on the wall. Behind it, there is a tangled mess of black wires with a different color piece of tape marking each one, ranging from red, to yellow, to blue.

In the center of the second floor, there is a large, deep opening for where the stairs are. There are 25 stairs in all, and after the first 12 there is a small platform before the other 12 escalate. During the one hour, many people exited the stairs onto the second floor. Across from the stairs, there are workstations and an array of computers and rolling chairs like the ones in the study rooms. There are nine workstations total: They are divided into groups of three, with three in each group facing one another in a triangular format. The workstation provides a trapezoidal table for each computer and mouse. Each computer has a black keyboard below it, with white letter and number markings. The rest of the computers are in rows of five, with a long, white table holding all of them. There are six rows of these. Along the OTHER side of the wall, there is a view overlooking Decatur Street. This whole wall is made up of glass, in a grid-like fashion, as there are brown bars sectioning off each rectangle of glass. There are seven sections going up, and eleven going across. The floor is a carpet of navy green color, also in a grid like fashion. Each square of carpet has a shade of darker navy green stripes in many different sizes. Some of the stripes are thin, some thick. On the floor, there are nine sections of cushioned chairs and tables. Each chair is a small one, with a stripe-like design, of yellow, green, brown and purple stripes. There are two chairs alongside one another, and two facing them the same way. In the middle, there is a marble top table that is square-shaped. In the corner of the room, there is a printing station that includes a computer for assigning the printing jobs. A sign reads “WORKSTATION DOWN” on the computer, letting people know that that computer is out of service, hence, not to use it.

In the third study room from the left, there is a dark-skinned man wearing a long-sleeved gray shirt, and dark wash blue jeans- he is standing up in front of the board and talking. He has a pair of white headphone draped lazily across his neck. He is smiling as he talks, and his head bobs up and down when his mouth isn’t moving, like he is communicating with another person in the room. There is another dark-skinned male sitting in one of the rolling chairs and rocking it back and fourth, looking up at the man. He is talking, and he is wearing a red snap back, khakis, a solid green shirt and a pair of orange Nikes. In the workstation area, there is a male with black hair and facial hair with silver Beats on. He is wearing a solid orange shirt, and blue medium wash flare jeans. He seems to have a short, solid build. He is writing something on a large notebook and doesn’t look up from it for a long while. The computer in front of him is black; he is not working on it: his attention is focused directly below him at the crumpled paper with scribbled words across the lines. When he does finally look up, it is up at the ceiling: he closes his eyes for three seconds and lets out a small sigh before resuming to his writing. A janitor in a white blouse and blue sweatpants is heard rolling a trashcan across the aisle near the spot I am sitting. He is a light-skinned man with brown facial hair on his chin, and rolls the can with one arm, while the other arm bops against his side, his gaze fixed on the wall opposite across the room.

In the area where the cushioned chairs are, in one of the chairs, there is a white Asian female wearing a burgundy T-shirt and faded jeans with rips on the knees. She is wearing black Vans, has a high ponytail that drapes along her right shoulder, and a green navy jacket resting on her back over her shoulders. In her lap is a black laptop which she is typing on. Two sections over, there are two girls in the chairs that are right next to each other. One girl is tan, she looks of Indian descent and is wearing a white tank top with a burgundy cardigan over it. She has black hair which is medium-length and wears faded jeans with white tennis shoes. She is facing the other girl, and they are both laughing and talking. The other girl is white, wearing a neon purple fitness jacket that is zipped all the way up to her breasts, revealing a black tank top. She is wearing black compression shorts and pink Nike running shoes. Both girls have textbooks in their laps, and a mess of books is seen on the table in front of them. Two sections behind them, a couple is snuggled together on the chair- both are Asian, one is male and female. The male holds out an iPhone in front of them both, and they both proceed to make a pouty face at the camera before the flash goes off. They look at the photo and grab one another, laughing.

Hailey is a new freshman at Georgia State University. Her outfit was a well-blended contrast of burgundy and black; k. Her dark jeans were cuffed at the ankles and she had on a pair of off-brand maroon converse. Her hair was up in a short ponytail. Hailey shared that she enjoyed the library because she liked the fact that it was a convenient place to do homework, as it was on campus and generally close to all the students. She also commented that it wasn’t too much of a deathly quiet space, so people weren’t constantly too afraid to make the slightest noise, and they could still have fun to some degree while completing their assignments. This comment seems to be true, as there is always a dull roar on the second floor of the library. The people who occupy this space treat it as a place they are visiting: with respect. There are no food or drinks allowed by the computers. Many of the occupants have student ID’s by their computer or around their neck, giving reason to believe that they are students wishing to complete their work in the library.


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Posted October 11, 2016 by mwalton9 in category Final Spatial Ethnography Report

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