At least some of us will end up working in an office at one point or another, and as someone who has experienced this myself, I know office life can sometimes be quite dull and monotonous. But amidst the daily routines of repetitive work, there are always glimpses of colour – a conversation with a coworker that stopped by, an office joke that spreads around your floor, a walk in the park during your lunch break. My goal for this project was to capture a gist of office life in a single image, a meaningful picture interesting to look at.The picture of the cubicles is not my own (some unexpected camera problems forced my hand a bit this time). Here’s the link to the original image:
Critiques
Aaron – This is interesting – I looked first before reading the statement. I didn’t even notice the cubicles. It makes me think about pixels and tetris pieces, patterns emerging within a system, order and chaos, structure and chance – and the camoflauged cubicles underneath it all give it a location/context around work-life. And the trite sort of communication with people who you see everyday but aren’t necessarily friends. I feel like you did a great job of expressing the “medium” of the office and the nature of expression that goes on within it.
Amanda – So interesting to see how your idea morphed and changed as we exchanged ideas! I like the commentary on the social life of a professional work environment – it’s something that dominates the majority of our days, after all. The repetition of different forms of blocks is fascinating – the colored squares, the pixelated background, the rectangle magnets. The words themselves are also quite interesting since they capture office chatter (“butt” / “monkey” / “kiss”) instead of the typical formal communication that occurs via email. I think one thing that would have made this piece stronger is if you used a different medium besides refridgerator magnet since that often evokes thoguhts of “home” rather than the “office” – perhaps scraps of printed paper or jotted down notes on a legal pad instead.
Beatrice – An interesting and unexpected work! I’m sure many people can relate to the monotony of the working life as well as the little things that can make the day more interesting. I get the sense of blurriness from your photo – the words, colors, cubicles all kind of blur together just like the days of the week can during a typical work week. I think I actually would have preferred if the cubicles in the background were a little more apparent and less camouflaged.
