Project - 1, Multi-Sensory Diary

For Sensory Ethnography I cut the orange on a white sheet of paper to get the marks, which shows the way an orange is cut through knife cuts and juice on paper. I overlay that sheet with all the photographs and the written text. In the photographs the stains of juice shows the unease of eating the orange in certain ways and in the text the stains and cuts, allows the one to experience it.

  I choose this form for research diary because while holding it one can feel that you have to hold it certain way to make it stand similarly like you have to cut the orange in certain way to eat it easily. The texture of paper represents the texture and grasp of an orange skin.

Project - 1, Sensory Ethnography

Written Words

I experiment with three everyday common activities for Auto Ethnography. The activities were: brushing your hair, drinking coffee from take away cup (paper cup) and eating an orange. For my sensory ethnography project, I choose ‘eating an orange’ activity because it interests me that the way you eat an orange is the way you cut it. The shape of your mouth (lips) changes with each different piece of orange for example: if you cut it in a pyramid shape, it becomes little bit hard to adjust the lips around orange piece where as if it is cut in semi-circle shape, it’s a lot easier to consume the orange. So for the result for my project I cut orange into two common different shapes and observed what and how the experience changes in eating an orange depending on the way you cut it. As Catherine Fishel says that, “Because as you consume a product, you are forming a relationship with it – how you hold it, how you enjoy it, how you fantasize around it” (2003, pp. 144). I documented and observed this activity in other five people.

The activity involved almost all the senses.

Smell – One can smell the orange. After eaten, orange can be smelled from hands and mouth.

Touch – While choosing an orange, one feels the hard and soft oranges so that they are not rotten from inside. Also during cutting and eating one can feel the texture of orange’s skin on the hands.

Taste – One can taste all the orange juice in mouth, the natural sweetness and if bite on orange’s skin can taste the sour-bitter in the mouth. 

Sight – Usually one looks at the skin of an orange and assumes if it will be good or bad.

Sound – One can hear the knife slicing through the skin into the juicy orange.

I observed and documented five people for this activity and found new facts that I never noticed or thought about. All five noticed the general details about this activity as listed above.

Ø  The first person noticed the smell of orange and tasted the juice in his mouth. I observed that he had to eat the pyramid shape orange piece 3-4 times where as the semi-circled one almost in one go. According to him, it saves his time and makes it easier to eat an orange.

Ø  The second person noticed smell and taste. For her it was hard to eat the pyramid shape orange piece and when she tried to eat it, the skin of orange crackled and the juice from the skin bursts on to her nose skin which makes her nose smell the orange.

Ø  The third person couldn’t notice the smell and could taste very little because of the flu. She found the semi-circle shape orange piece easy to eat in one go but as she bite too hard or close to the orange skin, she tasted the bitterness from the orange skin.

Ø  The fourth person noticed smell and taste like others but detected that semi-circle shape orange piece was juicier and smelled more of orange than the pyramid shape orange piece. She also found that pyramid shape crackles more than the other.

Ø  The interesting part in the fifth observation was that he found the pyramid shape orange piece easier to eat than the other because when he squeeze the pyramid shape piece in his mouth, it is easier to suck the juice from orange because of its pointed shape. Though you have to eat it 3-4 but it is worth of getting all the juice in the mouth rather than on all other places.

Sensory Ethnography

From these three activities i chooe "eating an orange" for further project because it interests me that the way you eat an orange depends on the way you cut it. i documented it in other 5 people and took the photo graphs.

Ø  The first person noticed the smell of orange and tasted the juice in his mouth. I observed that he had to eat the pyramid shape orange piece 3-4 times where as the semi-circled one almost in one go. According to him, it saves his time and makes it easier to eat an orange.

Ø  The second person noticed smell and taste. For her it was hard to eat the pyramid shape orange piece and when she tried to eat it, the skin of orange crackled and the juice from the skin bursts on to her nose skin which makes her nose smell the orange.

Ø  The third person couldn’t notice the smell and could taste very little because of the flu. She found the semi-circle shape orange piece easy to eat in one go but as she bite too hard or close to the orange skin, she tasted the bitterness from the orange skin.

Ø  The fourth person noticed smell and taste like others but detected that semi-circle shape orange piece was juicier and smelled more of orange than the pyramid shape orange piece. She also found that pyramid shape crackles more than the other.

Ø  The interesting part in the fifth observation was that he found the pyramid shape orange piece easier to eat than the other because when he squeeze the pyramid shape piece in his mouth, it is easier to suck the juice from orange because of its pointed shape. Though you have to eat it 3-4 but it is worth of getting all the juice in the mouth rather than on all other places.

Auto-Ethnography, Activity - 3

Activity - 3  Eating an orange

Smell – orangey smell from mouth and hands

Touch – before eating one check if orange is hard or soft. The way it feels in your mouth depends on the way you cut it.

Taste – juicy, natural sweetness, sour, bitter.

Sight – usually one looks at the skin of an orange and assumes if it will be good or bad. 

In the below images you can see that eating an orange depends on the way it is cut. As you can see in the images that orange is cut in two different ways and from the images it is clearly shown that which way is easier and comfortable to suck onto orange.

Auto-Ethnography, Activity - 2

Activity - 2 Drinking coffee in take away cup

Smell – coffee.

Touch – warm, weight of coffee cup, one hand is reserved to hold.

Feel – active.

Taste – coffee and if cup is not a good quality you get a taste of cardboard paper especially at end of the coffee. 

In the below images you can see that how one feels like and reacts, when they get a taste and smell of cardboard paper from the coffee cup.

Auto-Ethnography, Activity - 1

Activity - 1 Brushing hair

Smell – Hair smell, smell of hair products.

Sound – plastic kind of sound.

Sight – looking at your own hair for styling the hair.

Feel – nice and tidy after brushing your hair, If need for a new cut or color.

Touch – hair brush touching the hair and scalp. The hair loss while brushing them.

In the below images you can see the hair loss and which almost frightens everyone. As by brushing your hair one feels nice and tidy but seeing the hair loss, one is disappointed. 

Auto-Ethnography

For presentation of Auto-Ethnography, I choose three common everyday activities.

Activity - 1 Brushing/Combing your hair.

Activity - 2 Drinking coffee from take away cup.

Activity - 3 Eating an orange.