Sensory-Ethnography Hand-In

For my sensory- ethnography project I looked at the act of riding a bike. I first gathered data about the sensory experience of cycling by looking at and examining the experience of a variety of cyclists; Male and female, child and adult, people who cycle for health reasons, the environment, cost efficiency and even pleasure. Despite the varying reason and background of people cycling, according to my research into the sensory experiences had, the variation is very limited. From my questionnaire and own personal experience I concluded that sight and sound are the two most important or dominant sense used when cycling. For this reason I have focused on these two aspects of a bike ride in the videos presented.

The first clip titled “Sensory-Ethnography 1” illustrates the sensory experience of biking the first half of a journey. It uses the ticking sounds of wheels spinning, the quiet rumble of tires on concrete, crackle-click of gears, the whistle of the wind, patter of peddling and ambient park noises punctuated by the high-pitched chime of bells. This is all lightly overlaid and composited over footage of shiny wheels, oily grinding cogs and gears, the spokes casting interwoven shadows on the pavement, crisp leather of snug warn-in biking shoes, soft black rubber and the flashing white light present at the front of bikes. This expresses the more peaceful essence of the first half of the trip, reflecting the subtle, light and easygoing experience of cycling.

The second clip titled “Sensory-Ethnography 2” expresses the sensory experience of biking home, it is the return trip and is the second half of the journey. In this film the sound employed are similar, the ticking sounds of wheels spinning and grinding rumble of tires on concrete, gears clicking as they change, the whistle of the wind, the patter of peddling and ambient park noises. While it also includes the screech of brake erupts as the tires are pulled across the ground in an attempt to break signaling the end of the journey, the sounds are deeper and heavier than the first and of a more frantic pace. This is all heavily overlaid and composited over footage of dark oily grinding gears, silver spokes casting interwoven shadows on the pavement, brown rubbery shoe sole, silver metal clipless pedals, harsh black rubber and the pulsing red light present at the rear of bikes. Which communicate the heavy, dark and more hectic nature of the second half of the trip through the use of fast transitions, harsher and more dramatic overlays of sound and video.

Either the first or second half may be the sole experience had by a partaker, depending on the duration of the ride and the experience of the rider. However, from my research I have found that as a general rule the experiences had follow from the first to second type in accordance with the first and second half of the journey. The end result conveys the two very different experiences of the same stimuli of cycling, the first and second half of a bike ride, to better express the fundament experience had.