For this first Warm Up activity, our group went to the Araucano Park near the Parque Arauco, to sit and observe during an approach time of three hours... Just observe, and then get some conclusions.
The method we used to do the observation was the AEIOU, based on Activities, Environments, Interactions, Objects and Users. So in resume, we just sat on the grass and started observing everything around. At first, it wasn't that revealing, but after some minutes, the dynamic of everything what was happening at the place gave us some general and specific ideas of the sense of this huge park. That fact and a little bit of thinking gave us some ideas of the specific needs that people were satisfying at the Araucano Park.
The first thing we noticed, was the amount of people who were doing different kind of sports. Football, basketball, skating, slacklining, running, riding a bike, excercising or even jumping are some of the activities we could see. The second thing (and one of the most repetitive ones that we saw) was people walking their dogs or babies (in that order of relevance). Those two general things showed us that people go to the Araucano Park looking for a place to liberate themselves by doing any kind of sport, and also that this park is, by some reason, a perfect place to carry your baby or your dog.
Over time, we could see couples, families having picnic, playing, staring at birds, or simply being alone.
Ok, now we think; People go the Araucano Park to get relaxed and have a nice non-stressfull time near the green color. But at that point, we start watching other kind of activities, specifically related to work...
First, we saw a group of men doing a great puppet show, then an organ grinder. But what really caught our attention were some people (indepent cases) literally working with their notebooks, like bringing their offices to the park. Now we think again; It's not a thing of going to a place where you are far from your work. It's about going to a place and bringing your needs and ordinary activities to a place that gets you away from the big city.
In overview, what I personally learned from this afternoon at the Araucano Park, is that people use it as a place to satisfy any kind of ordinary need that they have, but with the concept of bringing those activities where the power and the consequences of the big city seem to be far far away.
