The Art of Noticing

Metadata

• Author: [[Rob Walker]]
• Full Title: The Art of Noticing
• Category: #books

Notes

‘Everyone needs a mechanism to select what, out of all the things in the world, they should both look for and at, and what they should ignore’. That’s a search image – ‘the visual form of the expectation that allows you to find meaning in chaos’. (Location 169)

Watch for: SECURITY CAMERAS ABANDONED PAY PHONES NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH SIGNS ANYTHING NATURAL (A PLANT, A ROGUE BIRD) IN AIRPORTS LOCKSMITH STICKERS WEEDS EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH PLAQUES STRAY SHOPPING TROLLEYS STRAY TRAFFIC CONES ABANDONED BIKE LOCKS HAND-PAINTED SIGNS MOBILE PHONE TOWERS (Location 197)

You don’t have to wait for the next Slow Art Day to try this. It’s fun to spend such time with a work of art, but you can also look at five products at your local department store for ten minutes each. (Location 271)

For starters, you can simply look up from your phone from time to time. Lift your eyes to what’s not right in front of you, but just above. (Location 282)

Find a place to sit or lie down and look up. Take your time. See what’s up there. Then look for what’s beyond that. (Location 297)

The determined repetition of the same view over time will likely reveal something that is not really the ‘same view’ after all. (Location 302)

This could be replicated with almost any image or object. Devote time to studying something you’ve seen before. You can look over and over – until, like Kennedy, you are seeing something in a way that nobody else could. (Location 340)

Looking for an answer instead of the answer can shift and broaden your vision. (Location 466)

The great benefit of drawing … is that when you look at something, you see it for the first time. And you can spend your life without ever seeing anything. (Location 477)

Practise this kind of openness to your environment. Look for flickers of human individuality amid the routine of the everyday. (Location 597)

it worries me greatly that today’s children can recognise 100 corporate logos and fewer than ten plants. (Location 602)

Put yourself on the lookout for the potentially interesting as you move through the world: on the Tube, at bus stops, on campuses, at work; in bowling alleys, parking lots, even prison yards. (Location 642)

Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. (Location 665)