Jenny Davis

Journal 6

July 2, 2010

The Lonely Chair

When I see a chair I usually think, “Oh it’s just a chair.” But, when I saw this chair my perception completely changed, and my imagination ran vividly wild. If this chair were sitting in a classroom among desks I would think of it as a place for students to rest while learning. If it were sitting on the sidelines of a basketball court I would think of it as a place for the players to sit while the game wasn’t very exciting. But, this chair wasn’t in either of those places. It was in the hallway. It was a lonely chair in the hallway outside of a classroom.

As soon as I saw this chair I automatically thought that it had been used for punishment. I was under the impression that a student had used this chair; after being sent to the hall because he or she was disturbing class. The classroom door in open and the chair is empty so I was free to make this assumption and to assume it was merely left in place after the class was dismissed.

This picture really connects with shame in my mind. If a student is sitting in the hallway while class is going on it is obvious to any passersby that he or she has gotten into trouble. This is the perception in our culture that is. Sitting in the hallway for all to see is a way of shaming the individual and embarrassing them in front of the rest of the school in order to stomp the misbehavior out of them. The student will therefore hopefully not want to be embarrassed again and will not act up. Our culture has a long history of shaming misbehavior out of children. From the dunce cap in earlier days to having your name written on the board, to standing in the corner, to being made a spectacle of by being forced to sit in the hall alone.

It is so interesting how we perceive things differently when they are put in with different scenery. This is how I interpret juxtaposition. As I stated previously if this chair had been seated in a classroom empty my mind would have never traveled to the scenario I have just described. Funny how our minds work isn’t it?

Anything and everything in the world can be perceived differently if one thing in its environment is changed in the slightest. Take a large brimmed hat. If it is sitting on a shelf in a store, you simply think, “It’s on this shelf in order to be sold, its function is to make the store money.” But, if that same hat were in a snap shot of a man outdoors you would automatically assume that its function has changed. It’s function is now to keep the sun out of the mans eyes. Therefore also assuming that it must be sunny wherever he is. We can infer all of this from the way that the hat is being used. If the hat were hanging on the man’s back. We would assume that the man was expecting sun, but it had not yet affected his vision.

This is the same in conversations. You hear someone yell (person B), “You took that out of context!” This could happen when two people are in an argument and person A brings up something that person B said in a conversation at an earlier time to use against person B. If person A does not include everything that person B said in that earlier conversation, person A could easily manipulate what person B had said to how they wanted it to sound. You must know all of the elements of a situation in order to get an accurate read. This is the main reason for miscommunication in my opinion. We all interpret things differently therefore if we do not ask questions we could take a comment another says completely the wrong way.

Everything depends on its surroundings!