what I see when I go on walks

when I was getting my college degree in Journalism, on my first semester, I had a course called Theory of Perception. it sounded like one of those bogus course, with an artsy teacher and sketchy curriculum, that would amount to nothing.

the course was simple: every week the teacher would ask us to bring something we didn’t notice to class, about things in our personal lives. the idea was to start rewiring our brains so we could be more effective reporters, interviewers, photographers.

sometimes the teacher asked us to bring something we noticed on the commute to the class, or something that could be newsworthy in the campus. sometimes it was something we didn’t notice about someone important to us, like the way they walked, or how they talked. it didn’t need to be big; just something.

some people didn’t bother, and just came up with something to tell the teacher (“my mom laughs weird” became an in-joke). I took it a bit more seriously, though. in a few months, I went from “I want to turn my brain off while I commute” to “oh, there’s an interesting graffiti here, I wonder what it means”. since I always enjoyed photography, this class changed the way I go on walks.

so I invite you to do this experiment: the next time you go on a walk, look for things that would be interesting to you. you don’t need a camera or your phone (though it helps). you don’t even need to remember it afterwards - just look around you.

notice how the light hits the pavement, or how things look in a different time of day. pay attention to the people that are there, what they are doing, how they go about their lives.

bring something you didn’t notice with you.