An Eye for Detail: Observation-based Writing

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One of the most difficult things about describing an object is the ability to value the smallest details and how they come together. The act of describing is a pause to pay attention to the way all senses engage with the object, observe it in relation, in use. It is also the beginning of asking why things are the way they are. At this stage, the intention is not to demonstrate knowledge of the properties of materials and making – these are aspects that courses and studios in the future are well equipped to do. The intention is to slow down observation, and begin to articulate clearly what emerges. 

The description of an object is, then, the first act of (un)learning about writing – challenging the need for grand generic statements; finding ways to articulate concreteness; imagining a reader and their needs to inform choices about what is best communicated through images and captions, and what needs to be captured in words.