Plotting Positions on Sproul Plaza
Observations:
Sunday, 8pm
I started my observations near the row trees on the Telegraph side, but located at a bench close to the open part of the plaza. There were about 12 drummers in the front center area playing loudly, permeating the experience for everyone else all over the plaza. One to three people walked across the plaza, from Telegraph to Sather Gate or the opposite. Some were two couples, but most often, it was single men. There were several men who would stop and watch the drummers. Some were already there when I arrived, and would sit, or stand in a half circle surrounding them. There were no women standing or sitting in the plaza at all during the hour that I was there.
No one was conversing. The men either watched the drummers or strolled through the plaza, or sat watching the drumming. They did move their bodies in a way that appeared to resonate with the music and in some way communicate the intensity of their experience of it, with each other, by stepping occasionally or constantly to the drum beat, moving their heads or arms, or rocking. They seemed to have respect for each others experiences and be communicating this in a nonverbal sensory way, and yet there was no verbal communication so it was a feeling I sensed and could not really document. There were men who appeared to watch the single women walking from Sather Gate to Telegraph, as they watched me for a little while at first. But since there were only about three over the hour, there wasn’t very much of that going on.
Most of the drummers and the men watching the drummers appeared to be in the undesirable category, in traditional terms. They could be visually judged under this standard to be shady, possibly be pickpockets, drug users, or street people. Whether this is actually true or these guys just wear the street look is unknown.
Regarding this question:
In a sense, observations concerning position of the first type -- physical positions -- presume a lexicon of positions of the second type -- social positions. Is there some way to resolve this recursive relationship?
Socially, it appears that the drumming group is the center of attention, and has a prominently centered physical position, with their backs to the steps leading up to Sproul Hall, which is a terrifically dramatic backdrop. This exists with the watchers and listeners surrounding them in lesser physical positions. The loudness of the drums contributes to this focus on them, and the drummers are performing in an aggressive, ritualistic way that is very masculine, which communicates that they will not be ignored or displaced. Maybe this stance, this way of performing and being, brings their social position to the forefront, which leads to the prominent physical position. But they may also take the prominent physical location as a symbol of their social position among the watchers and passersby, which then leads to the prominent social position they assume as the performers in the plaza. If they performed somewhere else, in a non-prominent or “small” location, it would likely be a dramatically different experience for the audience.
Also, within the drummers, there seemed to be some relationship between the centermost performers and their prominence within the group. However, since they were there when I arrived, I’m not sure whether the men in the center arrived first, or had those positions reserved because of playing skill, alpha position or some other way of determining their role. But the men at the very center seemed to lead the group, however, this could also be my own bias towards assuming the central position has more weight.
At 9am, there are fewer people in the plaza, compared to afternoons. Most are walking across the plaza, younger students and the occasional older person, possibly faculty or graduate students or staff. There was a man driving a small truck, with a garbage cart on the back, from garbage can to garbage can, getting out and dumping the trash, and moving to the next. This process of emptying all the cans took about 20 minutes.
No one sat down, even though it was sunny. It seemed likely that everyone was on their way somewhere else, often with a coffee cup in hand, and just using the plaza as a thoroughfare.
Closer to 10 am, there was a person waiting by MLK for another person who arrived; they talked for 30 seconds and then proceeded through Sather gate to some destination. There were two other instances of this same behavior, as people used the plaza as a meeting point before going on to their next destination. Also, around this time, there were two singles that sat down at the fountain. It seemed likely that there were waiting for people, but one woman was writing in a notebook, and another woman was drinking a coffee and talking on the phone. They were both in the sun, and could have just been hanging out waiting for a class or meeting.
During the full hour, there were no booths or issue desks or people handing things out. There were no performers, no real sounds except the wind, the people walking, the traffic from Telegraph, and the garbage man between 9 and 9:20am.
It did not appear to me during the second time period that anyone had a more socially prominent physical location. People were passing through, or waiting to the side, meeting someone and continuing the pass through, and so there didn’t seem to be any lesser or greater physical or social position held by any of the users of the plaza.