Chereographing Repetitions

Are some patterns only visible if I intentionally observe them?
This project began with the idea that rhythms and patterns constantly exist around us, whether we consciously notice them or not. Everyday life is filled with repetition, visual and sonic rhythms and patterns follow us wherever we go if we care to pay enough attention, forming the landscapes we inhabit.

Enter

Observe Visual and Sonic Patterns

Through a small rhythmic landscape, find patterns that catch your fancy.
Find the small stories behind them.

Fly on the wall description

A fly buzzes on my walls, or more so bounces off them.

The fly moved distinctly in 4 turns.

Bzzzz.Bzzz.Bzzz

It would buzz in a straight line for about 2-3 seconds then make a sharp right turn.

It repeated this pattern for a lot longer than anticipated,
seemingly stuck in a loop.

Poor fly, inevitably stuck in the same loop.

A Tapping of the Knee description

The person seated at the table across from me taps their leg against the ground.

Nervously or by habit, I don't know.

Tap...Tap...Tap...

They sit across from another person, enraptured in conversation,
both parties with warm expressions.

The beat of the leg matches the tenacious pace
of their back and forth.

A pattern then that signals an anxious excitement,
it's contagious.

A Puck Rolling description

I'm at a smoothie shop, and the man next to me fidgets with a cylindrical puck used to notify him of a finished order.

He uses his two hands to roll the puck back and forth,
left to right.

Is he nervous, or impatient?

He continues fidgeting. description

His pattern is only broken when his order is
ready and the puck vibrates.

The fidgeting stops.

A Dance with a Cat description

We make a game out of letting the neighborhood cat follow us home. It is set at a very specific pace.

We first pass by a cat next to my home, and we stop to say hi. It likes us, and upon our departure it decides to , from a few meters behind.

We create a rhythm. We walk about 10 paces, and then we wait for it to catch up to us. When it is right behind us, we set out again.

We create a fun little dance, us and that cat.

However, all dances must come to an end, as we cross the street and it watches us flee.

A Bird's Wail description

When I wake up this morning I hear a strange noise at a set interval.

I at first mistake it for a drill, its sound piercing and shrill.

When I look outside the window there sits an enormous bird
on the balcony railing.
It opens its beak, drops its head back toward the sky, and wails.

It rails, a rhythmic call so blunt and forceful,
it demands to be heard.
I answer its demand while I listen.

And then it flies away.

A Leaky Faucet description

The faucet in my kitchen will start dripping at random. It starts and will not stop unless I go turn it off again.

The rhythm is often one beat every 7–8 or so seconds, and it is the bane of my existence.

Drip..Drip..Drip....

I'm often laying in my bed, when it starts in the room next to me, and I try very hard to make peace with its existence.

All I can think is that I have to get up and stop it.

Thus the pattern is broken when I begrudgingly arise and decide it is.

Hammering in the Nail description

On the other side of my wall, in the apartment next door, my neighbor hammers nails into their wall, truly right on the other side of where I'm sleeping.

I must presume they are hanging up a shelf, a painting etc? They hammer 6 times, each time the bangs being about 5–10 times.

I don't know what would possess someone to hammer at 8:30am, maybe they are an early riser. Still I banged on the wall to try to get them to stop.

It did not work.

A Cake Shared description

A couple sitting next to me take turns eating a cake they ordered.

Though the intervals are at different times, the pattern stays the same.

She reaches for one bite, then he does the same. The pattern is repeated and never broken until the cake is finished.

It is quite an intimate pattern, one of equal sharing.

Taking Turns Swinging description

I spy the sway of a swing out of the corner of my eye. The movement is gentle, peaceful, the tide pulling back and rising. Two children take turns on the swing. While one sits, the other ones first gathers and then pushes, at intervals that take a couple of minutes.

The pattern doesn't change much, to the detriment of the children. They try to go higher, but they alas lack the strength, and the swing doesn't go high up. The sway continues, accompanied by chatter and by laughter, until they grow bored and leave one after the other.

A Spoon that Stirs description

A woman a few tables away stirs her spoon in a cup of coffee, a cappuccino I assume.

The cup was small and so was the spoon, and thus the woman had to stir daintily, her hand drifted delicately and hovered.

It made a rhythmic clink when it would hit the side of a cup, it was a sound that when focused on was very lulling. It reminded me of my grandfather stirring his morning coffee.

Swaying with a Street Sign description

On my way home from school, I pass by the square and spot an eclectic pattern.

A man, listening to his friend's story, holds on to the road sign next to him and sways from side to side using it. He uses the pole as an anchor to let himself fall slightly, and then he sways closer and further from his friend.

It's the motion often associated with singing in the rain and many musicals where the character uses a lamppost or whatnot to spin and twirl. It's quite enchanting, subtly playful.

A Reassuring Touch description

I sit across 2 people at a table, and one strokes the shoulder of the other, the movement reassuringand comforting.

It requires no thought, this rhythm, it is intuitive and practiced, as if it had been done many times before, habitual and casual.

The hand strokes on the shoulder and down the upper arm, repeats after a couple of seconds. It is a beat and a touch that lulls, the smallest of embraces.