Friday, October 14, 2011

Affordances - Lets Communicate


"Perceptual psychologist J.J Gibson coined the term affordance to refer to the particular arrangement of objects in the environment and to estimate the actions allowed by an object.... Affordances do not have to be visible. known or even desirable to affect behaviour." (Christiansem & Townsend, 2004, p. 255)
 
In Participation in Occupation ll, we have been looking at seven different area of affordance.
These areas are -Communication
                             -Connections
                             -Ethics
                             -Aesthetics
                             -Links with movement and history
                             -Spirituality
                             -Physical

In this post, I am going to focus on communication as it is a very large area of affordance and in my next post, I will touch on the other six areas.

There are many different types of relationships and because of this, many different ways of communication.  Within the choir, I have different types of communication with people depending on the situation and person. 

The communication from the choirmaster is predominantly one-way, from her to me (and the rest of the choir, the soloist, and the band).  She directs everyone, it is her role to bring all the parts together and make us work as one.  As we are learning a new song, her communication varies between verbal and non-verbal, however during a performance her communication is non-verbal.  She will use a selection of gestures, to communicate how the performance is to be carried out. 

Another type of communication is between other choir members and me. Before and after practice and during breaks I’ll will talk with many different members, catching up on how there weeks have been and what’s going on with them.  During practice, there is limited verbal communication as it would detract from the practice and distract other members.  As Anna-Maree and I both know the alphabet in New Zealand sign language, we will often sign to each as other sections are learning there parts.  This is a slow, but effective way of communicating. 

When we perform, there is one sided communication between the audience and me.  Through the songs I sing with the choir, we tell a story about our faith and our God to those listening.


Cont. on next blog


Christiansen, C. H., & Townsend, E. A. (2004). Introduction to occupation; the art and science of living (2 ed.). New Jersey, United States of America: Pearson Education, Inc.

2 comments:

  1. Hi erin :)

    I really liked what you wrote about singing in a choir, I think the way you linked it to ergonomics was very interesting.

    Perhpas you could use a cool font or bold headers to make it fun to read :)

    -Chloe

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  2. Hi Erin,

    Its amazing to think that just during a chior practice there can be so many types of commnication amoungst different people and even though it is a choir that there can be non verbal communication happening.

    Great blog!

    Toodals,
    Victoria Simeon

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