« Taken, Missed Opportunities | Main | Over Extending, But Workable »
Shoe Gazers, Shoe Gazing
Freshly cleaned shoes sitting outside a barbers shop on the outskirts of Kampala. The photos were taken on a Sunday morning - for many locals an opportunity to dress up and head to one of the many hugely popular church services. White shoes have their moments, but they take on particular significance in a country such as Uganda where the dust and dirt makes keeping white shoes white that much more difficult. Numerous kerb-side stalls offered shoe cleaning services - first scrubbed with a toothbrush then left in the equatorial sun to dry and bleach. Which in a round about way leads me to a topic that has facinated me for a while - when you are walking the street and you see someone where do you look? Where do they look?
Walking streets from Tampere or Tokyo and beyond I've noticed that one of the first things that people look at when they check me out is my shoes. The result is the same whether the target of their gaze is a beat up pair of Pumas or brand new pair of Antas. Shoe gazing is a form of sizing-up behaviour that is prevalent particularly (though not exclusively) amongst male youths and it involves four stages. The initial recognition that occurs at a distance of 10 to 15 meters which is trying to figure out whether the person's shoes are of sufficient interest to warrant further investigation. If the wearer's shoes past muster then this is followed by a short period of looking elsewhere - it is after all rude to stare at someone coming towards you even if its at someones shoes. The third stage occurs in close proximity and involves a sequence of quick glances to check out shoe details. Occasionally there is a fourth stage that occurs once the person has walked by - it involves turning back to check out other aspects of what the person is wearing - by concentrating on the shoes other related clothing details may have been missed, the assumption being that if the shoes were cool then the other gear they are wearing fits the same bracket.
It might be that the shoe gazing effect is extenuated by the fact that I'm 'not local', the implication being that 'someone not from around here' may have access to stores and fashions to which they don't. I've been wondering whether online window shopping extenuates shoe gazing - people have a good awareness of what others are wearing worldwide but this may be the first time to see them locally and in the wild.
So how might all of this evolve in our Future Perfect? What happens when people carry to tools to digitally project who they are or who they want to be? Will someone turn around and look back knowing that their mobile device has automatically recorded all the relevant details? What are all the relevant details? And can they be recorded? What is digital equivilent of shoe gazing? If your interest is piqued then you might like to check out research by my colleagues Younghee Jung, Per Persson and Jan Blom, in particular their work on Scent and Sensor.
And what does all this to do with the elegant group of barefoot ladies above? The photo was taken in a church opposite the barber's shop, above - they're about to energetically head onto the church stage for a dance routine. It reminds me that when it comes to understanding shoe gazing, or pretty much any other behaviour, context is everything.
Writing from Tokyo | August 11, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
Reminds me that in the squatter area of Istanbul where I lived, the shoeshine guys would perch outside of tea shops. When you went in for tea, you could leave your shoes with the shine men and they would give you a pair of slippers. When you emerged from your refreshment, your shoes would be ready. My always scuffed up shoes were subjects of continual derision.
Posted by: rob neuwirth at August 11, 2006 10:51 AM
Put to shame by the locals.
Related service in Kampala here: http://www.janchipchase.com/blog/archives/2006/06/use_whilst_you.html
Posted by: Jan at August 11, 2006 11:18 AM
hey there, i came across you from the purse lips square jaw blog. you may or may not find this interesting: i ride skateboards, and have had a number of conversations with skateboarders about shoegazing. it was a pretty normal occurrance ten years ago for skaters to check people's shoes out (i subconciously did this myself- every so often i would catch myself doing it in bemusement- and of course experienced it done to me) and i'm sure it still goes on, albeit in a different context. the point is that at one time most skate shoe brands were only available to in skate shops and were only generally worn by skateboarders (i'm in the uk, in the mid 90s etnies and vans were still considered really underground brands). so skateboarders would perform this little ritual asd many others do, but then interstingly, would be confident enough to outwardly acknowledge the person they saw at the other side of the street (without knowing them), based on them having skate shoes on, and especially if they showed ollie/griptape scuffs and holes- a sign of some hard skating. i guess with the mainstreaming of skateboard brands the current generation of skaters may not do this, as wearing vans or etnies no longer identifies you as a skater. on a related point, my girlfriend had a 'best' pair of skate shoes (pretty common for skaters to have messed up shoes for skating and a cleaner pair in their rucksack for evening activities). she thought it important to skate for a day with these shoes on then keep them for good. they scuffed a little in key places (gernerally around the outside of the foot just above the sole- the 'ollie patch') to mark her out as a skateboarder and not a poseur. please no comments upon my having a shallow girlfriend. anyways, drop me a line if you think this is interesting! myself and a friend are working on a magazine about aspects of skating that are often overlooked. this one may be a good one to feature.
best regards,
adam.
Posted by: adam at August 17, 2006 6:45 PM