The exercise asks that 12 to 24 brief observations are made during a short walk or journey in a similar manner to Richard Long’s ‘Textworks’. Once the observations have been gathered they are to be presented in the learning log. The student is to examine the manner in which the text is presented as a means of expression. The student is referred to Ed Ruscha, Barbara Kruger, and Mark Titchner

In this journey to and from the dentist, I made the observations onto a notepad; these notes were then typed up at the end of the journey; they are presented as follows

1.

Cars
Bridge

Bridge
Cars

2.

Road flows to
Field flows to
Shore flows to
Sea flows to 
Land flows to
Mountains flows to
Sky

 

3.

Cyclists bright yellow jacket
Against brown and grey buildings

4.

Statues and seagulls gaze down impassively as I walk slowly by.

 

5.

Volcanic Stone Crags
Tower over the city

6.

New buildings
Old Buildings
Stopped clock right twice a day

7.

Three colours of grey for the pavement hopscotch all the way to the hospital
Happy tourists, unimpressed locals

 

8

Sun has gone, rain has come. Faces looking down at phones
Wet pavement reflects shiny shoes.

 

9.

Amongst the forest of high rise buildings, trees stretch for the morning light

 

10.

Dark street. Dead end
Bright light. Dentist.

 

11.

Edinburgh street
Multitude of Windows
An ambulance rushes by
A million points of reflected light

 

12.

Georgian church on the corner
Graveyard becomes a festival market
4 beggars outside
Church sign says try praying

 

13.

Overlooked by the castle
3 red buses
3 blue bus
Tram swishes by
1 white bus
Green bus mine

 

14.

Pass ancient graveyard
People buried halfway up a wall

 

15.

Princes street distance
Hotel, column, the disgrace
Ignored for the Ferris wheel

 

16.

Kaleidoscope of colours
Parked tour buses
Behind grows a park
Filled with bushes and the displaced.

 

17.

Meadowbank
The building declared Art in 15 feet high white letters
Inside insurance and taxes are adjusted
Willowbrae, Flats contents out on the street, the mattress stains a blotch amongst the colours
Home of the part worn tyre sale.

 

18.

We pass the edges of the city
Poor pushed out to here
New construction mixes with old graffiti
Who will last longest?

 

19.

The Jewel
Identikit houses, abandoned Asda shopping trolley on 2nd roundabout
The bus takes both lanes on the 3rd roundabout

 

20.

Wallyford
New houses go up
Gardens are landscaped
The communal pond fills up with rain and groundwater
But the iron framework of the dog racing track continues to rust, never finished

 

21.

Tranent
Stuck in a traffic jam, or part of the traffic jam?
Looking out of the bus window, I see
Frustrated drives gripping steering wheels or wiping mouths
A happy dog walks by.

 

22.

Mamerry
Drive slowly it says
School ahead it says
Slow down they say
Man in a van tailgates the bus.
Their hurry over everyone else.
Fields
Industrial park
Fie(sheep)ldes
Hedgerow and bus stops fly past
Express bus now.

 

23.

Haddington
New house’s float on a bed of brick and concrete, a dream is born it advertises.
Market town, market street, bus stop
Fatigue burns my body, nerve pain drives thousands of fishhooks into my legs pulling flesh. My feet burn, hot coals, shoulders push against crutches; step, breathe, rest, repeat

 

all the way home.