Are You What You Wear/Buy/Sit On/Sleep In/Talk To?

Our first assignment of semester 2 was to be partnered with another design student we didn't know, swap photos, either from recent/teen years or of your room. We were also to read the book 'Snoop' by Sam Gosling to help us with the assignment. At first I was really looking forward to reading the book, I was interested in what it was going to say but I felt a lot was repeated and got bored with a few bits, although I was really interested in some parts and how much you can tell about someone from their stuff, and how much of the things we have on display are for show and to give people an idea of who we are,  which may be not who we really are.
I was excited to swap photo's with my partner, Lauren from textiles. The whole assignment reminded me of that television programme through the keyhole and I was interested to see what I could find out, and if i'm honest I love a good nosey at other peoples things! I was also curious as to what Lauren would think of me based on the photos of me from the past few years.

I gave Lauren photo's of me within the past 7/8 years and I do think this was quite hard for her to work out what i'm like from this,and although I really wanted to know what a complete stranger thought of me I was a bit apprehensive about sending them personal photos! She didn't really get a lot about my personality, however did mention that my appearance at the time was influenced by posters I had on my wall of pop stars, which I didn't even realise myself but now it makes sense that that's why I had my hair the way I did and the way I dressed. I wish i had sent pictures of my room as i feel this would maybe give my personality away a bit more and the results might have been a bit more in depth.

When looking at Lauren's photos one of the first things i noticed with the pictures is that the bed is unmade. This suggests that she is a little messy. However i then noticed that she has lots of different boxes and units for organising things, and everything seems to have its place. Although everything is quite organised there is a little mess, so its not organised in an anal way. Most of the organisation is with beauty products, i.e, hair products and body products have a box each in their own area with nail varnish and make up organised on the desk. The desk seems to be a working place and a make up table, as there is a laptop and a mirror. This gives me the impression she takes a lot of care in her appearance and probably takes a lot of pride in it too. I noticed a small cut out of a Mac advertisement, i'm not sure if its from an actual product or just from a magazine, but i also noticed that she had a lot of nail varnishes, and noticed some revlon branded ones, so i think she maybe spends a bit on cosmetics and buys branded, high quality products rather than cheaper alternatives, further showing she cares about her appearance.  Also on the desk was a little note to remind herself of some sort of appointment, suggesting she is quite forgetful, or that it was very important and not to be forgotten. Throughout the room there are a lot of very girlie little ornaments and momentos. In one of the photos, the small shelving unit on the desk there is a set of russian nesting dolls, and because this is one of the only close ups i was given i would guess they are quite important to her, maybe were given as a present or just something she really likes. One of the items that sticks out is a small box that looks hand made, im guessing its a jewellery box. It was maybe made by her or made by someone else for her. Either way this shows that she is quite sentimental, preferring this to a typical jewellery box everyone else has too. There is also a jewellery box that has held a charm bracelet. The charm bracelet itself is another insight to the 'girliness' of the room, and to her but the fact that she has kept the box also shows that perhaps it was given to her by someone special and that it's important to her, therefore keeping the box for memories sake. Although i wasn't shown any images of her clothes there was an image of a drawer in which she keeps her shoes, and there were also a lot of shoes on her floor, probably the ones she wears most. The high number of shoes and different types shows she is fashion concious and cares about her appearance. I also noticed a few fashion magazines and books showing her interest goes further than the typical person who follows everyone else when it comes to fashion. There was a fashion book that looked a bit like a 'coffee table book' and i thought maybe it was for show but then i noticed a page was kept with a piece of paper which suggests regular reading and a genuine interest in fashion rather than just being there for show. One of the things i noticed that was nowhere on show in her room were photos. This makes me think that she is maybe quite a private person, as maybe she does have them, they just aren't on show, possibly inside a wardrobe door on in a photo album somewhere. There are very little personal items like these, or obvious ones anyway. Although i'm guessing this is her room in Dundee and not her room at home i can understand that maybe this is the only reason there are a lack of personal things to give clues to her personality. Or it may even just be she likes to keep her family life at home separate to her life here in Dundee.

Overall I thought that Lauren had a typical 'girly' room but there wasn't a lot of insight into her personality, or maybe I just missed a lot of clues. Snooping was a lot more difficult than I first thought but the over all process is really interesting that people can find so much out just by looking at the things you keep. Whether I like it or not I think I will now 'snoop' a lot more when i'm in other peoples rooms!