Ups and Downs (Elevator or stairs?)

George, Drew, and I did our ethnography on the West Campus Garage, and how many people used the elevators or the stairs, and how. What we did is sat outside of the garage on the northeast side and watched the stairs and elevators, and recorded information about how many floors people went, how many floors they went, and what direction they were going.

As you can imagine, most people were going from or to the first floor. It was always interesting to see people who took the elevator for one floor, and laugh and consider myself morally superior though I have done that same thing countless times myself.

One interesting result is that most people are willing to walk a few stories, but once you get to three stories, there is a large spike. Apparently once it's three stories difference, it is now ok to use the elevators, with no loss in pride at the people watching you.

A few people noticed us observing them, and a few waved, which I though was fun.

Anyway, we observed them at three different times, with the most going on during the noon session. During that time we had some difficulty keeping up with everyone but we managed to. I missed the first time because I was somewhat ill at the the time, so I can't speak about that one. For the evening one though the atmosphere was much more relaxed, and thoughts turned more to elevator pranks in the interludes between data recordings.

Overall, I would have like to record for longer periods of time, from all the sides of the buildings, and recording more information, like major and class year. Much of the data we were able to obtain is unsuprising, but someone has to collect the data and analyze it so we can say we've "looked into the matter", or we have "top men" working on it, when we are asked by a jaded Dr. Henry Jones, who will promptly exit mumbling something about bureaucrats.

Anyway, movie references aside, it would have been interesting to interact with people in the elevators, even if it is socially awkward to strike up a conversation in a crowded place with no chance of physical escape, if only for a little bit. The study of human interactions on elevators is an interesting one, especially because the enviroment can rapidly change from one part to another. You can think of it like a long "cut" in a movie. We enter a magic box, what for the scene to change, and then walk out into the new one. Some of this could be alleviated by glass elevators, but we observed few people looking out the windows, most looking at the floor, the ceiling, the other walls, or the door.

Ah well, it was fun.