Observation of Cultural Venues and Audiences

Practical activity for Lecture 2.

Spend 20-30 minutes observing the venue and the audiences who go to the Cinema City
and the Opera House/Philharmonic (Capitol). Other possible sites: the Iulius Mall shops
and the shops on Brancoveanu Street, or any other locations targeted at different social
strata.

Observe the following:

1) what people wear

2) how they interact
3) what the venue looks like (layout, posters, food/tea or coffee served, prices)
4) what kinds of performances/films/other cultural practices are on

Put down the date, time of the day, time spent observing, and write a short report of your
notes, comparing the two venues (scientific genre, neutral style). You may work in pairs
or small groups.

Do NOT take pictures or stare. Do not take notes if you cannot do that discretely, but
write up everything you remember as soon as you get back home. Try to blend in (if you
go to a concert/film yourselves, then you could use this opportunity to do participant
observation). If someone asks what you are doing, explain politely that you are an MA
student at the West University of Timisoara and you are doing social observation for your
Popular Culture class. It would be good if you had your student IDs with you, just in
case.

Deci, eu am ales să fac observații în 2 locuri, lângă supermarketul Auschan de la Iulius

Mall și Profi de lângă Căminul C17 . Experimentul a avut loc în data de 21 martie 2019.
Deci, am stat aproximativ 30 min lângă supermarketul de la Iulius Mall și pot spune că
mare majoritate a persoanelor prezente în acest timp erau îmbrăcate foarte decent. Am
numărat doar câțiva bărbați care presupun că lucrau pe șantier și au venit după ceva
mâncare la supermarket. Un lucru interesant am observat era cantitatea produselor
cumpărate de oameni. De regulă, soțul împreună cu soția cumpărau produse într-o
cantitate mai mare în comparație cu studenții sau persoanele mai în vârstă. O bună parte
din oamenii prezenți acolo, erau concentrați în ecranul smartfoanelor și mai puțin la ce se
întâmplă în jur, deci asta e ceva normal în zilele noastre.
Ca comparație, persoanele care treceau pe lângă Profi sau care au făcut deja cumpărături
acolo erau în mare parte studenți. Și după cum deja cunoaștem, studenții nu au bani, deci
cumpărăturile erau într-o cantitate mai redusă. Vestimentația era decentă, însă erau cazuri
când am observant unele persoane venind în pijama la supermarket. Produsul cel mai des
cumpărat acolo era pâinea, urmat de țîgări și mezeuri.

So I chose to make observations in 2 places near the Auschan at Iulius Mall and Profi
near the Dorm C17 . The experiment took place on March 21, 2019.
So I stayed about 30 minutes near the supermarket at Iulius Mall and I can say that the
great majority of people present at this time were dressed very decent. I counted only 10
construct workers, they came to take the lunch. I noticed an interesting thing related to
the amount of products bought by people. As a rule, families are buying more products in
comparison with students or elderly people. A big number of people there were stuck in
their smartphones and paid less attention on what's going on around.

By comparison, people passing by Profi or who have already bought products there were
mostly students. And as we already know, students have no money, so the products were
in a smaller amount. Clothing was decent, but there were times when I saw some people
coming in pajamas at the supermarket. The most commonly bought product was bread,
followed by cigarettes and sausage.