Parallel  Universes:  

Making  Do  and  Getting  By  +  Thoughtless  Acts  

(Mapping  the  quotidian  from  two  perspectives)  

By  Kevin  Henry  

 

Preface  

This  article  is  all  about  reading  images—the  many  ways  in  which  we  capture  our  world  through  photographs  and  reflect  on  

them.  In  particular,  it  looks  at  the  work  of  industrial  design  researcher  Jane  Fulton  Suri  of  IDEO  (author  of  Thoughtless  Acts)  

and  sculptor  Richard  Wentworth,  (professor  at  The  Ruskin  School  of  Drawing  &  Fine  Art,  Oxford  University  in  England,  and  

creator  of  his  photo  series,  Making  Do  and  Getting  By),  both  of  whom  use  photography  to  take  notice  of  seemingly  similar  

worlds.  What  was  of  particular  interest  to  me  was  the  motivation  behind  the  photographs,  and  the  ways  an  artist's  perspective  

might  differ  from  a  designer's.  

 

While  I  am  not  a  photographer,  I  am  a  maker/consumer  of  photographs—as  are  my  two  subjects.  And  as  a  designer  and  

educator,  I  leverage  photography  to  frame  design  problems.  This,  combined  with  my  own  reading  of  standard  photographic  

theory,  has  complicated  my  relationship  with  photography  as  mere  tool.  Historian  Mary  Warner  Marien  described  

photography's  invention  as  firstly  technological  and  secondly  as  social  reinvention—two  forces  not  easily  separated.  The  

technical  aspects  (loading,  developing  film,  choosing  f-­‐stops,  bracketing,  etc.),  which  have  been  disappearing  in  consumer-­‐

grade  cameras,  have  all  but  vanished  for  the  digital  photographer,  while  the  personal  computer  has  largely  replaced  the  

darkroom.  Photography  is  no  longer  a  dark  art;  it's  come  into  the  light  and  found  its  place  in  the  bitstream  of  modern  

communication  as  a  dematerialized  pushing  of  buttons  on  cell  phones,  MP3  players,  and  PDA's—remaking  photography  into  a  

seamless  lifestyle  accessory  allowing  millions  of  consumers  the  immediate  gratification  of  documenting  their  lives.  Social  

networking  sites  like  Flickr  and  Myspace  have  become  repositories  for  all  these  quotidian  images.    

 

Documenting  the  quotidian  wasn't,  however,  ushered  in  by  digital  technology.  It's  been  used  by  social  scientists,  designers,  

and  artists  to  document  minutia  since  the  medium  began.  Photography  instantaneously  captures  a  slice  of  life  for  later  

examination  which,  as  Susan  Sontag  wrote,  "thickens  the  environment  we  recognize  as  modern."  The  thickened  environment  

of  Richard  Wentworth  (in  his  photo  series  Making  Do  and  Getting  By)  and  Jane  Fulton  Suri  and  her  colleagues  at  the  industrial  

design  firm  IDEO  (Thoughtless  Acts)  might  be  considered  thin  by  comparison.  Their  images  capture  the  minutiae  we  pay  little  

attention  to—images  which  nonetheless  rely  on  the  social  context  from  which  they  are  culled  and  through  which  they  are  

analyzed  for  their  real  meanings.  They  use  images  to  better  understand  their  environments:  parallel  worlds  of  engagement  

with  the  provisional  acts  of  invention  and  intervention.    

 

During  our  interviews,  the  conversations  ranged  broadly  and  openly,  giving  us  a  chance  to  discuss  photography  in  addition  to  

the  deeper  issues  of  history,  iconicity,  human  cognition,  folk  memory  and  the  malleability  of  chewing  gum.  Below  are  some  of  

the  highlights.  

 

Resonance  

The  first  question:  why  are  two  very  different  people  documenting  similar  sets  of  activities?  After  27,000  words  of  transcribed  

conversation  with  the  two  of  them,  I  do  not  have  a  definitive  answer.  Common  interests  did,  however,  emerge:  photography's  

power  to  provide  evidence;  the  natural  inclination  to  group  images  to  form  bigger  patterns;  photography's  ability  to  train  

one's  vision;  and  a  general  common  interest  in  the  subtle  cues  of  daily  human  interaction.  Fulton  Suri  and  Wentworth  read  the  

semantic  space  the  photograph  freezes  around  particular  moments—different  than  Cartier  Bresson's  'decisive  moment'  which  

relied  heavily  on  composition  for  its  gravity.  Neither  of  them  formally  compose  their  images—compositional  considerations  

merely  provide  context  as  opposed  to  reinforcing  traditional  notions  of  good  photography.  These  images  are  small  portable  

pieces  of  the  world  viewable  any  time  after  the  event.  

   

Tiny  Taxonomies  

The  images  in  Thoughtless  Acts  organize  evidence  of  our  subconscious  engagement  with  the  world  and  the  objects  and  spaces  

that  define  it.  The  photos  define  a  small  universe  of  action,  a  taxonomy:  reacting,  adapting,  co-­‐opting,  etc.  Ways  we  engage  

thoughtlessly.  Fulton  Suri  has  used  these  categories  as  an  organizing  principle—see  the  website  for  more  information  at  

http://www.thoughtlessacts.com.  She  believes  such  details  reveal  larger  patterns  and  bigger  insights.  Richard  Wentworth  has  

also  developed  a  taxonomy.  The  syntax  of  his  photographs  shape  his  worldview  articulated  materially  through  sculpture.  He  

describes  linguistic  traces  which  connect  the  images:  "It  doesn't  take  very  long  to  realize  that  some  are  warnings,  some  

repairs,  some  reminders,  some  adjustments.  And  some  of  them  are  kinds  of  subsections:  you  would  use  a  word  like  jamming  

and  others  are  wedging.  There's  a  hell  of  a  lot  of  resistance  to  gravity,  and  I  think  my  work  has  a  lot  to  do  with  gravity..."    

 

Warnings,  repairs,  reminders,  adjustments—activities  performed  with  greater  awareness  (less  thoughtlessness).  Duct  taping  a  

winter  coat  to  a  damaged  car  fender  requires  forethought,  regardless  of  its  effectiveness  (above)  .  His  images  depict  desperate  

acts  of  repair,  while  Fulton  Suri's  images  focus  on  humans  intuitively  extending  their  bodies  or  the  objects  around  them  to  

service  their  needs  (above).  Their  taxonomies  nonetheless  intersect:  adapting  and  adjusting  are  not  so  far  apart,  while  

warning  and  reacting  are  clearly  related.  

   

Knowledge  in  the  world  

Don  Norman's  book  The  Design  of  Everyday  Things  applies  J.J.  Gibson's  theories  of  ecological  perceptions  directly  to  design,  

paying  particular  attention  to  the  idea  of  affordances  and  constraints.  Norman  extends  Gibson's  idea  to  what  he  terms  

perceived  affordances—the  ones  humans  notice  whether  or  not  they  happen  to  be  true.  The  chapter  "Knowledge  in  the  Head  

and  in  the  World"  codifies  this  into  four  headings:  

1.                    Information  exists  already  in  the  world  

2.                    Great  precision  is  not  required  

3.                    Natural  constraints  are  present  

4.                    Cultural  constraints  are  present    

Many  of  Fulton  Suri's  and  Wentworth's  photographs  fall  under  these  categories.  Their  images  provide  proof  of  information  

existing  in  the  world  as  well  as  human  reliance  on  that  information—however  constrained.  The  image  below  from  Thoughtless  

Acts  shows  a  woman  clenching  a  paper  bag  in  her  mouth  searching  for  change.  In  image  underneath,  pet  owners  have  leashed  

their  dogs  to  a  sign  next  to  a  corner  shop.  Both  images  reveal  the  'natural'  ways  humans  read  their  environments:  the  mouth  

as  third  hand;  the  pole  as  extension.    

 

Wentworth's  images  reinforce  more  ambiguous  readings.  The  photograph  below  shows  a  dog  left  to  guard  a  bag.  We  ask:  

what's  in  the  bag  and  how  protective  is  this  small  dog?  Is  the  bag  just  heavy  enough  to  keep  the  dog  tethered  or  is  the  pooch  

indeed  guarding  it?  The  mystery  remains;  something  Richard  Wentworth  relishes.  In  the  image  underneath,  someone  in  

Stockholm  uses  a  bottle  cap  as  an  ashtray,  sparing  the  green  tablecloth.  Is  this  action  inspired  by  the  presence  of  the  bottle  cap,  

the  manners  of  the  smoker,  or  a  completely  unthinking  gesture?  Wentworth,  in  an  e-­‐mail,  pointed  out  the  sexual  connotations  

of  the  red  hot  cigarette  tip  plunged  into  the  open  bottle  cap,  complicating  things  further.  Wentworth  is  drawn  to  the  poetry  as  

much  as  the  prosaic  reality  of  his  images.  

 

Incidence  Versus  Coincidence  

Acquisition  is  a  critical  difference  in  their  two  approaches.  Wentworth's  interest  lies  in  marking  serendipitous  situations,  

while  IDEO's  motivations  are  more  goal-­‐oriented—seeking  out  situations  and  relying  on  incidence  to  prove  a  point.  

Wentworth,  like  many  photographers,  thrives  on  coincidence—images  come  to  him,  he  explained;  he  does  not  hunt  for  them.  

Events  captured  inside  the  camera  are  proof  of  the  world  outside  the  camera—photos  merely  record  several  things  coinciding  

in  time.  In  the  image  below,  Wentworth  happens  by  a  particular  spot  where  someone  has  lodged  a  partially  eaten  sandwich  

between  a  tree  and  its  support.  What  is  important  here  is  evidence  of  the  act  rather  than  the  composed  image.  The  real  

coincidence  is  Wentworth's  eye  finding  meaning  in  intentionality  (correctly  sized  opening  for  a  sandwich  at  a  height  above  the  

reach  of  a  cat  or  a  dog  but  perfectly  placed  for  a  bird  or  squirrel,  etc.).  Where  others  may  have  simply  seen  a  sandwich—if  

anything  at  all—Wentworth  notices  the  details  which  fit  his  world  view  (jamming  or  wedging).  He  photographs  it  and  adds  it  

to  his  inventory.  

 

Thoughtless  Acts  like  Making  Do  and  Getting  By  alerts  us  to  the  multi-­‐layered  sign  systems  filling  our  environments;  urban  

semiotics  most  of  us  abide  by  thoughtlessly.  Wentworth's  best  images  depict  evidence  of  humans  slipping  out  of  and  defying  

its  logic—contributing  neologisms  in  the  form  of  defiant  acts  which  thicken  the  semiosis.  Fulton  Suri  and  IDEO's  images  on  the  

other  hand  (below)  take  notice  of  actors  interacting  in  that  landscape,  or  record  evidence  of  interactions  while  still  noticing  

details  which  could  be  coincidental.  The  image  below,  showing  letters  lodged  between  the  doorknob  and  the  lock,  could  just  as  

easily  be  a  Wentworth  image  (think  wedging).  

 

Coincidence  is  a  way  of  making  sense  out  of  our  nonsensical  world,  according  to  writer  W.G.  Sebald,  a  committed  

photographer  who  wove  images  into  his  prose  like  words  on  a  page.  In  a  New  Yorker  magazine  interview,  Sebald  recounted  

his  conversion  to  carrying  a  camera  at  all  times.  After  spotting  twins  on  a  bus  in  Italy  bearing  an  uncanny  resemblance  to  

Franz  Kafka—whose  trail  he  was  retracing—he  was  unable  to  visually  prove  it.  This  event  was  returned  to  fiction  in  the  novel  

Vertigo:  "I  remained  motionless  on  that  bus  seat  from  then  on,  embarrassed  to  the  utmost  degree  and  consumed  with  an  

infinite  rage  at  the  fact  that  I  would  now  have  no  evidence  whatsoever  to  document  this  most  improbable  coincidence."  Images  

validate  coincidences  just  as  verbal  descriptions  expand  on  their  meanings.  

 

Expansive  Stories  

So  Richard  Wentworth  might  not  be  a  hunter,  but  like  Jane  Fulton  Suri  and  IDEO,  he  is  a  gatherer.  Situations  may  find  him,  but  

he  still  must  choose  which  to  photograph  and,  by  photographing  them  repeatedly,  patterns  begin  to  emerge.  Fulton  Suri  and  

her  colleagues  seek  out—even  set  up—situations  relevant  to  their  research,  and  use  the  images  to  tell  stories.  The  gathering  of  

insights  occurs  in  that  space  between  the  taking  of  the  photographs  and  the  generation  of  stories.  According  to  Fulton  Suri,  it  is  

a  social  process  that  often  involves  noticing  things  you  knew,  but  didn't  know  you  knew.  She  describes  a  slow  and  deliberate  

process  which  begins  with  a  2  x  2  matrix—the  lower  left  corner  labeled  "concrete  now"  and  its  opposite  corner  labeled  

"concrete  future."  In  the  upper  left  corner  is  "abstract  now"  and  opposite  is  "abstract  future."  The  storyteller  is  instructed  to  

stay  in  the  concrete  as  long  as  possible,  not  to  talk  about  who,  what,  where,  why,  or  when,  not  to  ask  what  it  'means,'  but  to  

remain  concrete  as  long  as  possible.  Slowly  they  move  diagonally  towards  the  future,  pulling  out  patterns,  themes  and  insights  

working  towards  frameworks—strategic  or  conceptual  (a  framework  for  thinking  about  activities)—continually  moving  

between  abstract  and  concrete  to  tease  out  design  principles  and  opportunities.    

By  contrast,  much  of  what  Wentworth  brings  to  the  table  is  created  live,  in  front  of  an  audience.  He  describes  what  are  now  

legendary  slide  shows,  accompanied  by  an  extemporaneous  monologue  and  inspired  by  randomly-­‐chosen  images  with  little  or  

no  preparation:  "I  am  doing  it  in  space  and  time  with  a  live  audience  and  I  can  make  them  laugh  and  I  know  how  to  control  

them.  It's  terrifying  actually  what  I  have  learned  to  do.  I  don't  put  it  together  until  about  twenty  minutes  before  I  have  to  do  it  

and  I  frighten  the  shit  out  of  myself  doing  it.  I  can  extract  a  very  elaborate  set  of  multifarious,  multilayered,  multivalent  set  of  

things  where  people  say  they're  a  bit  damaged  (or  disturbed)  after  it.  It's  the  only  way  I  can  sort  of  empty  out  my  scummy  little  

mind  in  front  of  an  audience,  and  I  quite  like  the  sort  of  overt  sexuality  of  that:  'Oh  my  god  this  is  five  hundred  people!'"    

While  this  performative  aspect  is  in  stark  contrast  to  the  social  ritual  Fulton  Suri  and  her  colleagues  at  IDEO  go  through  to  

unwrap  the  potentiality  of  an  image  and  rebuild  it  through  focused  story  telling,  projective  narratives  are  central  to  both  

practitioners  for  their  power  and  insights.  There  exists  a  push/pull  between  the  images  and  the  stories:  the  photos  spark  

conversation,  in  turn  provoking  more  image  taking—an  ever-­‐expanding  feedback  loop.  Even  Wentworth's  language  mimics  

the  adjustment  of  a  focusing  lens  as  he  zooms  from  micro  to  macro  before  returning  again  to  the  small  gesture:  

Wenthworth:  "I  grew  up  in  a  world  that  was  held  together  with  string  and  brown  paper  and  ceiling  wax  and  that's  how  it  was.  

I  slowly  realized  that  this  is  the  underlying  condition  of  the  world  and  there's  nothing  I  like  more  than  a  sort  of,  you  know,  

NASA  disaster  where  they  say  if  it  hadn't  been  for  the  chewing  gum...It's  not  because  I  want  to  fetishize  chewing  gum  or  the  

aesthetics  of  chewing  gum  pressed  over  some  break  in  a  membrane;  it's  because  we  have  the  intelligence  to  go:  'hey  there's  a  

malleable,  mastic  material  and  we  can  use  that'  and  a  large  part  of  our  lives  is  spent  using  that  very  edgy  bit  of  our  

intelligence..."    

 

Was  this  thought  inspired  by  the  top  image  (above)  or  did  Wentworth  photograph  it  as  proof  for  his  inventory  related  to  

jamming?  Hard  to  say.  Jamming  a  candy  bar  to  stop  a  factory  bell  is  an  intentional  act  of  defiance  (and  a  wonderful  variation  of  

the  etymological  origin  of  the  word  sabotage),  but  it  involves  a  good  deal  of  ingenuity:  the  softness  and  the  sugar  content  

should  ensure  its  effectiveness.  Someone  is  clearly  thinking  here,  which  is  why  Richard  Wentworth  bothers  to  photograph  it.  

Noting  the  ingenuity  of  others  as  a  reminder  to  himself?  It's  hard  to  know  which  follows  which.  

   

The  Grin  of  Recognition  

I  find  myself  on  the  street  these  days,  photographing  thoughtless  acts  and  "Wentworthian"  moments  because  they  have  

mapped  their  territory  so  well  that  it's  hard  not  to  see  the  world  through  their  lens.  Jane  Fulton  Suri  explained  the  book's  

mission  as  "trying  to  create  a  sensitivity  and  awareness  to  the  things  around  us  all  the  time—noticing  it,  honoring  it  again  

maybe,  and  thinking  that  it's  interesting—how  the  idea  of  taking  a  picture  is  a  way  of  raising  the  value  of  something."  In  the  

age  of  Youtube,  the  still  camera  holds  a  place  near  to  our  communal  psyche  because  photography,  unlike  video  requires  direct  

input  from  the  viewers—social  interaction.  It's  hard  to  look  at  photographs  without  wondering  what  rests  outside  of  the  

frame.  The  power  of  the  photograph  as  social  glue  is  apparent  in  sites  like  Flickr,  Del.icio.us  and  Photobucket.  Folksonomy,  a  

term  which  merges  folk  with  taxonomy,  is  one  of  the  new  tools  driving  these  communities,  where  tagging  software  is  creating  

a  truly  semantic  web.  

   

Conclusion  

Artists  and  designers  construct  distinct  worldviews  in  order  to  make  decisions.  And  while  the  functional  constraints  

differentiate  the  mass-­‐produced  product  from  the  one-­‐off  sculpture,  the  individual  vision  can  be  very  much  in  alignment.  Jane  

Fulton  Suri's  and  Wentworth's  views  bracket  the  quotidian  in  interesting  and  curious  ways,  helping  to  explain  a  world  that  is  

complex,  because,  as  Richard  Wentworth  points  out:  "it  contains  unthought-­‐of  variables  of  which  the  chief  component  are  

humans  who,  you  know,  wear  things  out  in  surprising  ways,  or  abuse  things,  or  simply  don't  conform  to  the  rules  that  are  laid  

down."    

 

Jane  Fulton  Suri  moves  about  that  uncertainty  careful  not  to  find  a  simple  name  or  a  simple  answer:  "I  worry  about  a  kind  of  

one-­‐to-­‐one  decision  about  images,  because  part  of  where  I  want  to  go  with  it  is  to  have  a  much  more  nuanced  conversation...  I  

do  think  that  through  the  social  negotiation,  a  team  of  people  suddenly  realizes  that  they  have  had  a  very  elucidating  

conversation  around  an  image—not  because  of  the  image  so  much,  but  because  it  made  us  think."    

 

Thinking  is  what  every  creative  person  is  driven  to  do:  discerning  patterns  so  as  to  generalize—whether  reading  one's  

immediate  world  for  the  feedback  required  to  build  a  personal  vision,  or  reading  into  situations  to  anticipate  unmet  or  

undefined  needs.  Photography  captures  the  world  at  a  speed  roughly  equivalent  to  our  own  thinking,  turning  photographs  into  

small  thoughts  or  critical  memories.  The  kinds  of  thoughts  and  feelings  embodied  in  these  photographs  accompany  us  

everywhere  we  go,  making  sense  of  our  daily  living  in  general  ways.  As  Borges  wrote:  "To  think  is  to  forget  a  difference,  to  

generalize,  to  abstract."  Kevin  Henry  is  an  industrial  designer,  writer  and  curator.  He  coordinates  the  product  design  program  

at  Columbia  College  Chicago,  and  is  the  recipient  of  both  an  IDEA  and  a  Good  Design  award.  He  is  and  currently  working  on  a  

book  project  with  the  British  Publisher  Laurence  King  on  drawing  and  design  visualization.  He  can  be  reached  at  khenry-­‐at-­‐

colum.edu.