WELCOME TO MY NEW BLOG

Hi this is my second blog, for my Occupational Therapy studies. This blog is for Participation in Occupation 2 it is a bit different to the last as I will be talking with you about Scrapbooking which is an Occupation that I love participating in when I get a chance. For this blog we were told to think of something we could spend 2 hours a week doing, and then journal our experiences of it. Consequently I thought of scrapbooking as it is something I love participating in, and would do anything to have some time for it, during my busy life. In this first week I will also go into a little more depth and talk about what it means to me, as an occupation and how I might be able to use it in the future with my Occupational Therapy work. As part of these blogs I will also talk about ambience, affordance, ergonomics and practical uses in Occupational Therapy.

Thursday 6 October 2011

Affordance continued

This week we will continue looking at affordance. The aspects we will cover are aesthetics, spirituality, and health.
Aesthetics:
Duncan (2009) defines aesthetics as being "a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature, creation, and appreciation of beauty, art, and taste." This obviously applies to scrapbooking. Because I am a person who enjoys doing crafts, and likes using bright colours to enhance what I am working on, scrapbooking is a great hobby as it allows me to use bright materials of different textures and forms to reinforce the depth of importance the in different photographed events. It also means I can make the pages visually and creatively unique to myself. This also emphasizes my preference for bright and clear colours.
Through making and storing my photos in a scrapbook it demonstrates that I like to present my photos safely and in a well organised way, so they are easily displayed in an attractive manner that will be more meaningful and rewarding, for myself and anyone else looking at them.
Spirituality:
I believe there are many aspects of spirituality involved in doing scrapbooking. Spirituality is defined by Crepeau(1991) as “The fundamental orientation of a person’s life; that which inspires and motivates that individual.”Collecting and storing photos is something that has been done for centuries in my family, and I believe that through doing my scrapbooks I am carrying on a cyclical occupation that gives me an ancestral connection, of what has been done in the past and hopefully will be carried on through future generations. It is also a way for me to preserve my memories of the different seasons of my life, the celebrations, and trials that I have been through. They are such a reminder that I can do anything I put my mind to, if I want it enough. 
I wouldn't have believed it, if I didn't have the proof but I went on this. whoopie.

These are photos of me doing my first abseiling, and even getting stuck upside down on the abseiling wall. It was terrifying.
The photos show where I have come from, and will show, where I am going in future years. The photo displays give a sense, of my creative personality, and what is important to me. When I do scrapbooking, it is so relaxing and enjoyable; I get a real sense of well-being, and mindfulness through doing it. The process draws on basic instinctive abilities, which have been handed down from generations before. To do scrapbooking I need to slow down and not try to rush it, so I can do a graphically appealing job, not a rushed boring mess of my pages. Consequently, it requires patience and endurance to stick with it, but the final product is so rewarding to the soul.
Health:
The third aspect is Health, which is defined by Crepeau, Cohn, & Schell (2009) "As a state of complete physical, mental, & social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." For me life is very busy, I am doing my second year of Occupational Therapy training part-time because of the need for me, to do it at a more relaxed pace, because of previous internal head- injuries. But I also have three part-time support worker jobs as well, so for me scrapbooking is an effective means of relaxing and de-stressing as I find it very therapeutic doing craft work, and it is also very encouraging seeing the finished pages in my album. It is not physically taxing, and although it can require some cognitive input, it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.


Ambience:
Reed, K.L. & Sanderson, S.N.(1999) States “Ambience applies to the atmosphere of the surroundings, their mood, or tone, and can compromise the atmosphere or background against which something is seen” (p.160).
For me I think the meaning of ambience is describing the mood when I am doing my scrapbooking, and it changes every time.
On my last session of scrapbooking it was mid semester break, and I had lots to do, so felt rushed at the start, but soon relaxed because scrapbooking has a calming effect on me. The sun was shining in bright, and warming my back. I had some nice music on that I was able to sing along too. All my photo’s were on one side of me, in my file box sitting on the chair and on the other side I had my box of different coloured papers. Lying on the table in front of me was all my equipment ready to be used, it was the perfect setup for a great afternoons scrapbooking

1 comment:

  1. Hey Kerryn, I like the depth in this post. It's clear that scrapbooking is a very important part of your life. There are similar things I find with my knitting, the relationship with the past and sense of achievement. Your scrapbooks will be a great way of preserving family history.

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