A flat lay of the items currently in or on my coat
In the winter my coat is my bag. I find the bulk of a warm winter coat gets in the way of comfortably carrying a bag. There are a few things that currently influence what I carry with me:
- I’m on education leave, so I don’t leave the house very regularly
- I live in a small, small town, which means I’m never far from home
- It’s the deep, cold part of winter
- I have a kid
I play a game with my friends called “mom pockets” and here are the rules: I randomly send a text saying “show me your mom pockets” and they have to send back whatever is currently in their pockets. I would argue that anyone who cares regularly for a young child knows that these pockets are paradoxically specific and random. There are usually rocks, food items, garbage, and other various and sundry. Although I do not have any rocks in my pockets at the moment, I think you can tell from my bag that I’m around a little kid often. There is a toy ring at the top centre and a kid’s mask on the bottom right. The fruit to go might also tip someone off. Most of my items in my pockets I don’t have a daily need for, with the exception of lip balm.
When I think about how these items might be considered “texts,” I think about all the ways in which we can ‘read’ the items for the clues they might give about who I am. Does carrying around two lip balms mean that I have really dry, cracked lips, and like to be prepared, or does it mean that I am absent minded and forgot that I already had one in my pocket. Does the hand warmer package mean that I live somewhere cold or that I get cold easily or that I just carry garbage around with me because I’m forgetful and don’t clean out my pockets?
Here is what I think these things say about me:
I think that what I carry in my pockets seems objectively practical and no frills. I have my mask and my kid’s mask, because as we all know it’s a pandemic out there. Plus these masks might be a dead giveaway to an archeologist of the temporal period I’m living in. I have lip balm, because I have cracked lips (and yes, there are two because I forgot that I had one in my pocket already). There is also some cash, my wallet, a pad, a snack, and the arm band at the top is a light so I’m visible walking around.
If I tell you that I live in the arctic, the items start to make even more sense. The cold, dark, desert climate might explain even better the reason for the lip balm, arm band light, and hand warmers. Also, the beading on the wallet and the key chain reflects the traditional Indigenous artwork of my community. A former student beaded the wallet and a neighbour beaded the key chain. These items might also help an archeologist narrow down the location in which I live.
As for text technologies and literacies, I’m not sure there is much information held in my pockets. Perhaps some indication of financial literacy and maybe visual literacy with respect to the bead work. The text is limited and consists of digitally printed packaging. The key fob has some printed symbols on it as well as the money. The contents of my pockets I don’t think are a good reflection of who I am or who I outwardly project to be. There are some superficial indications of who I am, for instance, the pad might indicate that I’m a woman, or at least someone who menstruates, and the kid related stuff might indicate that I’m a mom or care for a kid, the car keys maybe let you know that I’m at minimum old enough to drive. However, my pockets don’t say anything about my nuanced feelings on parenting, or my experiences of being a woman, or the anxiety I feel when I drive. There is nothing in my pockets to indicate any other relationships in my life or any of the hobbies, likes, or dislikes that I may have.
Can you tell who I am from these pockets? Do you think other people can tell who you are from yours?
Deirdre, without explanation I would gather that you’re a woman and caretaker/mother by your bag’s contents.
Because you have two items with the same kind of beadwork I think it could mean that they were crafted locally or even by you personally. They both share a pattern of a flower, and so does your facemask, so I can infer that you appreciate flowers and nature. I know that to be true based on the comments you shared on my post.
What are your favourite arctic flowering plants? I’ve been enjoying coming across birds that migrate from the arctic down to Ontario for the winter, and I am constantly searching for the snow bunting but haven’t seen one yet.
Is it too easy to say all of them! I do have prickly wild rose, fireweed, and mountain avens tattooed to me. I also love arctic lupine, mostly because it’s one of the first flowers to bloom, shrubby cinquefoil, northern jacob’s ladder, to name a few. Snow bunting are always some of our first birds back in the spring. I remember one time being part of a Christmas bird count in Ontario. I’m not sure why since I’m not particularly good at bird identification. Do you participate in those?
Hi Deirdre! If we use an older definition of what ‘text’ is, then I think your wallet with the beading could be considered a product of a text technology. If ‘text’ comes from ‘to create’, and the beading is an artistic creation, then might the beaded patterns be considered as text? Since the word ‘text’ also historically meant speaking as words were first passed orally, then Chapstick might be a text technology way back then too (if Chapstick existed back then). The Chapstick would enable you to speak more comfortably.
I think only the child’s mask would prompt me to think that you are a mother. Adults can like fruity snacks and ornamental rings too! I would also think that you are an outdoorsy person from seeing the flower patterns on multiple items, the Chapstick, the handwarmers, and the reflective armband.
I like that you used your pockets instead of a bag for this task. Items in our pockets must be the absolute essentials due to the limited space we have in our coats.
Yes, and I totally forgot that the word text comes from the Latin word that textile and texture comes from, which is ‘woven.’ So I do think it’s fair to say the textiles in my photo are text. I can’t believe I left that out of my analysis.
I would like to think I’m an outdoorsy person!
Hi Deirdre,
I made similar assumptions as Mel regarding you being a caretaker. It was also clear to me that you live in the North from the beadwork, light, and handwarmers. I also commented on the fact that the masks would make it easy for an archeologist to situate my bag in this specific time period. I imagine that it will be true for many of the bags shared this semester.
I wonder if it would be easy without the masks? I bet my electronic key fob might also be a clue.
Your image reminded me of old times when we could maintain living with no electronic devices around, with out all of the apps, switches, electronic entertainment, power tools, websites, distractions, etc. It might not truly reflect how you think of life or maintain it, but I got the impression of the living, breathing world, and human feeling physically and mentally healthier just by looking at the posted image. Am I close?
Interestingly enough I’ve felt that I’ve become too mindless with my devices and in the past few months I’ve made a point of leaving my phone at home when I leave the house. So it is purposeful that the phone is not in the picture. Now if I could only figure out a strategy to manage my screen time inside the house…
I agree with Ying – I think the beading could be considered a text of sorts. I’m reminded of the video with Alexander MacDonald talking about how tap dance is a language that tells and preserves stories. What stories are told and preserved through beading? How might understanding the language of traditional Indigenous beadwork affect how someone thinks?
Yes, absolutely, you and Ying are quite right with those insights. It was short sighted of me to not expound on the textiles and beading as text technologies. Certainly beading styles tell stories about culture, place, and time. Certainly, the act of beading, the sharing of stories and cultural transmission, in of itself is a text technology beyond the end product. Although this is a resource for kids, it does give a brief summary of the importance of beading as a text technology, and the ways that the beading contains meaning: https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/do-you-know-what-beading-is.
It is funny to see your post as I feel absolutely represents the Northern experience of your coat being your ‘bag’. I can’t list the number of times I would lose something in the expanse of my parka and its many pockets!
It is interesting that you do not feel like you can be defined by the contents of your pockets as I would contend that you may perhaps be dismissing the importance of the information provided by your items simply based on their normalcy to you.
That’s an interesting take and there is probably truth to that. I was just talking to someone who was thinking of coming up North, and they said they were worried about culture shock. I’m so thoroughly entrenched in life up here that I couldn’t even think of what might be so shocking.