Fieldwork. Mostly coffee.

My research trips mostly involve drinking coffee, looking in shops and wandering around residential neighbourhoods.

Very taxing.

I’m rarely that interested in ticking off the landmarks or tourist sights. I want to know what it feels like to actually live somewhere.

So I walk.

I look at the local boutiques, coffee shops, galleries and cultural spaces. I watch where people gather, how they use a space, what they’re wearing, what they’re buying, what seems to matter to them.

I’m interested in sociology, culture and the arts, but mostly I’m interested in people.

How we live. What we’re drawn to. What makes us feel something.

It’s why I can spend an unreasonable amount of time sitting in a coffee shop watching what’s going on around me and genuinely consider it work.

Because the things I’m looking for aren’t usually on the tourist map.

They’re in the everyday bits.