tHE mIND iN pLACE

The spot facilitates contemplation or interaction depending on what type of cultural group you fall into. In both of these groups, the sentimentalists or the dog people, decision making at the spot, which includes where to sit and how long to stay depends on others who are there.

For instance, if the sentimentalists ( the people who come there to see the view and more or less want to be left alone) are deciding where to sit or how long to stay, more people may hinder their ability to choose, so they may not stay that long or find anywhere to sit if there are more people there.

It works in the opposite way for the dog people. From what I have seen, the more dog people are there, the longer they stay. At one point, there were seven people at the top of the hill behind the stones in a huddle like arrangement, with their backs to the view. Someone had a frisbee and all of them were playing frisbee with all the dogs together. They could not have known each other because they left at different times.

The more people there are the more it effect how private the space feels. Since there are two main groups each with conflicting desires, the sentimentalists have a body language that states the obvious, “leave me alone.” There is no eye contact and if a dog comes by to see what is going on,their owner is quick to call the dog back. The atmosphere is much more exciting though, when there are more people there. There are a lot more distractions when many dogs are running around than when there are none. And it is almost impossible for me not to stare at the dogs and see how they interact with people. Each dog seems to interact differently whith strangers, some stare, some come up and sniff, and some just walk by. But peoples reactions are almost always the same. They are always friendly and try to pet the dog, always with a smile.

The spot, however, feels much more private if only a few people are there. Even if there are one or two dog people there, the space is large enough that it is still private because of the distance from each sitting stone.