We Visited Margery Today

Just got back from a productive day in Edinburgh filming Margery and her home. She is a great conversationalist, and after settling into casual conversation, she was in her element. The conversations were interesting to me in particular, as I don't know anything about her, unlike her grandson, Pablo. She was in her element describing her schooling, her life experiences and her friends. She is a rather grand lady, and lives in an opulent flat in Edinburgh. We filmed a lengthy interview, a total of an hour’s chat, then proceeded to move around the various rooms in her flat, as Margery explained the stories behind all the interesting artefacts that decorate her home. Through these conversations we began to understand the reasons for her writing letters as opposed to using ‘modern’ technology. (I say ‘modern’, but what Margery considers modern is anything from a telephone to a television, computers have barely crossed her mind!)

Something I thought particularly beneficial for our project on a whole was her interaction with our prototype. Although rough, she understood our thinking, and she does indeed like a sloped writing surface, even though she is not in the habit of using one. Something else which I found interesting that she even mentioned was that when she was at school in India, she attended letter writing classes, and although this is interesting in itself, she went on to describe that these classes were furnished by felt covered desks much like that on traditional card tables. I would like to see this make its way into our concept if possible, as it is a nice connection, and personal to her past.

We now have two hours of Margery-only footage, even more audio and a decent sized portfolio of images! We have gained so much information from today that I can't even think of it all just now, so I'll leave the rest to blog tomorrow if time allows!