Mass Observation

Entry

I make my way toward the main entrance of the latest chapter in my life. Faces different to those I am used to roam the campus grounds; confusion cascading down their cheeks, much like my own. For once, people won’t be the subject of this task. Instead buildings speak their own truths in tongues I can somehow relate to. The trees sway in the autumn wind, as if to exhibit my own feelings of uncertainty; as pen finally touches paper and my journey begins. My eyes are poised on the brilliant white veranda, timeless as it stands in the centre of the historic building. Its wings are clipped, as it watches over the space of its kingdom. I am an intruder, unworthy to stand upon the ground it will never touch; the twisted humour of an architect.

I am drawn to the intangible beauty of the family beneath the tree to my right. They know nothing of the world outside. Instead, the mother embraces her children lovingly, even as they stand eternally in a skin of wood; so too does their perpetual ‘Eden’ with one another. I envy them. I feel a cold stare above me and notice the gargoyle heads atop the rotating doorway. They seem unsure of what to make of their latest inhabitant. They appear to grin as my focus shifts once again.

My thoughts suddenly evade me. Instantaneously, the uproar of industrial diggers sends reality surging in their place. Voices of others remind me of their presence, their purpose perhaps similar to my own. I look again at the gargoyle twins and feel my lips crease into a smile. They knew that would happen. I take this as affirmation of entry. I close my journal and salute the pair of mavericks, before revolving into a portal of the unknown.


Marko Vujnovic