Friday 21 October 2011

...Ambience...

Ambience is defined as “the atmosphere of a place” (Ambience, n.d.). So how is it that this atmosphere is created? Sadlo (2004) suggests, “Careful attention is given to the seating arrangements and decoration of the room, to create the appropriate ambience, perhaps using background music and lighting effects” (p.94). When applying this to cards there are a number of influences that create the ambience, for example; lighting, noise, and positioning around a table or on the floor.

The following is an extract of the last time I played cards and illustrates the ambience I felt and the things that influenced this.

Sunday night was full of playing cards! We were also listening to music, singing, drinking copious amounts of juice and laughing. It was our last night to spend in Fiji with my family so we needed to make the most of it...It was a happy and sad time combined, I knew this would be the last time to play cards with everyone until the next time I visited but at the same time was enjoying the amount of fun we were having together.
I don’t think I won much as I remember my brother making a lot of snide comments throughout the night...When our night ended it was close to 2.30am and we had slowly started to pop off to sleep in different areas of the room or were idly shuffling the cards while talking about the fun times we’ve had and hope to have in the future.

The ambience of this night was determined by the other activities taking place in the room such as the music, the drinking of juice, and the conversations and eventually the change in people’s energy then making people less interactive and therefore changing the ambience again. The main effect the ambience had on me was that there were many new positive memories created from the night and that it was through engaging in playing cards that this was possible.





Original Story: (not for marking)


“Sunday night was full of playing cards! We were also listening to music, singing, drinking copious amounts of juice and laughing. It was my last night to spend in Fiji with my brothers, sisters and cousins so we needed to make the most of it. We played three different games over the night; Speed, 5-3-2, and Liverpool Rummy – well some of it.  It was a happy and sad time combined, I knew this would be the last time to play cards with everyone until the next time I visited but at the same time was enjoying the amount of fun we were having together.
I don’t think I won much as I remember my brother making a lot of snide comments throughout the night. I definitely learned a few more Fijian words to add to my repertoire! I don’t think I even minded not winning for a change as I knew this would be the last time my Fijian family would be playing cards like this and it was too much fun being the brunt of all my brothers’ warm-hearted jokes for the night.
When our night ended it was close to 2.30am and we had slowly started to pop off to sleep in different areas of the room or were idly shuffling the cards while talking about the fun times we’ve had and hope to have in the future.
When leaving to go to bed I packed the cards away where everyone would be able to use them if they wanted to once I had left.”


References:

Ambience. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ambience 
 
Sadlo, G. (2004). Creativity and occupation. In M. Molineux (Ed.), Occupation for occupational therapists (pp. 90-102). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.  

4 comments:

  1. You really seem to enjoy card games and the way you described the atmosphere/ambience on your last day playing cards with your host cousins in Fiji really captures everything card games mean to you.

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  2. Thanks for your comment Godhelp I'm glad the meaning I find in playing cards is portrayed as well as how the ambience is influent of this! :)
    Nancy

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  3. Very interesting take on ambience. It has helped me a lot in understanding what this means. Thank you. Well done.

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  4. Hey Gemma,
    I'm not sure if what I've done is right... But this is my take on ambience in relation to my occupation :)

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