Affordances

 "An affordance is a property of an object, or a feature of the immediate environment, that indicates how to interface with that object or feature. The empty space within an open doorway, for instance, affords movement across that threshold. A couch affords the possibility of sitting down on it" (wikipedia, 2011).

From our tutorial I learnt that affordance is much about the match between the environment and the person, involving communication and relationships, ethics and connections. I will break these down for you further in relation to my activity of making a pinata.


Communication & Relationships

• The build up of making the pinata and the social outing of going shopping with my daughter for resources and the excitement around this.
• The mother/daughter relationship involving spending quality time together.
• The social gathering as a result of the finished pinata, knowing that it will be used at Paloma's birthday.
• All the verbal/non verbal actions e.g laughter, giving instructions, smiles, eyes glowing with excitement.

Ethics

• The burden of cleaning up the mess and the sense of obligation I have in finishing this for my daughters birthday.
• The joy of the end product along with it being cost effective and having therapeutic benefits.
• The negativity attached with the hitting the pinata and parents seeing this as a form of violence.

Connection

• How it starts from a simple balloon that leads to cutting, gluing and painting and ultimately ends with a fun game of playing pinata involving food (lollies) and the gathering of people. These all show connection with one another.

This little poem regarding making my pinata that sums up my view on connection involved in affordability. 


This is the lady that blew the balloon,
that got the paper,
that glued and cut,
that painted and painted,
that played and hit,
that laughed and smiled
that got the lollies,
and ate and ate!!


References


Affordance. (2011). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance