5-in-5 Day 2

Fifi Xie
Fifi Xie
Sep 3, 2018 · 2 min read

09.02.18 Manhattan, NY/Queens, NY

11:15–15:47

Do you just ever accidentally make eye contact with strangers? Are they actually accidental? Do they know you were looking at them?

Today I decided to document how many strangers I make eye-contact with. Initially I was trying to see how many times I would avoid eye-contact with other people as I was actively trying to not get stopped by the man passing out flyers by the metro station. My default was to look down or look on my phone.

However, it makes me more curious about when I’m not guarded and accidentally make eye contacts with other people. How does that happen??? Is it just all a big coincidence, since we both have to BE AT THE SAME PLACE AT THE SAME TIME AND DECIDED (OR SUBCONCIOUSLY DECIDED) TO LOOK AT EACH OTHER.


I’ve only documented it during the time I was out. I went on the metro twice, ate at a restaurant, went to the super market and got home. However, I was with a friends the entire time, so this my divide my attention more. On the other hands, instead of being on my phone, I definitely tried to look around more. It’s really hard to not contaminate your own data…

I’ve made eye contact with 14 strangers today.


Here are the rules I used to explore and utilize my data:

  1. Document how many people I made eye-contact with.
  2. Create a canvas.
  3. Create dots based on the number of people I made eye-contact with.
  4. Each dot has to be connected with another, but the connections and the dots can’t be shown at the same time.

Process/Result:

I decided to try to come up with something by using my leftover leather. I cut up my leather to look *mildly like Manhattan and Queens.

I was trying to use pins as dots initially but end up not having enough so I had have to work with needle and threads since I was so set on my idea of using the leather.

The end product:

Front side with Dots(left), Back side with connections(right)
    Fifi Xie

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    Fifi Xie

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