Project: LOOP

While traveling through the city, it is perhaps impossible to not be in constant contact with people, and some of this is undesirable.

Avoiding eye contact helps sever possible conversations with people. I have found that often people will look at someone before they attempt to talk, but if you don’t look at them, they will often not have the opportunity to start.

Although this may help avoid some random conversations, there are people who will talk to you still. Not to mention the downside of avoiding eye contact is that you can appear weak, or an easy prey. Someone who is dominant will look people in the eyes. In fact one of the reasons Manet’s “Olympia” was so controversial was that she gazed down at the viewer defiantly and was not merely a painting of a female nude to look at. It is a fine line to balance, avoiding conversation, yet not seeming weak.

In the past, I’ve held conversations with my friends about eye contact and we have discussed two other reasons, which are less obvious, for avoiding eye contact. When in a confined space (such as an “el” car), avoiding eye contact may give people the sense of having personal space, despite it often being intruded upon. The third reason, which after having realized, I’ve tested it whenever possible, is that when people make eye contact, it is broken by one of them in an act of rejection. They reject you before you can reject them. If you feel like risking conversation while you are walking down a busy street, try this: make eye contact with people walking towards you and try to hold it as long as they do. At first this is hard, and often you will probably find yourself breaking it immediately. At this point notice who you are more apt to “reject” first.