Blog Post 2 - Week 1: Measuring With My Body (and Buying a Couch)

 

For this activity, we were asked to explore ancient, body-based ways of measuring by first calibrating our own bodies and then using those measurements to plan something practical. I started by calibrating my own “body units,” and while I was fairly close on most of the traditional measures, I quickly noticed a pattern. I was short on almost everything - not surprising given that these systems were often based on the bodies of adult men. One thing that really stood out to me was my hands. I’ve always known my hands were small for my height, and this activity confirmed it. Anything involving finger length or hand spans was noticeably off, while hand width was surprisingly accurate.

For my measuring project, I decided to focus on our family room. Our couches are very much on their last legs, and we’ve started talking seriously about replacing them. Right now, we have a couch, a loveseat, and a chair (see pictures), but we’ve been considering switching to a sectional recliner with the same chair. Using my body-based measurements, I sketched out the walls of the room and the current layout, then started experimenting with what might realistically fit in the space (see drawings).

As a family, we talked about how we actually use the room, what we want in a new couch, and what would realistically work in the space. From there, we did some research, looking at two local furniture stores in our small town and then Costco (since they deliver). We narrowed it down to three possible options and found their dimensions to see if they would work (see sketches).

One small moment from the activity stuck with me. Measuring a yard using my arm, from fingers to nose, brought back a clear memory of my mom measuring fabric the same way, pulling it out to the tips of her fingers, folding it back, and continuing on. I didn't realize that she was actually estimating yardage at the time.  Watching Roger Antonsen’s talk reminded me of the fact that math shows up in all aspects of life, it is a human activity. He talks about math not just as numbers and formulas, but as a deeply imaginative, creative way of seeing patterns in the world, almost like an art form that helps us make sense of what’s around us.