About Me

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I am a Zimbabwean who is a permanent resident of New Zealand after coming to New Zealand in July 2007. I am currently (in 2011) studying for the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy degree at Otago Polytechnic (second year), Wintec Avalon Drive Campus in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Participation in Occupation 2: Fourth Posting - AFFORDANCES

AFFORDANCES


This time around, I am exploring affordances.

Affordances, which can also be looked at as 'outcomes of a particular activity,' are defined by Hagedorn, 2000, as "Anything which the environment can offer the individal which is pertinent to role challenge and can facilitate role competence. Aspects of the environment perceived by the person which combine with the person's efficiencies to produce competence (Christiansen & Baum 1997)" p. 307).

Affordances comprise of various components, namely;

Communication
Connection
Spirituality
Ethics
History/memory
Physical/Well-being
Aesthetics

From the above list, with regards to my guitar playing, I will explore the first three, namely, communication, connection, and spirituality.

Communication, in guitar playing, takes place in that the music that I play, even without any accompanying vocals, communicates a feeling or mood to whoever is listening to it, me included. This in itself can be spiritual as well in that we sometimes use guitars and other musical instruments to accompany worship and prayer at my Church. This, we believe, helps us connect horizontally with each other as fellow christians and vertically with our God. "It is through our activities that we are connected with life and with other human beings. Through the activities in which we engage, we learn about the world, test our knowledge, practice skills, express our feelings, experience pleasure, take care of our needs for survival, develop competence, and achieve mastery over our destinies" (Hopkins & Smith, 1983, p. 296). I achieve all these just through playing my guitar.

Below is a Christian Pentecostal'Praise and Worship' concert led by a guitar playing Worship Leader.
< Israel Houghton and New Breed: "I Am A Friend of God" Praise and Worship Song

http://youtu.be/ZXFi6lUUz5s



I have also made new friends of different cultures and nationalities through playing my guitar in public places like in parks and at the beach like in this analogy below of the famous reggae song 'Redemption song' composed by the great late Bob Marley.

http://youtu.be/55s3T7VRQSc

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