Reflections - 4/27/15

What a week! Things are winding down and really coming together with the project. On Tuesday, we were fortunate enough to have Marc Steiner of the Marc Steiner Show join us in a joint-class meeting to view the rough cuts of the audio and visual media that will be used for the final project. As a class, we viewed segments for Greektown and Station North. Afterwards we discussed the project direction, and what needed to be improved for the final edition of both pieces. The general consensus found that there needed to be a flow for the entire piece, and that the themes should be more evident throughout the piece. For example, Marc brought up the idea of having a two sided argument for and against the neighborhood changes that were taking place, such as gentrification and demographic shifts. On Thursday, we came together as a class and worked in groups on our assigned audio piece. Similar to Alethia's interview, we transcribed and pulled out common themes such as community and neighborhood change.

Reflections - 4/20/15

This past week was heavily focused on project work, and outlining what needs to be done in order to get the project close to completion. On Tuesday, Mike and I presented the map along with the rest of the map group. Everyone seemed to be happy with the progress thus far, which was good to hear. I was really happy that we got a chance to hear some feedback from our classmates on what they would like to see added and changed on the map. The voices group presented their work as well, by playing some of their audio recordings and showing the class their interviewing database. Afterwards, Dr. King requested that we help out the voices group in their transcription and theme-pulling efforts.

For Thursday, I listened to the interview with Aletheia Shin. While listening, I transcribed her interview and pulled out common themes that I thought would be useful for the overall class project. In our new groups, we discussed the themes and consolidated our transcription by removing duplicates and editing the content. We then came together as a class to discuss our group work, and the common themes that we found from the audio. As a group, we discussed the themes of: community-based art, identity and presence, how we visualizing Baltimore, diversity, relationship with the community, and community participation.

Reflections - 4/13/15

This past week was focused on project work and reviewing the articles we read as a class. On Tuesday, we discussed the Baltimore City Paper article, "No Trivia: How white people have gentrified the word 'gentrification'", and the Metro Politics article, "Arts Districts Without Artists". Overall, I found these articles interesting interpretations of the situation going on in Station North and other Baltimore neighborhoods. In particular, I found Brandon Soderberg's article in the City Paper similar to how Jude Lombardi characterizes the word "gentrification" to those who replace it with "revitalization". Personally, I disagree with this viewpoint because revitalization is meant to help neighborhoods, which otherwise would remain in a state of urban decay.

On Thursday, I remained on campus while the rest of class went to Station North, to meet with our groups to discuss and worked on the group project. Jodie and I worked on figuring out the remaining missing places, and then I completed the database by putting the addresses into the map. Afterwards, I felt a lot more confident with the map and feel that it will be a good base to show to the class on Tuesday.

Reflections - 4/6/15

Last week, Aletheia Shin of MICA spoke to us about her art and research about the Korean community in Baltimore, and how it interfaces with the rest of the city. Aletheia brought a very interesting and refreshing perspective to our classroom; in that she truly was a student from abroad studying in the U.S., even though she grew up between America and Korea. Perspectives such as Shin's always fascinate me because I have lived in Baltimore my whole life, making it challenging to imagine her history of moving back and forth from place to place. 

Aletheia's outreach and art aims to bridge the gap between Koreans in Baltimore, creating a more interconnected community with a sense of balance. I found this to be very important especially in a city like Baltimore, where immigrants and diversity reinforce the city itself when older populations shrink and/or circulate outwards. As we have seen in many other great cities like New York or Los Angeles, ethnic enclaves are hot spots of growth and success, which can only help a city thrive. For Baltimore, Aletheia's work stemming from the city's public markets demonstrated the importance of having a common shared space with all types of people. Overall, I gained insight on the workings of the Korean community of Baltimore, and how community can be interpreted as social connections and ties formed over temporary places of activity and commerce.

In terms of our group, we have made significant progress with our map research and database. The rest of the group has completed summaries and collected the addresses of our Station North locations. I was able to enter in the places that we already have into a KML spreadsheet that will be imported into our map system. While doing this, I have made multiple columns including the 1) place name 2) address, and 3) type of place. This week I plan on talking to Mike about additional data that could be added, as well as how we want to display our information. After playing with our Google Map a bit, I organized our places by type (food, entertainment, residence, and community). I gave each type a temporary icon related to the place function (i.e. silverware, music note, etc.) This could be a unique way to show our places, and may also be more user-friendly. I look forward to meeting with the group this week to discuss ideas!