What is in a name....

A name is a descriptive marker used to identify a person place or thing and is usually I feel supported by the common collective, meaning that if a name, which is not official but a term such as a neighborhood moniker the appropriate use is based on the people using the term. Based on my discussions with Bishop Barnes and pastor Nichols the name was derived from the geographical location of the neighborhood in relationship to the river and the neighborhoods west of 50^th. If an individual was traveling in the direction of 50^th they were going up yonder and if they were do the opposite they were going to the bottom, lowest point next to the river. The term Black is an identifier to the racial majority of the neighbor that once used to be predominately Jewish. Both the Bishop and the pastor describe the term as a very proud descriptor, this is who we are and what we are and felt the term is not negative, unless the context of the statement spoken by the individual is negative. As for myself, to not recognize the name is disingenuous to the character and spirit of the neighborhood and ultimately our project. It is not up to us as non residents to alter or characterize a neighborhood based on our own outside perception but to report and discussed in neighborhood an open positive manor while not hiding the positive or the negative, let the words of the individuals profiled to speak for themselves and I don’t believe the name will be taken out of context.

36/42 Lancaster: Stories of the Black Bottom – I like this better

Hey Guys here are some pictures from my initial meeting with Bishop Barnes. Myself, the Bishop and one of his Ministers are going for a walk on this Sat at 8 am ( ugh I know), if you want to come along we are meeting at Dr King's statue on Lancaster - 38th I believe.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ushuaia-x/sets/72157627162570349/

Project Title Ideas

Hey guys... I thought we could get some dialogue going on ideas for a name for our project. Hana mentioned "The Bottom" but I think a lot of us felt that that had too negative a connotation. I really like the metaphorical feel it has though.


I was looking at the map that James gave us and it describes Lancaster Ave as a "gateway." I thought that might be an idea, The Gateway.


Anyways feel free to post some ideas, hopefully we can come up with something we all feel invested in and that will represent our project well :)

Possible Situations

I hope that nothing is “lost in translation,” so to speak. I will be interpreting parts of this subject’s life... and the viewers of this project will be interpreting my interpretations. This duality will either mend or be extremely uneven. It will be interesting to say which way it goes.

Regarless of what one is observing, it is important to not forget one’s individual epistemological constraints, especially since sensory ethnography is a fairly new phenomenon. This begs the question of to what extent someone can actually have an experience without touch and smell, two very important senses that will not be explored through this project.

The success of this project will be greatly determined by how deeply I will be allowed into the subject’s life. Since this is a bottom-up form of context awareness, the power is in the hands of the subject.

The accessibility of the project is important, especially if it is only on the street. The gallery will make it more accessible, but there is still the obstacle of not having a smart phone.

I also hope my schedule and the subject's schedule match up so I can get this started!

5 points

1. I could see this project helping Drexel students be able to go to local stores. I know that many of us have cars on campus and just drive to locations that we already know of to purchase goods and services. If more students knew what was on Lancaster Ave, they would be able to just walk minutes from their house.

2. Augmented Reality - After a few weeks about learning about augmented reality, I feel like I understand it much better. I think that some Drexel students would be able to pick up on it right away but I'm sure others wouldn't understand what is really going on. But I think we should put together a workshop or a webinar (or both) to explain the uses and how to use the application.

3. Smart phones - I could the fact that not everyone has a smartphone an issue. Would we have any other way people could go on this tour? I know we don't have the most time but is there anyway we could have an online version for people without smartphones?

4. The fact that we are using a few different people for our project will make the prespective different. If we were only using one person, then we wouldn't be getting the full affect. I'm excited to hear about other people's stories and learn more about the area I have attended school only minutes away from.

5. I really enjoyed hearing from Joe last week about the different things that the University City District works on throughout the year. I was not aware that they had that many different events going on. I would love to learn more and experience all that UC has to offer.

5 things interesting

5 Things that I found interesting from the readings:

1. I find it interesting the mobile devices are becoming a way of digital computing for the 21st century. It is interesting to see how RFID's such as a toll booth scanner can identify who a person is and know to either bill them or deduct money from an account that has already been set up.

2. augmented reality is really cool once you understand how it works. I know sometimes it's frustrating trying to figure out how to work the sheet of paper in the right way to read the scan bar. In the end, I think it's going to be really cool when we can go to a tag on Lancaster, scan it, and hear/see a story behind that area.

3. Perception is key. What we see in a certain spot is not going to be the same thing that someone like George, Joe, Kevin, or any of these other people are going to see when looking. We all have different perceptions of things and it's going to be really cool seeing what other people see. We are also giving everyone a chance to see the neighborhood how the people who grew up here see things.

4. Just because something is just space to us, doesn't mean it's not a place to someone else. Every space has meaning to it so it's not just space, but a place as well.

5. there can be consequences to locative media. Because it is on the computer, it has limited privacy and even with the strongest privacy settings, things can still get hacked. It's a changing world and technology changes it more and more every day.

Most of the issues that I think are important to address have come from our guest speakers.

1. Neighborhood separation - It's awesome that Drexel wants to collaborate with the Powelton/University City neighborhood. It seems, from what we've heard, that the community - especially the business community - welcomes our presence. But is the idea catching on with Drexel students? I'd say that it's an oral legacy that the "safe zones" on campus extend only to 36th Street to the west and Spring Garden to the north. Also, I can't stop thinking about the bar at 39th and Chestnut, Drinkers West. It's rumored that the "college nights" and use of college IDs to avoid a ridiculous cover have intended to drive out the local crowd and draw in the university crowd. Can we effectively reach a state of collaborative existence with (seemingly) deliberate efforts to keep the college population and the local population separate?

2. Digital divide - our project is based on the use of smart phone technology. Super cool. How can we avoid/overcome the fact that access to smart phone technology is a pre-requisite for experiencing this project? Who is our intended audience for the project, and are we effectively reaching them with our approach to this project?

3. How will this project benefit Drexel? I still don't have a clear understanding of the details, but it seems like this class is more than just an interesting special topics class. From what I can tell, someone in Drexel's administration wanted us to do this. What were they hoping to get from it, and are we delivering what they expected? How important is it that we deliver what they expected?

4. Earlier in the term, we touched briefly on how the potential of this type of technology could in some ways be used in ways that scare us, threaten our privacy, etc. Does our project and efforts like ours redirect the potential to show that good, creative, cultural things can come out of it all? Or are we just facilitating the mainstreaming of it, which may lead to its use in ways with which we are uncomfortable? (I think we're redirecting and exploring the potential, but I think this is an interesting thing to talk about when working with a new technology.)

5. That's all I've got for now. I'll come up with another tonight.