Assignment:

  • Go and find a landscape and look at it from a fixed position.
  • Write about what you see.
  • For this exercise, the aim is to stay in a 'fixed position'. In our next task you will be moving through the landscape.
  • Pick a spot, get comfortable, make observation and notes [don't talk to anyone, for the exercise, for your safety, and theirs!]
  • Spend at least 30 minutes doing your observation
  • Also note some of the challenges you are facing.
  • Think of how you might be able to over come some of these to study this landscape better?
  • Write up your notes. You can (should!) take photos too.
  • Bring to class next week--make sure you have an electronic version to share.
  • The Emerson reading offers great advice for writing field notes--read it before you start this task.
  • For this week:We will assign you to a group through Zoom (technology willing)
    Your group will have a mix of UT and UoN students.
    We will be doing TWO tasks in these groups based on your landscape ethnography from last week.



Discussion 1:
Introductions--say hello from the other side of the world. Spend enough time doing this so that you get to know your peers (i.e., say something about who you are, where you are from, what you do, etc.)

Task: what was difficult about this exercise? If it wasn't difficult, what was unusual or strange? Odd or confusing? Take it in turns to share your challenges and make sure someone has written down your list.

We will catalog these in this week class notes [right there, just below...where they will be forever...well, for the next few months anyway

here are our notes from class--ignore my typos!
It saved as a PDF before I could fix. I have wronged the technology gods...dm

Discussion 2:
In your SAME groups share the photos or other media that you gathered on the landscapes.

Each person should go through and explain the landscape they observed. Use the media you captured during your observation and your notes.

After everyone has introduced their landscapes, choose two of these landscapes (one from the US and one from Australia) that you think most connect with each other.

Collectively write a few sentences explaining the landscapes and how the connect.

Email your caption and the photographs of these landscapes to one or both of us (note--it's probably easiest to do this by dropping the images and captions into a google doc and sharing it with [email protected] and [email protected]).

In the email or google doc, please also include the names of everyone in the group.

Next Week: Landscapes in Motion

How do you interact with a landscape when you are one of the bodies moving through it? How does that change your observations?
Fieldwork Assignment:
  • Identify a location to conduct a 30-minute (minimum) field observation.
  • Conduct an observation similar to the one you conducted last week, but this time, base your observation on your own and others’ movement through space. Take fieldnotes as you work.
  • As with before, if possible, take a photo or video of the landscape.
  • Condense your fieldnotes into a 200-300-word piece that describes the landscape that you chose and the movement through it (yours and others).
  • At the end, add a note (not included in the word count) that outlines how you moved through the landscape and what that helped you see that you might not have seen otherwise.




Reading for next week: Michele de Certeau's "Walking in the City"



<<- That Guy!
Photos from SchuminWeb, 7beachbum