Block 3 – Up close and Deep dive

Friday 23rd August 9am-5pm in CB10.04.460 [and then outside!]

Please bring clothes for being outdoors and shoes that will be comfortable to walk outside for about 50 minutes.

We will cover:

  • Ethnography
  • Sensory and material methodologies (including observation)
  • Interviewing
  • Historical methods
  • Place-based methodologies

Here are the details of the pre-class work to do before Block 3.

Ethnography

1. Watch this video about the development of diverse approaches to ethnography over time and space. If you were doing an ethnography on your topic, which approach would you take? Tell us in the B3 Ethnography Topic [in Teams].

Sensory and material methodologies (including observation)

2. Watch this video excerpt from Getting On (6 mins) [the link is to a dropbox file].  Try to notice something no-one else will see – share online and consider why it might be important. Tell us in the B3 Getting On Topic [in Teams].

3. Read Ilaria Vanni’s resource on sensory ethnography (scroll down), and have a look at sensory maps. think about which senses you will engage with in your study, and which you could possibly do (an imagined scenario). Tell us in the Block 3 Senses Topic [in Teams].

Interviewing

4. Read Nick’s blog about the special power of ‘3rd things’ in interviews. Bring with you to Block 3 at least one object that relates to your research that you could use in an interview (e.g., take a photo, find an image, an artefact from practice, a document).

Historical methods

5. Bring to Block 3 one object or photo that relates to something significant about your own past (e.g. photo of you when you were younger, or an old toy) – something you are comfortable talking to others about. If you are looking for inspiration the project. You can look at the final product of oral histories about gardens in Haberfield on Mapping Edges website. If you want inspiration about objects the project Belongings collected object-based migrant oral histories: you can read some, or browse through.

Place-based methods

6. Read this short article about the Goods Line: Simpson, Margaret (3 September 2015). “The Goods Line – then and now”. Inside the collection – Powerhouse Museum. Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

Ethnography

Karitane Datapack (this must be deleted before you leave the room and then secure deleted from your trash/recycle bin).

Interviewing

We will be interviewing each other using the principle of ‘interviewing via a third thing’, and we will try out something called the Interview to the Double (Nicolini 2009);

Historical methods

Please read the sections on archives and oral histories.

Working in small groups we will conduct oral histories – a third kind of interview in a way.

Sensory and material

We will be looking at what you noticed in the Block 3 Conversation Topic.

In the second part of this unit we will move to Haymarket and do a 20 minutes smell walk, We will learn to ‘sense’ through smell, connecting to practices, associations, cultures – thinking about smell as data, and as a way in to other data. We will be using this haymarket-smellscape-worksheet.

Place-based methods

We will be going for a walk round the the-goods-line and consider it as an archive – a coming together of trajectories or stories so far (after Doreen Massey’s work). What ghosts, fragments and objects do we see? What stories/histories are told and visible? What are hidden?

Walking interview prompt sheet.

After Block 3

You may wish to follow up, find examples and read more using the Methods Cards that are relevant to you.

Remember to complete the pre-block preparation for Block 4 which is next week.

If you are interested to take things further:

Historical methods

Read Ilaria’s resource on archival research and oral history (scroll down).

Place-based methods

Watch this video introduction to start thinking about place. It was originally produced for the International Studies capstone subject and it presents three possible ideas to research Chinatown: stories of consumption and foodscapes; an archeology of place through different layers of history; and reading Haymarket through art installations.

Watch this short video where Mark Dion explains his place-based methodology, make notes of the relevant points.

More on the Goods Line

Marks, Lucy (28 August 2015). “High-rise public walkway and recreation space to connect Railway Square to Darling Harbour”. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

McKenny, Leesha (14 November 2012). “New York-style elevated park plan for Ultimo”. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 September 2015.

Tan, Monica (31 August 2015). “The Goods Line: it’s no High Line, but a welcome green corridor for Sydney”. The Guardian Australia.