Wednesday 3 October 2007
thanks
Many thanks to Dom and Joe for doing the presentation this afternoon. I felt it went well, the idea was original, people were interested and we did'nt get too much flak! What did you all think? Did you stay for the remaining presentations? I'd like to hear about them if anyone has the time to write. Thanks, Angela
Tuesday 2 October 2007
A few More Thoughts
I was reflecting on this project and thinking back to our initial meeting where our general impressions of the Farnham area were fairly uninspiring. A quaint country town, sleepy, middle class and fairly affluent overall. Inevitably, there were other aspects that were evident in the Farnham Herald. A mixture of knife attack, robberies, assaults and car crimes reported to illustrate that normal life continues behind the "nice" image. The property pages also give a good indication of the social mix with glossy picture of many £million plus houses available.
The idea to scratch a little below the surface and try to look at the attitudes and beliefs of the local people was an exciting way to respond to our first impressions. As a scientific experiment i am sure that there was much more we could do to test our hypohesis - more speciffic questions, ensuring the sample involved no bias, more interviews at different times of the day and difernt locations in the town etc. However, the objective of the project was not to prove the results of the research but to show that we had used our inital research to help us to come up with a creative and interesting angle and carried it through.
I feel that the results we achieved had a positive effect on the group, in that on the surface, the students are well acceped in the local community - something we had not felt at the outset. Furthermore ,there did not appear to be any obvious evidence of a racial nature, more a communication and confidence matter.
The idea to scratch a little below the surface and try to look at the attitudes and beliefs of the local people was an exciting way to respond to our first impressions. As a scientific experiment i am sure that there was much more we could do to test our hypohesis - more speciffic questions, ensuring the sample involved no bias, more interviews at different times of the day and difernt locations in the town etc. However, the objective of the project was not to prove the results of the research but to show that we had used our inital research to help us to come up with a creative and interesting angle and carried it through.
I feel that the results we achieved had a positive effect on the group, in that on the surface, the students are well acceped in the local community - something we had not felt at the outset. Furthermore ,there did not appear to be any obvious evidence of a racial nature, more a communication and confidence matter.
My Response...
I think the interviewing process was a really interesting experience on the whole. I operated the camera for each interview apart from my own and was able to see the reactions that each interviewer was getting. I think that we did really well to get so many willing and interesting people to speak to us though, equally so, we had just as many turning us down!
In terms of my own observations on the interviews, one of things that I found most difficult was to not intervene and help out during other's interviews - I am confident that I didn't to any extent but I was aware that there were times when the interviewee would look at me for some sort of comment or encouragement but the main point that I kept thinking was that the interview should belong to the person asking the questions, in order for us to get as much information as possible about the interviewee's experience of the exchange with the interviewer. The other observation that I made was that I believe that, of those people who refused an interview, they were genuinely in a hurry, or didn't want to appear on camera rather than having any significant personal objections to being interviewed.
One of the positive outcomes that I feel the group got from the film is an increased confidence and awareness of the people around us. There are many reasons as to why we may lack confidence; be it shyness, difficulty in communicating or just general self confidence but I found it really encouraging to hear Sam and Ingeun, in particular, say that they enjoyed the experience and found people to be more friendly than they may look.
Ultimately there are so many considerations that we could take into account to judge the effectiveness of the experiment but I think that, on the whole, it was really effective in encouraging us to engage with the town in which we are studying and get a sense of the people that we see everyday.
- I think that, on the whole, our impressions of Farnham have improved and we are more aware of what the people are like. Interestingly, despite minimal editing in an effort to present the raw and unabridged footage, we have ended up with a piece which presents many of it's own quirks and observations. In minimising our influence over what was added or subtracted to the final piece, we have been able to leave in the sights, sounds and atmosphere of Farnham.
All we have to do now is present...!
In terms of my own observations on the interviews, one of things that I found most difficult was to not intervene and help out during other's interviews - I am confident that I didn't to any extent but I was aware that there were times when the interviewee would look at me for some sort of comment or encouragement but the main point that I kept thinking was that the interview should belong to the person asking the questions, in order for us to get as much information as possible about the interviewee's experience of the exchange with the interviewer. The other observation that I made was that I believe that, of those people who refused an interview, they were genuinely in a hurry, or didn't want to appear on camera rather than having any significant personal objections to being interviewed.
One of the positive outcomes that I feel the group got from the film is an increased confidence and awareness of the people around us. There are many reasons as to why we may lack confidence; be it shyness, difficulty in communicating or just general self confidence but I found it really encouraging to hear Sam and Ingeun, in particular, say that they enjoyed the experience and found people to be more friendly than they may look.
Ultimately there are so many considerations that we could take into account to judge the effectiveness of the experiment but I think that, on the whole, it was really effective in encouraging us to engage with the town in which we are studying and get a sense of the people that we see everyday.
- I think that, on the whole, our impressions of Farnham have improved and we are more aware of what the people are like. Interestingly, despite minimal editing in an effort to present the raw and unabridged footage, we have ended up with a piece which presents many of it's own quirks and observations. In minimising our influence over what was added or subtracted to the final piece, we have been able to leave in the sights, sounds and atmosphere of Farnham.
All we have to do now is present...!
Monday 1 October 2007
After interviewing
When our group made the decision to do interview with some local people on the street, frankly speaking, I was not sure what we could possible derive from them. However, bring a video camera and being an interviewer would be absolutely thrilling, so I was quite happy to attempt our new approach. Eventually, I succeeded in interviewing one elderly man waiting for his wife on the high street. Although it did not take long, I could feel that he was tolerant of speaking to me. I wish I had more chance to talk. Anyway, it was fine achievement for me not only collaborative research, but also interview with English people.
Thoughts on Video
Following our group meeting on analysing the footage collected... watching it from my point of view i found most of the interviews entertaining, especially the 'lady on the move' as she had strong views about pointless coffee shops needing to be replaced by 'proper shops'. Sorry i couldn't help out with this again my fellow New Yorkians. The whole lectures for me starting a week or two early has messed up my participation and contribution to the work.
Sunday 30 September 2007
My Thoughts
Thanks to Dom and Joe for getting this idea off the ground. I must admit to feeling great relief when we met last week and had such an interesting idea to focus on. I cant say I have ever before been excited at the idea of doing anything that involved me being captured on film..... However, I enjoyed the process and the fact that it gave us an opportunity to get to know each other a bit better.
I attempted 5 interviews, 3 of which were prepared to talk and 2 that could not stop due to car park tickets expiring. First, a mid 20's man in a suit, second, a middle aged woman who was an ex-UCCA student, and third an elderly woman. All three were local residents, though not Farnham itself. All were very happy with the area, and considered the students to be welcome and to have a positive influence on the town. The young man and middle aged woman were happy to talk, although seemed a little uncomfortable with the camera, and the older woman was prepared to talk if we walked with her as she was trying to get back to her car...and her friend was anxious to keep moving.
I did not feel that people were reluctant to speak to me specifically, though the camera was a little off putting and it seemed that most people were busy and just did not want to be held up.
See you all tomorrow.
I attempted 5 interviews, 3 of which were prepared to talk and 2 that could not stop due to car park tickets expiring. First, a mid 20's man in a suit, second, a middle aged woman who was an ex-UCCA student, and third an elderly woman. All three were local residents, though not Farnham itself. All were very happy with the area, and considered the students to be welcome and to have a positive influence on the town. The young man and middle aged woman were happy to talk, although seemed a little uncomfortable with the camera, and the older woman was prepared to talk if we walked with her as she was trying to get back to her car...and her friend was anxious to keep moving.
I did not feel that people were reluctant to speak to me specifically, though the camera was a little off putting and it seemed that most people were busy and just did not want to be held up.
See you all tomorrow.
Interviews on the street
Hi everyone!
When all the groups met and declared what direction their initial projects where going to be, I admit my heart sank. Our New York group had decided to go with a collaborative collage as an image/object describing our first impressions of Farnham. It was a good idea, Joe came up with some interesting image styles that we could go with; based around a vertical symmetry design. It soon became clear at the meeting of the groups however, that a lot of the other groups were going to be doing something similar. We were going to have to do a radical rethink if we wanted to come up with something more original. To be sure, I had had my doubts about the collage idea. Certainly, it could have been really good, but within a tight timeframe, given the small number of times that the group could meet up, I was worried that an image made up of our combined input could easily lack the cohesion that would draw the disparate parts together. In my second year of BA I had seen a project group produce an artwork based around a questionaire, and it had been extremely successful. The big advantage of this kind of work for us would be that it would involve everybody in a non-competitive way and it was a medium that none of us were familiar with, making it an exciting challenge.
At the next New York meeting we all discussed the way we could pursue the idea. Joe has access to a very fine camera, and he has the ability to edit footage, so we could incorporate film-making into the work, since we all have a strong interest in visual media.
In discussions, we had all talked about our first impressions of Farnham, and although some of the surface details of life in Farnham were easily shared by all of us, (small rural town, a bit old-fashioned, inward looking, very white and middle-class), it was clear that there were differences too. Whereas, some of us found the surface features of Farnham slightly quaint, even slightly reassuring in some ways, others found their experience alienating and uncomfortable. As a visitor to other countries and even other parts of the U.K., I know what it is like to walk down the streets of a town/city and feel the unwelcome gaze of the inhabitants. Our group, "New York", is made up of the richly diverse cultural mix that is typical of most universities and colleges these days, especially one as large as UCCA. Some of us felt that in our encounters with the inhabitants of the town they had displayed a certain unease, or even veiled hostility because of our group's cultural diversity.
The nature of these impressions is very personal and difficult to understand unless you experience them for yourself. Our group decided that through random interviews with people on the street, using interviewers from different racial and cultural backgrounds, we might be able to capture on film the subtle reactions of our interviewees to the interviewers. If we could show that there were perceptible differences to our interviewers in the speech and body language of the people we interviewed, we could demonstrate how each of our first impressions of Farnham, were influenced by the first impressions of Farnham to each of us in turn. We were concerned about issues of consent to be filmed, so we arranged to meet Sarah Sutherland to discuss our plan. She thought our idea was a good one and that as long as we made it clear that we were making a film and we asked them if it was ok to film them and that they were adults, then there would not be a problem. As to the issue of how to show those who refused to be interviewed, we understood that we could not use any footage of those who did not give consent to be filmed. We agreed to gather the refusals as statisical information that could be presented with the film, so the audience could see how many refusals each interviewer had received.
We decided that the questions we asked should be as open as possible to allow the person being interviewed to talk without having to think too much about the answer. We would ask whether they lived in Farnham, and for how long, and we would directly ask them what they thought of the students and their impact on the town. On Wednesday 26th September, we took the camera out onto street, with Joe acting as silent, unobtrusive cameraman, and did the interviewing. We agreed to note down our personal feelings about the interviews, before discussing them with the group, to avoid cross contamination. After the interviews were over we decided to meet up again on Monday 1st October, to view the footage, which Joe had edited over the weekend and to discuss the presentation of our project.
When all the groups met and declared what direction their initial projects where going to be, I admit my heart sank. Our New York group had decided to go with a collaborative collage as an image/object describing our first impressions of Farnham. It was a good idea, Joe came up with some interesting image styles that we could go with; based around a vertical symmetry design. It soon became clear at the meeting of the groups however, that a lot of the other groups were going to be doing something similar. We were going to have to do a radical rethink if we wanted to come up with something more original. To be sure, I had had my doubts about the collage idea. Certainly, it could have been really good, but within a tight timeframe, given the small number of times that the group could meet up, I was worried that an image made up of our combined input could easily lack the cohesion that would draw the disparate parts together. In my second year of BA I had seen a project group produce an artwork based around a questionaire, and it had been extremely successful. The big advantage of this kind of work for us would be that it would involve everybody in a non-competitive way and it was a medium that none of us were familiar with, making it an exciting challenge.
At the next New York meeting we all discussed the way we could pursue the idea. Joe has access to a very fine camera, and he has the ability to edit footage, so we could incorporate film-making into the work, since we all have a strong interest in visual media.
In discussions, we had all talked about our first impressions of Farnham, and although some of the surface details of life in Farnham were easily shared by all of us, (small rural town, a bit old-fashioned, inward looking, very white and middle-class), it was clear that there were differences too. Whereas, some of us found the surface features of Farnham slightly quaint, even slightly reassuring in some ways, others found their experience alienating and uncomfortable. As a visitor to other countries and even other parts of the U.K., I know what it is like to walk down the streets of a town/city and feel the unwelcome gaze of the inhabitants. Our group, "New York", is made up of the richly diverse cultural mix that is typical of most universities and colleges these days, especially one as large as UCCA. Some of us felt that in our encounters with the inhabitants of the town they had displayed a certain unease, or even veiled hostility because of our group's cultural diversity.
The nature of these impressions is very personal and difficult to understand unless you experience them for yourself. Our group decided that through random interviews with people on the street, using interviewers from different racial and cultural backgrounds, we might be able to capture on film the subtle reactions of our interviewees to the interviewers. If we could show that there were perceptible differences to our interviewers in the speech and body language of the people we interviewed, we could demonstrate how each of our first impressions of Farnham, were influenced by the first impressions of Farnham to each of us in turn. We were concerned about issues of consent to be filmed, so we arranged to meet Sarah Sutherland to discuss our plan. She thought our idea was a good one and that as long as we made it clear that we were making a film and we asked them if it was ok to film them and that they were adults, then there would not be a problem. As to the issue of how to show those who refused to be interviewed, we understood that we could not use any footage of those who did not give consent to be filmed. We agreed to gather the refusals as statisical information that could be presented with the film, so the audience could see how many refusals each interviewer had received.
We decided that the questions we asked should be as open as possible to allow the person being interviewed to talk without having to think too much about the answer. We would ask whether they lived in Farnham, and for how long, and we would directly ask them what they thought of the students and their impact on the town. On Wednesday 26th September, we took the camera out onto street, with Joe acting as silent, unobtrusive cameraman, and did the interviewing. We agreed to note down our personal feelings about the interviews, before discussing them with the group, to avoid cross contamination. After the interviews were over we decided to meet up again on Monday 1st October, to view the footage, which Joe had edited over the weekend and to discuss the presentation of our project.
Thursday 27 September 2007
Farnham Castle: 
Wednesday 26 September 2007
My thoughts
What I did today really encouraged me to be more confident although I got only one interview.
I suppose that people rejected the interviews not because of races. The reason why I mentioned 'races' is that I heard some of my Chinese friends had been treated unfairly. I probably had experienced that kind of things while I didn't recognise but I am trying to get used to ignore that. I found that they looked quite uncomfortable in front of camera rather than who was interviewing them. I suppose it is definately spontaneous. Thus I don't have any unsatisfied feelings.
Have I got too ordinary opinion? I might add my thoughts more after reading your posts with replies. I think we are approaching in a very unique and interesting way!!
*I attach some photos just for fun which are about my lovely dog.
I think she loved me more than I did. She used to sit and listen to my songs and especially loved Beatles. Haha!!!
Now my parents in-law are looking after her.
Tuesday 25 September 2007
Hello
I am feeling a sense of achievement at having been able to work out this technology and (hopefully) manage to get some words into this blog. Sorry I was not able to join the group today but I could'nt refuse the opportunity to have a go at blacksmithing. Did you all manage to have a tutorial with Sarah? Is there anything specific I can do before tomorrow?
I think the images Joe posted were very interesting and the idea provides scope to combine the varied interests of the group and a potentially wide range of research...see you tomorrow. Maybe we should go on a field study trip and experience lunch in an alternative part of Farnham.
I think the images Joe posted were very interesting and the idea provides scope to combine the varied interests of the group and a potentially wide range of research...see you tomorrow. Maybe we should go on a field study trip and experience lunch in an alternative part of Farnham.
Monday 24 September 2007
Friday 21 September 2007
Meeting - Friday 21st September 2007
New York group met up today to discuss our initial ideas for our group project. In particular, we discussed our first impressions and feelings towards Farnham as a place and each described experiences that we have had.
Overall, we had mixed feelings, the group saw some parts of the town as old fashioned and dated – we drew examples from various architectural elements of the town. When walking around Farnham you can see clues and artfacts left behind that maintain the heritage of the town – for example the plaques describing the original purposes of buildings around the Castle Street area. Also shops such as ‘Next' and ‘Boots’ deliberately display more traditional signs above their shops in an attempt to blend in with the older arhitectural features of the buildings that they operate in.
Within our group, we also discussed experiences that we have had with people in Farnham - we felt that there is a strong middle class presence and percieved the population of the town to be relatively wealthy. When discussing the people of Farnham we also questioned how we thought they felt about the college and students, and in particular, how welcoming they were to the international students. There were suggestions by Sam, Ingeun and Tae Hee that they were unsure about how well they were percieved by people in the town - whether this was down to misunderstanding or an actual negative attitude was unclear.
We then went on to discuss our ideas about what sort of end product we wanted to produce and found it difficult to agree on an exact plan at this point in time – we did, however, decide to all meet again on Tuesday 25th by which time we would all research and consider what we wanted to present.
Overall, we had mixed feelings, the group saw some parts of the town as old fashioned and dated – we drew examples from various architectural elements of the town. When walking around Farnham you can see clues and artfacts left behind that maintain the heritage of the town – for example the plaques describing the original purposes of buildings around the Castle Street area. Also shops such as ‘Next' and ‘Boots’ deliberately display more traditional signs above their shops in an attempt to blend in with the older arhitectural features of the buildings that they operate in.
Within our group, we also discussed experiences that we have had with people in Farnham - we felt that there is a strong middle class presence and percieved the population of the town to be relatively wealthy. When discussing the people of Farnham we also questioned how we thought they felt about the college and students, and in particular, how welcoming they were to the international students. There were suggestions by Sam, Ingeun and Tae Hee that they were unsure about how well they were percieved by people in the town - whether this was down to misunderstanding or an actual negative attitude was unclear.
We then went on to discuss our ideas about what sort of end product we wanted to produce and found it difficult to agree on an exact plan at this point in time – we did, however, decide to all meet again on Tuesday 25th by which time we would all research and consider what we wanted to present.
Thursday 20 September 2007
Just an idea…
I was thinking of possible ideas for our end product - just as an initial idea - take a look at the images at the following links:
Image 1
Image 2
Also – other images and examples are available on the artist’s main site: http://www.grafikdust.com/ - found them in an old issue of Computer Arts
- They’re collage style pieces that incorporate lots of different images and
effects to present a theme – Could we maybe do a similar thing by each collecting things around Farnham that have made a distinct impression on us? i.e. taking photos, collecting leaflets, making sketches, anything that could be part of the collage…and then create an image in a similar style with all the things that we have collected by importing/scanning/painting/drawing etc?
The other thing I thought we could include with this idea is to each create a small self portrait (maybe a headshot) which would go into the collage? – I thought this would be good as we all have different backgrounds and skills which could be made evident within our individual pictures.
Let me know what you think!
Ultimately it would be good to do something which allows us all to make a contribution as we all work with different materials and forms….so any ideas…!
Image 1
Image 2
Also – other images and examples are available on the artist’s main site: http://www.grafikdust.com/ - found them in an old issue of Computer Arts
- They’re collage style pieces that incorporate lots of different images and
effects to present a theme – Could we maybe do a similar thing by each collecting things around Farnham that have made a distinct impression on us? i.e. taking photos, collecting leaflets, making sketches, anything that could be part of the collage…and then create an image in a similar style with all the things that we have collected by importing/scanning/painting/drawing etc?
The other thing I thought we could include with this idea is to each create a small self portrait (maybe a headshot) which would go into the collage? – I thought this would be good as we all have different backgrounds and skills which could be made evident within our individual pictures.
Let me know what you think!
Ultimately it would be good to do something which allows us all to make a contribution as we all work with different materials and forms….so any ideas…!
A walk around Farnham district
Despite it being in the middle of stockbroker Surrey, Farnham has maintained its sleepy English market town feel. Behind the University is a public footpath wandering through farmland and a small woodland. Arriving at 8.30am each morning, may guarantee a place in the student carpark, but it can be pretty boring as nothing opens until 9am, and teaching events normally start around 10. If I'm not catching up on work that I should have already done long ago, I often like to spend the gap time taking a walk up the footpath. This morning, I ventured out half expecting plastic tape or some irrate farmer blocking my way, warning me that the countryside had been closed down because of FMD (that is; Foot and Mouth disease, to all those old enough to remember when every new thing didn't get reduced to initials, to be bandied about by the 'well informed'.) The way was clear however, and the disinterested gaze of grazing horses was the only acknowledgement of my presence. Walking uphill through 'bracing' wind and a grey, threatening sky, I thought about the fact that I am going to have to get to grips with this Blogging thing for the Induction exercise. If it is successfully 'posted', I will have taken my first steps in Blogging, and invited you to take a little wander...
Wednesday 19 September 2007
Farnham
Not really sure where to start with this but here's some info on Farnham and it's history:
Farnham on Wikipedia
Farnham on Wikipedia
Tuesday 18 September 2007
Induction Research Activity
The Farnham Experience
In groups of 5-7 you must explore and record through a blog your first experiences of Farnham as a place of learning or the place itself. You will have three weeks in which to plan a ten to fifteen minute presentation of your research which will include the production of one of the following outcomes:
In groups of 5-7 you must explore and record through a blog your first experiences of Farnham as a place of learning or the place itself. You will have three weeks in which to plan a ten to fifteen minute presentation of your research which will include the production of one of the following outcomes:
- An object which best conveys your initial experience of Farnham
- A brand for Farnham or the College
- A piece of promotional writing for a magazine about your Farnham experience
- An image which best represents you first impressions of Farnham
You must consider carefully how your project will convey meaning and use this opportunity to reflect upon how you convey meaning in your own work
You will be encouraged to document your research and learning experience through a blog. Evidencing your learning and research will be a vital element of your studies at Farnham. It is essential for you to evidence your learning in order to successfully develop an MA level of critical engagement.
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