Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Ideas for Your Mapping Project
Before you leave class today, please take 5-10 minutes and tell the rest of us what your focus for our final project will be. What space will you be mapping? What group(s) of people do you think you’ll be observing and interviewing? What’s your plan for the next few weeks to complete these observations and interviews? What do you hope to learn from this project and why do you think this particular space is an important one to study?
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I am thinking of observing Stella's coffee shop as my final project. This is an infamous place for students to go and seems to be a classic place for residents to go as well. There are many different rooms to observe here, filled with many different types of people. I want to try to observe and interview all different kinds of people to see why Stella's is important to them and why they come here. My plans for observation, to get the most information, include going here at different times of the day. Maybe in the morning, afternoon, and night, just too take in the different atmosphere that each setting brings. I always hear people talking about this place, and as I have only been there once I want to know why people love it so much.
ReplyDeleteFor my final project I will be observing a barn in the outskirts of Denver. The barn is a place where people keep their horses not only to house them but also as a place to train and ride the horses. I will be observing the people who utilize this barn as a place to do these types of activities. I will be tagging along with a friend of mine who is a member of this barn and therefore can also provide insight on the barn and give me important information. Equestrian activities are extremely expensive and time consuming so I am hoping to find out what motivates people to be so involved. I want to know what enjoyment comes from this activity and why people choose to be around horses. I think I will find a lot of interesting stories and reasons as to why people come to the barn because I believe the barn could often be used as a method of relaxation or escape from the outside world.
ReplyDeleteThe space that I will be observing will be the Denver Botanic Gardens on York street. Since I have already observed it briefly, I predict that I will mostly be observing families/educational groups, photographers/artists, and casual visitors. Since the gardens close at 5, and I normally get out of class around 4, I think I will only be able to observe mainly on the weekends, which will skew my results a bit (I will have to account for that). Hopefully I will squeeze in time this Monday, or a Friday when I don't have class. I plan on staking out three or four spots in the gardens (including the tropical garden, and the cafe). As for interviews, I will try and approach people as they are resting or sitting on benches (and as for photographers and artists, I will try very hard not to disturb their work). I'm not quite sure what I'm expecting to learn about this space yet, but I'm hoping my research will be decently able to illustrate the garden's merit as a place of relaxation and education in Denver.
ReplyDeleteThe intended space that I would like to map is the 16th Street Mall. My plan is to visit the 16th Street Mall more than once and to ride the mall ride up and down 16th Street. I think I will be observing a diverse group of people since it is a downtown metropolitan area. I will also encounter homeless people that usually loiter around in the middle. There are also various businessman and businesswomen who will be around making their next appointment. What I hope to learn from this project is how do various groups of people stemming from different backgrounds coexist in the same metropolitan area. How do people of a higher socioeconomic class view homeless people and how do people of color or miniorities view the majority? Most of all how do people use the 16th Street Mall and why do they choose to go their?
ReplyDeleteThe space I chose to map out and observe is the Athletic Training room in the bottom of ritchie for varsity athletes. On campus i've noticed that a lot of the time athletes are put into a seperate group away from the student body. There are the athletes parties, the different groups of swimmers, lacrosse players, basketballers and more. I think it would be interesting to observe these people in a place they are most comfortable that fit in with their personalities and place on this campus.
ReplyDeleteI plan to go into the training room various times, sometimes just to observe specifically and sometimes to do my treatment and therefore not looking odd just sitting in the training room. I think this is an interesting topic and important to study because I want to get to the bottom of why the training room is not just a training room in the world of athletics.
Its like the mall to a group of gossipy girls or the slopes to the boarders and skaters.
Our world is constructed of many diverse groups that flock to many different places. I want to find out why athletes get together at the training room, why not at someones house or locker room. Is there a certain excitement being around various athletes and getting the scoop on everyones team? Or is the training room a peaceful place, where one can go and clear their mind?
I think it will be interesting to find out and maybe tricky at the same time. I don't know that people analyze why they are really there, or even think about it. It could be habit or for specific reasoning.
For my project, I would like to map out either the zoo or the aquarium and focus on local people who are there to simply enjoy it, without assignments or tourism purposes. I will visit the zoo/aquarium a few times in order to get an adequate amount of responses and I will approach people that seem to be wandering/lingering around exhibits without a cause. I hope to learn more about why these spaces are important to people, and I would like to avoid more obvious answers in order to find things that are new and interesting. These particular spaces interest me because they are important to me as well, so I would like to hear feedback from otehrs.
ReplyDeleteI have narrowed down my topic to Wash Park. Living nearby, it makes for a nice and convenient venue. There are always more than plenty of people roaming around the park, either for a leisurely a walk, a tai chai class, a daily exercise routine, an eventful afternoon of frisbee, or a random day of lunch in the park. I will most likely visit atleast twice, probably a Saturday and a Sunday (because this seems to be when most people go.) I hope that I am suprised to find some unexpected stories about why people are at the park, - something that I'm not expecting. Wash Park seems to be a very important location in Denver - of all the parks in this city, it's the most talked about, and the first one I was ever introduced too.
ReplyDeleteFor my final project I will be mapping a coffee shop called Stellas on Pearl Street. I plan on talking to the people who work their and ask them about their experiences there and learn about the history of the coffee shop. Also, I want to observe the different groups of people there that include: students studying, young adults having social time, older people listening to live music played during the week, etc. There are a lot of different groups of people that go to the coffee shop. I plan on going to Stellasa couple days a week on different days and different times in order to compare how the space is used at these different times. I hope to learn about the significance of the coffee shop and why people choose to go there instead of Starbucks or some other chain. I believe that "hole in the wall" restaurants and coffee shops are very unique and important to society and therefore are very important to study.
ReplyDeleteI plan on visiting the Denver Skate Park on Friday or Sunday. I’ll probably be viewing mostly young males. Because I am female, I’m planning on taking my brother with me ☺. He too is a skater and can hopefully give me insight to why him and his friends come to the park. Also, if others view me interviewing him maybe they’ll be less hesitant about the process. I cant wait to take pictures of the scene! I am expecting the park to be pretty crowded given the weather has been warm lately. I’m going to visit the skate park once this weekend and sometime next week. However, I want to spend at least two visits on the weekend because I assume the skate park will be more crowded then. I hope to learn what something as simple as a skate park can provide for the people who utilize it (especially because both my brothers have been avid skaters for a while-I want to understand how a place like this can be important).
ReplyDeleteI chose to observe Cheery Creek mall. I think that observing the mall will be interesting because even though I am familiar with it I still do not full understand why people go there. I believe that I will mostly be observing woman, and single males (for the most part). I think that it will be interesting to see what, and why people choose to go there. On Monday, I want to go do my first field observation. In my first observation I believe that I will go around the whole mall and observe to find a spot that I will do the rest of my observations. I hope that I will learn more about the common mall goer.
ReplyDeleteFor my Mapping project, I am going to observe Red Rocks. Red Rocks is a popular concert venue, but it is also a popular destination for other reasons. The groups of people that I plan on interviewing are those that come for concerts and other events, as well as those who go when nothing is going on; they simply come for Red Rocks. The majority of people that I interview will probably be either concert-goers or the outdoorsy people that go to Red Rocks during the day. Hopefully, I can make it up to Red Rocks and interview people going to an event. Other than that, I will probably head there during the weekends or in the afternoon over the next few weeks, when I think there will be the most people there. My focus for this project is to understand what draws people to Red Rocks, and its place in Denver’s identity. I hope to understand why there is always people there even though it is a good distance away from town.
ReplyDeleteFor my final projects, my hope is to observe the children's play room in the hospital. I would like to see the why people like to volunteer there and how the parents feel it is significant. I think it is important to see how people really need this place, and I hope I learn with this project the side of the parents are dealing with in this place or why it is so important to them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my plans for this project is to observe while I volunteer, and to see the interaction of the people in the spaces and how they use this place.
ReplyDeleteFor my final project, I have decided two study and observe people and their relationship to parks/gardens. I will be observing the community garden across from halls, perhaps Wash Park or this small park down on race street. I will discuss what draws individuals to go to their community park or garden. I am going to map each of these community spaces and compare and contrast them. I will survey several individuals and ask them a variety of questions, for example, the significance of nature in their daily life. I will observe what people are doing in these settings, whether they are relaxing, exercising, or perhaps even planting flowers in the garden. I think this particular space is important to study because I want to compare and contrast the significance of the space to different age groups. For example, the community garden is used very differently among preschool students versus college students. I hope to gain a better understanding of community spaces and how they pertain to certain individuals lives.
ReplyDeleteFor my final project, I will be mapping the Denver Art Museum. I plan to be interviewing a large group of people, since a large variety of people are attracted to art museums. I plan to interview some of the employees to find what they believe the museum does for the community. Since they see many of the kinds of people who enter and know much about the activities and events going on at the museum they will be a good source to gain an overall understanding of what goes on at the Denver Art Museum. I also plan to interview individuals who go there for enjoyment. This will range from young to old, who have many different perspectives, reasons for going to the museum, and art backgrounds. I plan to go to the museum and find a general space, such as the main lobby. I will attempt to pick out a wide range of the kinds of people that attend museums. I also plan to observe the layout of the museum and the aesthetics of the building itself that would attract people to it. I hope to learn what it is about museums that draws so many people to them. I also hope to see outside of the art, what it is about the museum that makes it an adequate space for recreation and escape. Museums are a significant sign of high culture in society. They are a place of learning and enjoyment. Since they are important to all major cities across the world, I hope to draw conclusions for why this is. I also hope to see how they benefit the community and the individual on a personal level.
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