Today I'm blogging from Boston University where I'm attending the Podcasting Academy for work. A bit ago Tony Kahn from WGBH radio talked about his experience with podcasting, particularly with Morning Stories. As example, he mentioned a segment called "One Foot in Front of the Other" in which Caleb Smith talks about walking every street in Manhattan between 2002 and 2004 in order to get to know his place (See New York Walk for more about his project).
I'm interested both in the project as a heuristic for exploring a place and in podcasting as a way to document one's exploration of place. Since many place bloggers include visual media in their blogs (photographs, sketches, maps), it doesn't seem like a huge leap to begin using audio (now that the technology is more accessible). I need to look around to see if anyone is podcasting regularly about places and reflect a bit on the relationship between modes and the representation of place (visual vs audio vs text).
So far, most discussions of podcasting in education focuses on using it as a mode archiving and distributing audio recordings of classes. However, it seems people will also begin using other people's podcasts like Morning Stories as class material (Kahn gives the example of ESL teachers using Morning Stories in their teaching). I'd like to see more discussion of how student podcasting could become another form of composition--as forms of storytelling and research.
Since I recently bought a microphone for my iPod, I may begin experimenting with a bit of place-based podcasting just to see how it feels to focus on the sounds of place rather on views of place, as I normally do.
Last night on the way home
I could definitely see you doing this...
Not Podcasting, Not Sounds, but ....
I had the idea for this before I heard of Caleb Smith and his walking all of the streets of Manhattan. (Oddly enough, he and I are both academic librarians -- hmm, what does THAT say?). I got a map of Brookline and stuck pins in it marking off each street as I did it. Vigorous walking has long been my main form of exercise, and this gave it a different focus and structure, and the chance to learn the streets of my town in a new way. But then I stopped -- bad news for the project and for my health.
When I read this post, it occurred to me that a recording device could solve a problem with these walks: I was always noticing things as I walked around, but it didn't make sense to stop and write them down. With a recording device I wouldn't have to.
So two weeks ago I bought a small digital recorder and started walking again. (Good for the project and for my health.) I generally walk an hour to and hour and a half, commenting on and off as I go along, then transcribe my comments when I get back. I've started filling in bits of information, or answering questions I had along the way, with addtional research (and adding pictures, too.)
At this point, I'm just keeping this info in a file on my computer. I know I should start a blog, but I've just started another one at work, and have a group one in the works and I'm afraid of it taking over my life.
But thanks, Tim, for putting this spark in my head. And while I'm not recording for the sake of capturing sounds, it's made a big difference.
Incidentally, I came across this article in the San Francisco Chronicle about a guy who's walking all of the streets of San Francisco, and all of the other "street walkers" he's heard from who are doing the same thing where they live.
- Ken