Since today was the last interview with our community partner, there seemed to be an underlying sense of farewell throughout the session. First, we first reviewed the written bios with her, outlining her journey to Canada. Mid-way through the retelling, she became so overwhelmed with emotion that she started to cry. I felt a real connection to her, and was honored that she trusted us with her story. Afterwards, we reviewed the video clips where I felt sensitive to Simona’s discomfort at seeing herself struggle through English. These were probably the most impactful learning experiences, since I could also see my mother reflected in Simona’s strength. My mother experiences the same self-doubt to this day, despite being completely fluent in English. Simona’s bravery and vulnerability made me flustered. It made me reevaluate her words not just as stories, but ‘real’, intricate, sensitive moments of her life. As a takeaway, the thing she appreciated the most was our honest retelling of her story - the amount of ‘care’ shown in our work exceeded her expectations. Afterwards, our group was just completely impressed by Simona’s passion for life, and it influenced our mapping approach. One of our members (Faith L.) ingeniously suggested mapping Simona’s timeline in Calgary as a ‘coloring’ effect, where the places she’s visited become filled with vibrant color because of her positive influence.
Louise Barraza
0 Comments
The method is a systematic technique and procedure to accomplish the task. The method, that I like to follow is gathering and collecting information and data in the first step. Any kind of relevant information and data including pictures, videos, audios, texts, and stories/narratives from people is a very important part of the method. After collecting enough information and data, the next step is to sort out the information in terms of authenticity and how important that information and data are? Also, it is very helpful to prioritize the information. What information is more valuable to you or has special meaning to the topic put in order from the most to the least important. Converting information from the original type of source to the way you want is another part of the procedure. For instance, converting video to audio or texts, not just you control it but it is also required a specific technique and tool. We see the method as the way and the tool for doing something, also we need certain types of tools to implement the method. Having appropriate software for conversion and mapping, and knowledge of utilizing the software is helpful to carry out the method. The combination of technique, procedure and the relevant tool is my method.
As a newly arrived immigrant, there is a lot that can seem foreign to the individual. Among many differences, people tend to try and find similarities between the two to ease the mind. Through these similarities, it helps with the transition of living in a different world. While interviewing Alyona, she too seemed to make connections, not only with the food created at her home but also in her surroundings. Alyona noted how Calgary's landscapes reminded her of her hometown Almaty, mainly because of the mountain ranges in the background. Looking at some google images, I can see the resemblance of the landscape between the two locations. Seeing these similarities, we wanted to use this as a linkage for Alyona’s journey.
Understanding that she is a newly arrived immigrant, there are multiple layers to her experience. An example can be the various locations she has moved from as well as their importance. Although she is currently residing in Calgary, she mentioned that Winnipeg will always have a special place in her heart due to the fact that it was the first city she lived in in Canada. I can relate, as I lived in Montreal when my family first arrive in Canada. Although I don’t speak a lick of French, nor do I live in Montreal now, I still hold the city in a special place in my heart. On the other hand, Calgary for Alyona holds a different relationship. The city is physically a reminder of her hometown. Although new to the city, Alyona seems eager to go and explore and build new connections. She has a vast future ahead of her—brand new places to explore and new people to meet. I am excited that we could experience a glimpse of it and help map out her journey. Maybe this mapping exercise will give her a visual and audible reflection on her journey to Canada. Jennifer YeEun Choi Mapping, what are maps, and what function do they serve? According to James Corner in his book, Agency of mapping, “the function of maps is not to depict but to enable, to precipitate a set of effects in time.”.…it entails processes of gathering, working, reworking, assembling, relating, revealing, sifting, and speculating. In turn, these activities enable the inclusion of massive amounts of information that, when articulated, allow certain sets of possibility to become actual.”
In mapping a milieu, several systems including the frame, orientation, scale, units, and graphic projection are utilized. Spatial ethnography is a key part of this process which involves field data collection as a way of tracing the socio-political conditions within which public space is reproduced. Spatial ethnography relies on the tools of iterative field research, participant observation, interviews, physical surveys, photography, video, and GIS coding to generate data and new meaning which sometimes generate counter-maps. Counter-maps are field findings that reveal extra layers of information not seen in regular maps, they are attempts to reinterpret and give new meaning to existing maps. They look at existing contexts using different lenses of experience, sound, taste, and smell, etc. Obinna Ekezie People have different struggles and every single person’s struggle is valid. Working on RIta’s
biography and ruminating on the information she sent led me to this conclusion. Talking with her again, I could see the amount of strength displayed to make necessary decisions and to begin again even when everything seemed daunting. In people's stories you find strength. In the collection of their data and the understanding and interpretation of it you see their resilience and their drive to move past obstacles and find ways to thrive and survive. It is a privilege to be part of the team that gets to bring Rita’s story of incredible resilience to the world, and to allow others to be inspired by this. Her love for people, her love for food and her love for her culture and heritage have all been used as channels of spreading cheer, joy and happiness wherever she may be. Esther Ephraim-Osunde Mapping the city is far more than a two-dimensional informative graphic. It is a mode of storytelling, and provides a significant narrative towards an individual, or a group of individuals. In order to tell the story of these individuals, as designers of this map, we must listen. The interviews conducted for the final assignment allowed myself to view the design process in a new lens. By slowing down, and carefully listening, my group members and I were able to collect meaningful and significant information that tells the story of an incredible Syrian woman and her family’s journey settling into Calgary. Through these careful tasks, learning about multisensorial components, the final outcome of the assignment helps to accomplish what makes up the city, and how we can understand it through a new perspective.
To break out of our usual approach to mapping is challenging, but it allows us to discover, and possibly better communicate, latent information. The different mapping approaches mentioned today stretched my creativity and changed my perspective on looking at different spaces. An example of this is to understand that a place inherently has a multitude of layers built into its existence. This encourages me to map freely without a goal in mind. The outcome could be unexpected results. Another approach is to actively seek the stories which are intentionally or unknowingly hidden. This could lead to a more holistically accurate portrayal of the studied space. Lastly, the vast variety of mapping representation methods is encouraging, as we are not limited to the typical two-dimensional form of maps. We are free to explore any medium to express spatial information. This could be in the form of overlays, paintings, and even dance performances.
Ashley Hu The notion of countermapping is intriguing, as our human rhythms are in constant reaction to our environmental surroundings, both physical and psychological. The engagement of multiple participants to activate a site is unique to the combinations of those who are engaged with the cultural act or site. The reflection of these movements and behaviours are instrumental to the understanding of urban flows. The city’s rhythms are indicative of behaviours at various scales, and are able to enlighten us on daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, and annually reoccurring routines and traditions in one’s life. At the intersections of these routines and conjunctions of people is where magic occurs, the intertwining of lives that produce a unique ephemeral experience. These happenings and moments are what paints the urban landscape with a colourful cultural context, it generates the city’s phenotype, the expression of its genetic make-up.
Rheanne Jenkins Mapping to provide new information or knowledge and mapping as a representation of old knowledge of seeing the invisible as visible or unordinary as extraordinary is an evocative description. We can basically map almost everything from tangible objects, material, place, setting, to the intangible such as feelings, emotions, senses, and relations. Mapping opens a whole new perspective on seeing things and puts the viewer or user in the eyes of the mapper. Mapping is also another way of expressing through different mediums to understand key layers, movement, choreography, relations, observations, thoughts and ideology. It can also be organized through different ways from comparing and contrasting, grouping, depicting patterns and through time and space.
Our group has taken this opportunity to argue that the city and its relationship to our interviewees
journey and aspirations have an irrefutable and interconnected relationship that has shaped one another and will continue to do so as her journey continues. Moving here from abroad, she has brought with her passions and methods that have the power to imprint her culture on the city. In the same way, the city has the capacity to act as a learning tool that can in turn influence her. It seems that the time she has spent here has made her aware of new forms of culinary expression that have furthered her abilities. As a result, this symbiotic relationship between herself and the city are vital to one another and demonstrates how culture can enrich and bring new perspectives to the city. I think that this is an important realization within mapping, as it exposes an aspect of the true nature of the city. By this I mean that it shows aspects of the city that often go unseen, yet are vital to the makeup of the urban condition. People are just as influential on the city as the city is on those who live there. Faith Lynch It was quite evident that the approach to mapping Simona’s story would be clear. Her journey throughout time and space consisted of giving, and as a result, receiving from the people that were closest to her through passion, love and patience. This meant that her key moments at places like coffee shops and restaurants were always moments with other people. This also strengthens Simona’s story of passion, drive and above all, the desire to put a smile on everybody’s face. One particular moment stood out to me. Simona visited a local Restaurant where she sat near the chefs window, something that would further ignite her passion for cooking and baking. More key moments were brought up during Simona’s stories and as a result, she quickly began to map her recent life across Calgary. If her story were to be mapped with a beginning, her fire ignited in her beautiful home city of Constanta Romania. Her journey is still beginning with her recent business and her plan for the future is to share her journey of cooking and baking in the core of downtown Calgary.
Adam Majer Methodology for creating an oral history map cannot be understated. The procedure by which we break down the task of collecting data, interpreting data, and communicating data establishes the framework for a successful map. It is important to not just look at the explicit data but the implicit, where the milieus become an integral aspect to understand a holistic perspective. The milieu, as explained by James Connor, can be described as surroundings, middle, and medium within a field of connections which comprises a potentially boundless field. When grounded with the site milieus invokes relationships, extensions and potentials created within these connections. The process of mapping milieus allows us to make visible that which otherwise would have been hidden or inaccessible. It is a balance between the virtual and the real through organizing and restructuring various strata which links the constant changes in emerging milieus. In mapping milieus this way we can present the constituent parts simultaneously which may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Michael McGinn How do you do someone’s memories justice? How can you adequately depict their feelings and emotions towards certain events in their lives? Food and family seem to be a common ground of sorts for understanding others. Empathizing with the experiences of others is made slightly easier when certain commonalities can be established, such as sharing a special meal with family for a holiday, or having a favourite dish that only a family member can make just right. Listening to the experiences of others and relating them back to your own on a deeper level can lead to the discovery of valuable information about yourself, and your understanding of the world.
Sarah McMillan James Corner wrote: “The experiences of space cannot be separated from the events that happen in it; space is situated, contingent and differentiated.” Made up of a complex “milieu” as Corner would call it, maps hold the potential to reveal these events through a new spatial light. Space, in this case, becoming a reflection of these events represented by a complex system unique to the “milieu” which is being mapped. Since we cannot walk the paths of others, mapping presents us with the opportunity to “achieve visibility through representation rather than through direct experience”. Given that a representation of human experiences, whereby experiences extend across geography, culture, and time, differs per person, mapping techniques must also differ per person to accurately reflect the subject. James Corner would use the term “field” to describe these different techniques and argue that the process should be as follows: “first, the creation of a field, the setting of rules and the establishment of a system; second, the extraction, isolation or 'de-territorialization' of parts and data; and third, the plotting, the drawing-out, the setting-up of relationships, or the 're-territorialization' of the parts”. A field first extracted than plotted, to reveal complex experiences across space.
Corner, “The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention,” Mappings, Denis Cosgrove (Ed.), (London: Reaktion, 1999): 213-52. Hannah Mousek It was agreed upon in our group discussion today that mapping has the potential to have a profound impact on the way we understand the world around us as a result of the curation of information and the effect it has on how we interpret the information and land. Something that struck me in the Corner reading was he pointed out the assumption we have that something is neutral because it is based on quantifiable data. Why do we put all of our trust in numbers? It’s made us disregard the value of understanding personal stories and journeys, all of which are important in how we connect with one another and empathize with those around us. Mapping is not to simply trace the physical space as it is – there is history and time that must be woven in to even begin to tell a land’s full story. Using only quantifiable data implies a limit, when there are many other moments that fall in between. Solnit incorporates history and knowledge of the past in her mapping, creating a new dimension of meaning and expanding the boundaries of time that exist on the map. In a way, she enables us to visit other worlds through the historical information she provides. Sometimes it is difficult to fully express how to map in a way that provides such dimension, just as it is difficult to really capture the senses and emotion in a format that is generally regarded as very visual.
Cindy Nachareun Data collection is a vital tool in organizing and further representing any information collected.
As Jaya shared the story of life in terms of immigration, her early life, and the formative years she spent in Dubai, abundance of information was gathered in an audio-visual manner. Though this data is largely grouped as an audio-visual file, what seems interesting is its classification into spatial, sensory, and experiential domains. Jaya goes on to describe her life in the different spaces she has lived in. Each space brings in a memory which speaks about her experience about the relationship she had to that space. Diving into food, the best way one can give recognition is by how the food smells. As renowned author Helen Keller quotes, “Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.”. Jaya walks a trip down the memory lane, recalling her mother’s kitchen and the food her mother made for her. She summarizes her mother’s kitchen to the smell of ginger and cumin. This sensory journey transports her back and forth from her mother’s kitchen to her own which she gives in to garlic and green chillies. The competent ways of analysing sensory feelings, spatial forms and relationships lures the mind map which forms the backbone of the project summarised by Jaya in distinct descriptive words – Nostalgia, Formative and Peace. Rujuta Nayak After the interview with Jaya and extracting all the information given in the clips, the next worry was how to build a personal map, what is the method to create this map and what are the themes involved. Maps in the twenty first century have became less human and very standardized, they mean nothing more than geographical location in a god’s eye view. To move beyond this, we must start thinking of ways to create a counter map, a post map, and a map that does not just represent information but creates new ones. The method which was important here is how these stories could be extracted not just based on verbal responses from the interview but nonverbal facial gestures and bodily gestures as well as verbal tones. In Jaya’s story, we have decided to focus on three verbal responses with their respective gestures as they were spoken: Nostalgia, Formative and Peace. These worlds sum up Jaya’s experience and feeling towards the three places she spent most of her life India, Dubai and Canada, respectively. These words and Jaya’s gestures will drive the conceptualization of the map, helping to create a personal map that also evokes emotion and experience pf the individual. These words and gesture serve as the base of the map, the field, highlighted through the milieu in which all the information received from Jaya exist. Within this field, numerous extracts such as food memories, job hunting in Canada, life in Dubai and family background will be laid out. Then connections between them plotted to create relationships and linkages between memories. Jaya’s story will become the basis of the map, creating a map that becomes more familiar with the subject, but less familiar with outsider, only until familiarization with Jaya’s story.
Ugonna Ohakim Mapping a city requires a system of ideas that help the viewer to understand what the central
argument is trying to illustrate. To understand earlier this morning on how we can map a city through aspects like connections, community, scale, storey, emotions and feelings, perspective and vision is key information to include in our final projects. These type of aspects are great examples that can put a viewer in someone else’s shoes and feel the life that they experienced. Before even mapping a city out, qualitative / quantitative data must be collected in order to understand which part goes where. My experience with talking to Margaret, the interviewee selected for my project made me realize that we should take things for granted rather then neglecting it. She tends to struggle with making and mapping her way in the city of Calgary through the use of food. Mapping Margaret’s life through her experience with food was the main objective for this project. The data regarding to food that we received from her interview came from Margaret’s smell, touch, taste, sound and sight. All these types of aspects will be information used to map out her experience in the City of Calgary. Another suggestion to map out Margaret’s experience with food was to create a past and present timeline. Basically indicating what stores she visited throughout the years in order for her to fulfil an ethnic polish meal. From this, we can map the list of places she visited such as Canadian or Polish food stores, places she visited for dinners and restaurants she attended. Daniele Orsini Today there was a strong emphasis on what mapping can do and the types of mapping used to
create language around certain topics that can be mapped. When mapping a city depending on the goal one must select a mapping style that will allow them to demonstrate and present the data in a way that speaks to the point they are trying to make. The mapping looks at networks, connection points, and spacing in a way that is ongoing and never finished. Talking with our group’s interviewee we were able to further apply the readings on mapping and the different types of mapping with her experiences and what our objective was with her mapping. This reflecting on the readings when speaking to her gave us a stronger understanding of how to map the city and what will apply to our mapping style in order to create a successful map of the city and experience. Natalie Sandelli Maps are not only a diagrammatic representation of a city and the physical features that exist within; but rather can retain loads of information, of not only the sensorial and ephemeral qualities of the city, but also tells narratives of places, people, memories and histories. In this sense, maps are everchanging, as the city is constantly evolving and never remains static; neither does a map. Our lives are also constantly changing, we experience many moments daily; and often we tend to associate certain moments and memories to our sensory experience throughout our lives. Whether this is through touch, smell, a particular taste, these experiences have the power to take us back to a moment in time and make us feel nostalgic.
It thus becomes imperative to map these sensorial experiences we encounter graphically. Whether it is through photographs or sounds, telling someone’s life story through maps allows other to experience, and connect with another’s life memories and moments. As architects we have always designed through a visual lens, and it becomes essential that we start to see the world and others through our senses and create maps that are evocative of an individuals’ narrative. Seeing the world through their perspective. A conversation that came up multiple times today, both when discussing the readings and discussing ideas for our group’s map, revolved around the level of transparency in maps. More often than not, maps only show locations and their current uses. There is not any information about what has happened at certain locations in the past. This picking and choosing of information covers up layers of history, both good and bad. This raises the question of what does our city hide from us? Who has the power to omit layers of history? All of the readings have demonstrated value in not just tracing different locations and landscapes, but being specific about exactly what has and what is happening there. This concept can be easily transferred to using a map to state and support an argument. It only seems fair if all of the information is presented to allow people to make an informed decision surrounding your argument. This method could be used to support many different types of arguments including changes over time and potential future conditions. These are values that we hope to carry through in our mapping exercise. Being very specific and descriptive about the locations we are highlighting on our map, what has happened there, who finds comfort in those spaces, and who values those spaces will help to tell Manashri’s story and how Clagary as a city
both helps and hinders immigrants' experiences. Erika Spencer Sieweke Much of we are having to do in this course deal peripherally with the elements of a human’s personal life. Mundane things like colour selection may impact the reading. So every element must be attuned to what is needed to tell her story. But it isn’t just her story now, as soon as it leaves her lips our interpretation shifts it, we will never be able to tell her story with the fidelity that she could, even if we repeated the words in which she related it the gestures and expressions and the emphasis would be lacking. But I realized today that this does not mean we are distorting it. We cannot deviate from the story, obviously. I use a metaphor to understand the difference. If her story was a picture, the process we put it through to make it available to the public does not mean we are presenting a different image, just that it’s a little less crisp, maybe cropped in some places. I think I am okay with that, the tricky part is in making sure that what we crop or blur focuses in on the story as she wants it told. Thankfully our interlocuter has made that incredibly easy.
Robin Vindum Whitteker Looking at the day-to-day experiences of someone in a different light, not as a list of tasks or things needed to be completed, but rather a journey through their moments in time and their personal reflections and beliefs. What might not be important might mean the world to someone else. For instance, our interlocutor found that the experiences in her day-to-day journey revolved mostly around the people she met and their interactions. She would cherish the moments when she would run into someone in her local store, which would extend a 5-minute trip into half an hour. By getting to know how she felt that this journey was important to herself allowed us to map it in a way that would reflect how she would move around Calgary in her own but unique way which would reflect her own personality and her own values. Being able to map personalities and experiences in a holistic manner allows for a more real representation of themselves archiving their journey with food.
Stephen Wilks The day held a lot of promise and was very eventful. Learning about how mapping can be done in different ways and how gradients can be mapped was very informing. Different types of maps can efficiently highlight different aspects of collected data. Everything can be mapped! Sounds, smells, patterns, what exists and what does not exist. Smells are very powerful; in that they can tell stories and reveal things that are not very obvious about a location or neighborhood. In the same way is food powerful. It can connect people and communities, from different backgrounds and walks of life and then knit them up in love. Food provides a canvas for numerous stories to be told and layered on, these stories have the potential to reveal memorable and valuable experiences about a person and the community, by extension. This was a major takeaway from interviewing a profound culinary expert today.
The mapping of our cities tends to explore a variety of spatial conditions through the lens of social, environmental, and economic factors, however limited in its representation and analysis. Typically in architecture and planning one maps data, producing explanatory maps that in turn ignores the human body and sensory experience. We use mapping to try and attach meaning to a specific architectural project, rather than allowing for the map to become the project which continually produces more questions and insights. Mapping an interaction, an experience, and converting the notion of data mapping to social exploratory drawings allows for an iterative process that has multiple layers and variables. Through the iterative process different senses can be explored and our cities can be felt through various perspectives and histories.
Sensory experience differs from place to place, and we associate ourselves and memories through how the human body reacts to a smell, taste, touch, etc. Senses have the power to bring us back to a moment and place in time, providing an overwhelming feeling whether that is comforting and nostalgic, or fearful and displeasing. For many, especially those living in a new and unfamiliar place, the senses can be comforting and remind them of home, acting as a crucial piece to how one adapts to a new landscape. Senses are prompted at different times and can also occur all at once providing sensory overload. The senses can combine memories of different places, where a warm gust of wind may trigger feelings of the warm air brushing your skin in your home country, while at the same time the smell of campfire reminds one of their new life in Canada. This multi-sensory human body experience is missing in how we map and design in such a visual explanatory way. Melissa Amodeo |
AuthorCalgary Archives is a collaborative creation of community members and architecture students at the University of Calgary. The stories and reflections posted here are written by the student participants. ReflectionsCategories |