Author Archives: Alex McDonagh

About Alex McDonagh

PhD Researcher at University of Salford

Thematic Structure Revisited

Today I have been wondering about the themes that I have identified so far in the data. These are three main themes of Place, Memory and Being which appeared to dominate as topics with three subthemes for each of Self, Family and Community. It strikes me that I might have this backwards, since Self/Family/Community seem far more accessible topics. This has made me wonder about how I analysed the data – as though somehow I overlooked the ‘peopleness’ of the data from the participants and instead focused on the ‘parkness’. I question whether a couple of things in particular were influential here.

First of all, I used data analysis software QDA Miner and in so doing perhaps the narratives became separated from their origin (i.e. people) which meant that the subthemes of self, family and community somehow took a backseat rather than being the main aspects of the data.

Secondly, perhaps I have been too romantically focused on the data and secretly hoping to develop some interesting themes, to make an impact of some sort. On some level, I think that I felt a pressure to identify esoteric, deep and intelligent sounding themes. Place/Memory/Being sound reasonably philosophical and academic.

Now I’m looking at the themes and thinking how inaccessible those initial three are, not just to my participants, but to everybody. This represents a step away from my grounded-theory-based aims. With this in mind, I am fairly sure that I will change the main themes to the more relatable self/family/community. It’s just a good thing that my digital approach so far will not make this switch difficult…

Merleau-Ponty and digital heritage

I have been reading just a very little Merleau-Ponty and have found some resonance with my recent thoughts about digital media and heritage and culture. Merleau-Ponty talks about the issue of ‘attention’ and the supposition generally held that we have only to pay attention to our senses and the truth of our perception will be revealed. For him, intellectualisation of our senses implies objective understanding of them and this is a problem.

The problem is that we compartmentalise the senses as well as proceed from a biased standpoint – i.e. if we explore something in terms of visuality then we are bound to discover things from this point of view. Scientifically paying ‘attention’ to our vision suggests that we are able to grasp it fully and, what I am getting from Merleau-Ponty, that vision is a discrete and separate sense to any other. In fact our “sense of sight” may involve several things which we do not normally examine in detail; e.g. why do we not think of senses of brightness, colour, movement?

This reminds me of Wittgenstein insofar as we are limiting our potential for understanding our senses. Crudely put, by discussing our senses in terms of only 5 types (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) we limit the language with which we aim to understand the senses. Merleau-Ponty’s comments remind me also of Grounded Theory, because the aim for him rather than paying ‘attention’ to our senses would appear to be to let sensual experiences speak for themselves. Just as Glaser and Straus aimed to avoid confirming the work of past scholars and develop new theory, so does Merleau-Ponty aim to avoid confirming sensual intellectualisation and explore what senses are before epistemological constructions.

This issue is relevant to digital heritage representation because digital media filters and reduces the terms with which we are able to explore cultural phenomena. Indeed, it crystallises phenomena into snapshots, whether passive or ‘interactive’. More importantly, of course, digital media still privileges sight and hearing over the other senses.

My data so far involves stories about Towneley Park which are all-encompassing experiences of space, presence and memory. It seems clear to me that coding my data is analogous to paying ‘attention’ to the senses, while the medium through which these data are expressed and interpreted further forces me to pay attention to the data from the perspective of, mostly, visuality and sound.

It is no surprise that digital representations of human body experiences may lose something in translation. However, if even the development of sophisticated virtual reality hardware and software is to be based on the premise of 5 separate senses, is digital representation fundamentally flawed because it may be built on a flawed intellectualisation of the human condition?

Digital Museum Fictions

I’ll give a spoiler alert for this post because, although I have no intention of giving away important plot elements, I am going to talk about Interstellar and I don’t want it to be ruined for anybody here!

I really enjoyed the film on many sci-fi levels, but I was surprised to come across a museumified house in the later part. The house was very much like a heritage centre with screens showing video interviews with contemporaries of the house and the era it was meant to represent. What I thought was interesting was that the portrayal of this house was so easily recognisable as a museum.

The house which formed the museum was recognisable as a 21st century house (in the film a late 21st century house, perhaps) although the museum was present in a 22nd century context. The intention may have been to demonstrate a particular museum style to a 22nd century audience. There are current examples of this, such as the Victorian gallery at Salford Museum and Art Gallery which attempts to display its artefacts and artworks as they would have been arranged in a Victorian context. This cabinet of curiosities approach is an interesting way of showing us how museums used to be, but it does run the risk of invoking all the power structures and biases of (in Salford’s case) the Victorian era; without adequate explanation, the visitor will find their engagement with the exhibition limited to a bygone representational context, preventing alternative perspectives on the artefacts or multiple interpretations.

The Interstellar house museum is surprisingly low-tech. Video screens are pretty commonplace today and of course there are a number of more sophisticated media options now available. If Christopher Nolan orchestrated that museum representation specifically then it would seem that his message is that museums will not use much in the way of digital technology in the next few decades. It seems more likely that the museum representation had less attention paid to it than the rest of the film  and, as such, perhaps we can say that perceptions of museums from outside the heritage industry are that museums are not actually very progressive. What does it mean if it seems realistic to a Holywood production team that museums of the future will not incorporate interactive screens, holograms of previous occupants or virtual tour guides?

On the other hand, there is much to be said for the phenomenological aspect of the museum in the film. The house is there to be experienced; walked through, smelled, heard, seen. Nonetheless this is quite traditional, with rope barriers reminiscent of National Trust houses. The interpretation, I feel, is closed and restricted by traditional museological approaches. The subjectivity of the video interviews on display seems to offer little when the subject matter of the house, and its significance to its previous owners, isn’t expressed or interpreted beyond simple display.

It seemed to me that the absence of digital media engagement was a signifier of how far we have yet to go for people to feel digital technology has a legitimate place in museums.

What do you think? Is it just a film?

Thematic Structure

Now I need to develop the website in much more detail. I have my work cut out for me, but one of the most difficult things to do has been to develop a thematic framework for the ‘online exhibition’ or website. I have finally managed to come to some conclusions here after looking over my data and reading Nicks (2002 : curatorship in the exhibition planning process).

I have opted for a contextual thematic structure which contains three main aspects:

– Park Spaces : What participants felt about discrete places or general spaces of the park

– Park Memories : memories that the participants have expressed related to the park

– Park Beings : Responses by the participants to how the park affects their bodies and minds; the human being and its relationship with the park

Each of these themes has a sub theme of Self / Family / Community.

In order to address the importance of ‘history’ identified by the participants I intend to include historical images of the park so that users may compare present day with the past. Thus ‘history’ will run through the exhibition as a separate theme.

Similarly the interest in change (seasonal and socio-temporal) will be addressed by including a timeline populated by significant the participants’ interactions with the park and through the inclusion of time lapse footage to represent landscape change.

In many ways this step has reduced my anxiety about the project because it offers me methodological rationale for the inclusion or exclusion of narrative data in the development of the site.

I have called the site “Digital Towneley” for now, but I am not so sure that this will be the best name because it will clearly force ‘digital’ preconceptions which I may want to avoid.

There is still a lot to do…!

Negative Meanings

Some of the meanings that I suppose we might identify as negative (e.g. litter, carpark charges, conflict between groups) are difficult to envisage as part of my representation. I think this is because I am anxious about upsetting people; many of the negative aspects are related to other participants. But excluding the negative aspects seems too dishonest. The negative meanings (the term “negative” itself is not perfect, but will do here) seem to indicate a “nowness” to the park; they crystalise the park’s function and symbolise the work and maintenance required for this function to work. Can I include negative meanings without insulting some of the participants? Is it possible to just present these negativities as multiple vocalities?

Development and neglect

I have been neglecting my blog terribly, but it has been very difficult to justify to myself the time to spend on it in the face of getting PhD work done and family stuff.
Last week I presented on my research progress at the Leisure Studies Association conference at the University of the West of Scotland. The experience was very helpful and one of the questions made me think about the nature of my digital outcome. I was asked if the digital representation of Towneley Park would simply provide a carbon copy of the quiet contemplative appreciation of nature; will it simply reinforce already accepted and predominant perceptions of nature and crystallise them?

The first answer to this is that it wouldn’t matter if it did reproduce predominant perceptions because the important aspect is identifying what the participants feel about the park and exploring the success of its translation into digital media. However, it is already clear that what is important about the park is not static. The participants have been expressing so much about the park that is linked to the seasons, the cycles of their lives, to movement through the park or change in oneself by being in the park. The meanings of the park are not crystallisable because they are uses and they are processual and continual.

So, a recap to cover the absent blog entries.

The story-based nature of the interviews and the data collected so far was pointed out to me by my supervisors last month. Owing to this, I am now aiming to explore the data collected using an approach of narrative analysis. This should help me to analyse not only the interview contents, but also the use of the park space. So here there is narrative expressed through language (spoken and written/transcribed) (Fraser 2004; Schorch 2014 ) but also through the use of space and the use of the body (de Certeau 1984; Tilley 1994). The second stage of data collection is currently underway and involves me visiting the park with participants in order to collect phenomenological, or phenomenologically-prompted, data. Although all aspects of discussing the park are in my view part of knowing the park, it is this second data collection stage which holds a strong sense of “practice as research” for me.

Development of the digital representation has recently been influenced by the following things:

the narrative nature of the park meanings
commonly expressed notions of variety and choice within the park by the participants
thoughts about narrative and choice inspired by an independent game “The Stanley Parable”

These things have led me to consider incorporating aspects of game architectures into the representation of the park…

Gaming at Towneley on the light side

Gaming at Towneley on the light side

No, not with shotguns and coin collecting (at least not with this research project). Rather, I am hoping to incorporate some of the narrative techniques used in game structures which can help to create a sense of place or at least a sense of involvement. This part of my research is in the early stages and I am not aiming to construct anything especially complex, but I am hoping to be able to use a gaming framework to help tell and make accessible multiple Towneley Park stories

Sound Archive

Visited North West Sound Archive in Clitheroe. There are some entries on Burnley at the archive which were interesting to listen to. Some of the memories may prove useful as contributions to my project data, though it is important to note that, unlike the participants, these contributors will be unable to help develop the digital representation. While at the Sound Archive I discussed my plans with the two guys there who both had very helpful advice on conducting the interviews. After speaking with them I realised that I had an unrealistic idea of how the interviews would work. For some reason I thought that I would just be able to ask the participant some sort of starter question and then they would share all of their interesting and rich subjective experiences. This was obviously ridiculous, so I have taken the advice I received and have paid more attention to my prompting questions and to the opening questions.

Contact!

I have had some contact from two members of the public who have independently seen my posters in the park – this is quite exciting! Information packs and letters of consent have been sent out.

I spoke with Jacques last week and he suggested contacting the local newspaper and local radio stations to see if they might be interested in my research as a news feature and so drum up some interest; I contacted these and await any response.

Further contact has also been made with the Council’s green spaces department and the community cohesion officer; both have been very helpful.

I submitted an abstract for consideration at the Leisure Studies 2014 conference. I should have data to discuss by then. It is strange to think of this future me, armed with data and a raft of problems that I have yet to encounter.

Meeting With Towneley Park Group

Today I attended the meeting of the Friends of Towneley Park. I was anxious because I wasn’t sure how I would be received. I had agreed to explain my project in a 5 minute slot on the agenda – I found it difficult to simplify my aims in this regard and hope that I got the main thrust across well enough. Some of the group had questions, raising their own partiality towards the park; I explained that this was not an issue for my own research. Two of the attendees handed me back a completed consent form that morning, which was encouraging.

The meeting in general was very interesting. There was much discussion about maintenance of things, like the bird feeders and noticeboards and the mobility scooters. More interesting was the relationship with the council. A representative of the Council’s Green Spaces department was at the meeting and it was interesting to see that the group and the Council clearly communicate in order to achieve their goals together.

There is also a ‘heritage’ aspect of the council’s interest. This was highlighted in the meeting when the members discussed the Italian Garden found next to the hall. Some of the members wanted benches to be placed on a slightly raised area so that the garden could be seen by the visitors to the park; other members, however, stated that the intention of the garden was that it be seen only from the first floor of the hall. This also seemed to be the Council’s approach. Within this group, then, despite a broadly similar demographic, there is contention.

Near the end of the meeting I found myself agreeing to give a couple of guided tours of the park to visiting groups. I am a little anxious about this, as I am not sure I have the required knowledge of the Park and Hall – the group say that they’ll bring me up to speed. Should be interesting…!

Digital Reminiscences

Duke Nukem 1 (image: dosgamesarchive.com)

Duke Nukem 1 (image: dosgamesarchive.com)

The fast developing festive season has been making me think of Duke Nukem. Duke Nukem is a computer game in which the player controls the eponymous character in his struggle to defeat Dr Proton. It is a simple platform game that was released in the early nineties which, as the long nights drew in at the end of a winter term, is when my best friend handed me a blue floppy disk with the first levels on it. I played the game a lot.

What has this got to do with heritage? Well, there are two aspects that I would like to talk about here.

Doom (image: dosgamesarchive.com)

Doom (image: dosgamesarchive.com)

Firstly, for me the memory of playing Duke Nukem includes my spatial awareness of the levels. As I explored the levels I learned where things were. The layout mapped itself out in my brain and I was aware of the larger space of the level even though the screen only showed a small section. A little later, I found a similar experience with the game Doom. Again, the levels were learned through exploration. Even though both games were linear such that their events were strictly scripted and therefore replicable, I found the sense of place and space to be realistic.

This, I think, is owing to the way in which we are allowed to explore the limits of the environment created in the games. I hesitate to use the word ‘freedom’ because games are very restricted environments for the player. However, in many ways these restrictions mirror the real world where we find many barriers, whether physical or social. By being allowed to manipulate the avatar (which is of course just a graphical representation of computer code) the human player is able to explore the extent of the environment and to learn the ‘shape’ of the virtual world they explore. Many games allow this sort of exploration, but there are others which do not. The Lucasarts adventure games were, for example, excellent stories which created convincing and hilarious senses of place, but they weren’t able to create senses of space because their worlds were constructed of separate scenes which did not always seem to link together in a logical way spatially. Similarly, I find this with films. While a film may create very effective emotional connections with characters or give the viewer a convincing sense of cultural place, a sense of space cannot be achieved to any great extent (even with 3D) because the viewer is not able to explore the limits of the world themselves.

In this way, I see that games have an important role to play in the expression of heritage and culture. Even if they are not really ‘interactive’, the effect of manipulating an avatar or similar is an effective way to simulate using spaces for the human player. A video played at a heritage centre or an interactive information screen of artefacts at a museum can be excellent ways of conveying information about various elements of culture. However, a game may allow the user to develop a sense of space and so explore the idea of more subjective aspects of history, culture and the environment. Such an approach may allow the player the chance to apply their own perspectives onto heritage and so help to widen the audience and perhaps democratise accessibility. Of course, there are still issues of representation, since some group or body will be responsible for the creation of any game world and this can bring along plenty of complex power issues.

The second element of gaming that I would like to talk briefly about is the socially constructed nature of the technology. I looked forward to playing computer games (and I still do, when I have the time). Being reminded of Duke Nukem and the time of year brought back memories of getting home from school with the light fading and settling safely and warmly in front of the family computer to zap some monsters. Even learning to use the computer at a software and a hardware level provided me with a positive learning experience. The computer and the role of computer games in my life are positive memories linked to a happy childhood. As such it seems likely to me that I have followed a course bound to result in a positive opinion of gaming technology.

Moreover, the content of the games were accessible to me because I fit neatly into the target demographic. While I could never completely identify with the macho alpha male characters, my own youthful ignorance meant that there was very little which excluded me from engaging with these games. The same may not be said for others for whom violence, androcentricism and sexism (among many other flaws) may have been offensive. On the one hand I feel that this is being addressed by some game developers and the wider accessibility of the independent games market, but on the other there are still serious issues for the games industry to tackle; not least of which the continuing (and in my view worsening) sexualised representation of women in games and gaming advertising campaigns which are akin to newspaper and magazine pornography.

These issues call into question the equalising nature of the digital environment. With a gaming industry hostile to women (again, among others) it seems unlikely that the public will broadly accept the use of games as a method to help develop heritage or historical meanings; for some there would always be a concern about the agenda of a gaming approach given the associations with the gaming industry. But perhaps the use of games in museums and heritage centres would somehow influence representation in gaming – certainly if it turned out to be popular.

Is this possible? What do you think about the role of games in heritage and history?