After a long day of history homework, finishing a theory critique, and editing a Soundslides project in the 301 lab, I have crawled into the warm refuge of my bed, peacefully listening to the beautiful sounds of the website Folk Songs for the Five Points — http://www.tenement.org/folksongs/client/
I know Dr. Lowrey showed us this site in class the first week of media production tools (I actually can’t believe how long ago that feels now. It’s hard to believe this semester has happened as quickly as it has), but I wanted to revisit it, because I’ve found myself revisiting this site several times.
This is truly an innovative way of digital story telling. The main page is a map of New York City’s Lower East Side. There are five points that are highlighted on the map, but you can drag them to wherever you like. Each point features a sound — whether it’s an elderly resident sharing her story, a leaking fire hydrant, a folk artist strumming a guitar, or a family-owned deli — that actually do come from those locations on the map.
This is one of a few Folk Songs projects created in association with the Tenement Museum’s Digital Artists in Residents Program (http://www.tenement.org/prog_darp.html). I’ve also discovered sound maps of five different cities in Portugal and one of Manchester, England.
The ultimate goal is to explore immigration. Their goal, as the Folk Songs for the Five Points site says, isn’t to provide answers, but to “celebrate the unexpected richness that confronts you at every turn.”
And Folk Songs encourages interaction on their site. They want to know if people have any sound recording to contribute, or ideas for recordings if they lack the equipment. They also allow people to save their own mixes they’ve created, and a list of some of their favorites are in a link under the “Get Involved” tab.
This site does not indicate that these are professional journalists running it, or anything, or that they are seeking to uphold any journalistic standards in their storytelling. This isn’t a place where you’ll find hard-hitting journalism, but its goal is simply to tell the stories of the people around us, which I think it accomplishes effectively.
While this site does focus on sound — which, when you think about it, isn’t usually the way we observe a culture, by simply listening to it— it does incorporate some visual aspects. When you click on the points across the map, an image will show up on the right side bar with a bit of information about the location. One thing they do very well is the diversity in the sounds they collect. Also, they don’t have regulated times for each of the sound clips. Some are longer than others, to give each sound “its own pulse.”
If only we could do this in Tuscaloosa. And I say that with all seriousness. I would love to delve into a project like this. Imagine sounds of students on the Quad, interviews with people riding the Tuscaloosa Trolley, plates heavy with miraculous food being set onto tables at the Waysider, the wind brushing through the trees by the Black Warrior River, a train chugging through the middle of town, and locals browsing for fresh fruits and vegetables at the farmers markets.
I think the Folk Songs Project has found a truly inspiring way to capture the beauty and the diversity of culture and society. And I think doing a project like this in Tuscaloosa would reveal to so many people how unique the culture is here.
1 Comment
November 10, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I think you should try it here!