Assignment 3: Research practice and development
This past weekend marked the launch of festival season in Seattle. As an exercise to practice our research techniques in urban space, Lisa and I set out to study the University Street Fair.
As we walked from campus to the south entrance of the fair, which runs from NE Campus Parkway up to 50th, we discussed what kinds of details we’d try to be alert to. I had mentioned in my discussion board post that I wanted to study how the city of Amsterdam provides space for recreation, and how that space defines and informs us as to the nature of recreational experiences. This idea originated when I was looking at photographs taken at the mudbowl and noticed that where forest or empty fields surround other schools’ rugby pitches, ours is surrounded by traffic and shops. That Seattle makes space in the middle of urban commercial space for parks and sports fields speaks to a distinctly Seattleite attitude of appreciation toward recreational activity. Lisa was an obvious choice to work with because she’s interested in studying environmental norms. There is a considerable amount of overlap in space allocated to environmental conservation and space used for recreation. We hope to study the relationship between the two topics and what that relationship means about both individually.
So ANYWAY. The first thing we encountered when we began to explore the fair was a man in a mini-kilt laying out mats in front of a stage. He asked us to step around him, as he was constructing a dance floor. This was clear evidence of a conversion of public space for recreational use. We weren’t able to stay and observe the actual dancing, but I imagine to myself that the crowd mostly stood and watched a few over-enthusiastic participants.. possibly including the rainbow scarf man (we saw him further down the Ave).
We stopped to watch a few street performers. One performer had four audience members recline on each other’s bellies, forming a square, with their knees bent at a ninety degree angle such that they were balanced on their feet. Then he stood between them and juggled knives (Ha ha!). One of the four guys wriggled out of the arrangement and ran for freedom.
So most fair-goers aren’t dancing or allowing knives to be juggled over them. The vast majority of us were slowly making our way down the street, stopping to buy fair food and smell organic scented candles made of vegetal wax at one of the many stalls that line the streets. Signposts at each intersection directed people to food courts, restrooms, and information booths. More and more, the street fair begins to resemble a mall. The online map shows that the fair is overwhelmingly populated by crafts and food vendors, with community info booths hidden on Brooklyn. These observations evidence an obsession with consumerism. Why do we have a street fair? Mostly because we want to pay five dollars for an elephant ear.
As we begin to develop and finesse our project, we can do preliminary research online by looking up maps and legal documents. When we get to Amsterdam, we survey people’s attitudes toward recreation, and discover how they define it. We can observe how public space is utilized for these purposes.
