On Tuesday, we finished the Storymap.  Or at least, we thought we did.  There is still a lot of work to be done and things to be fixed.  It is mostly aesthetical, but it has added up to a lot to fit into the next few days.  Just a little bit longer and then we are live!
At times like these, I am so grateful for both my teams.  Throughout this project, I have developed not only close relationships with my classmates, but productive one’s, too.  My teammates have my back, whether they are a part of the Silkworm family or a member of my Heart.  I wish that I had the opportunity to engage with my peers on this level in my other courses.  This was an unexpected outcome of this course.  Yes, we had course objectives that targeted content/skill, but we did not even stop to think about the value of student collaboration.  At least I didn’t.
As a silkworm, it has been amazing to see the ups as well as the downs through out this course.  Every person I talk to is having a different experience.  Everyone seems to have focused on one thing or another based on what suites their fancy.  Although the content of this course still strikes me as not particularly cohesive, I do believe that every single person has gotten something out of it.  It is impossible to look at these map’s and think otherwise.
To a degree, because I am a Silkworm, I feel like I’ve almost missed out on the satisfaction of generating a topic and becoming absolutely infatuated with.  Yes, I get to learn totally awesome things from the hard work my classmates put in, but I do not actually have anything to contribute.  It’s weird–although these last few weeks would have been far more stressful had I been writing up the project, it is projects like these that make me feel like I’ve accomplished something.  It’s at the end of a big project that I realize (time after time) why I am in school, and I appreciate it.
That said, although we are so close to being done, the course does not feel complete yet.  I’m missing something, still.   Will I shake this feeling when the website goes live?  Or perhaps when I go to China?
I’ll have to wait and see.  But for now, I am so proud of us all.  Now for the finishing touches…

This is one of my favorite clips from the movie The Illusionist, made by Sylvain Chomet.  Perhaps seemingly irrelevant, but it struck a chord with me.  This is what’s going on back stage; this is TRUE TEAMWORK.

Somehow it slipped by me to write my post last week–SO get ready for a double-whammy!  I’m sure I’ll have lots to talk about, as we are getting ready for data input!  Hopefully by Wednesday we will have all information/media gathered, written up, and ready to upload.  Tierney will then help us actually upload it all.
Last week the Silk Worms met with Tierney and played around with Google My Maps.  It was SO cool!  Very straightforward and easy to use, and very perfect for this project.  In fact, I kind of want to just make a Google My Maps for every trip I’ve ever taken.  It’s that useful of a tool.
My desire to use this database operated by Google makes me think on how we can’t use Google in China  What an enormous barrier!  I don’t usually have to think about censoring or about what information is forbidden.  It all started to seem really real during the break-out session for the abroad trip when we were discussing what reading we had to do while in the U.S. and how we should clean off the documents that we have been reading in class just in case they’re a red flag.  I have so many documents on my computer that I love and cherish and look back on continuously.  It’s like my own little library on here.  I guess I’ll just have to back it up on a hard drive…
Last week was all about maps.  Maps, maps, maps.  I actually really enjoyed it.  When I was younger, I didn’t even no where my own state was on a map, let alone Kuqa, China.  I really had it in my head that geography was something that I could not do–that my brain was not fit for it.  What I’m starting to see with these tests is that I am perfectly fit (then again, I haven’t actually gotten the test back…).  The world actually makes sense!  Borderlines are not arbitrary, they are built to fit the land.  That is why, I am particularly pleased that this map actually involved us drawing the lines, not just marking a dot.  That said, it was shockingly hard to do it.  It was like learning how to draw cartoons–you learn how to draw 1000 perfect circles, and then you’ll know how to draw any cartoon in the world.  But this was more like scribbling.  And I still only know how to draw Central Asia.
Here’s a stupid youtube video of my surprisingly favorite cartoon character to draw–Tazmanian Devil.  You better laugh.

 
 

Coming back, I think we all feel a pressure to have some sort of solid work to present.  As the Silk Worm, I do not feel that stress but I am waiting anxiously to see where we are headed.  I trust that the members of my group will come through.  From the beginning, I think my group members and I imagined this project to be much more elaborate than it is.  When we (the Silk Worms, Eric, Zhihong, and Tierney) broke it down the other week, we were all able to breathe a little more easily.  It is always best to make things as least complicated as possible.
That said, while awaiting for the research my team gathered, I was quite inspired by the content of this weeks readings.  The readings focused around music along the Silk Road and the convergence of culture.  What struck a chord with me was the clips of Abigail Washburn performing.  Abigail Wahburn is a world renowned singer and banjo player who also has a background in Chinese.  I became aware of her and her work after listening to an ON BEING episode.  ON BEING with Krista Tippett is a wonderful podcast that explores what it means to be human in modern day.  This particular episode starred Abigail Washburn and her husband, Bele Fleck.  Although it was not specifically about Abigail’s travels and music performed in China, it focused in the bridging of past and present and different peoples through music.  I found a really neat video that reflects this:

The video was contributed by Chris Heagle, who is the producer and technical director of “On Being.”  The video captures the magic of what music brings to a moment.  In the video, Abigail Washburn is sitting in a room in Urumqi among a Uygher feast sharing an impromptu jam session with her band and friends.  What strikes me about this clip is the mingling of language and sound.  She is singing an American classic–Wayfaring Stranger–yet is accompanied by traditional Chinese instruments.  WHAT A SOUND!
My group and I have decided to focus on the present–what even is contemporary Chinese music?  What we are discovering is that the “music of the Silk Road” may not take place on the Silk Road at all, but instead is performed in California and New York, etc.  This brings up questions of authenticity in art.  Does mixing sound, culture, and language somehow make an art form disingenuous?  These are the questions that we are playing with.

On a side note, I have a new favorite word that I came across in the this weeks readings.  It is SYMBIOSIS.  I don’t know how it took me so long to learn of it because it is nothing but excellent.

SYMBIOSIS = a mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups

Today we had a tech lab on using Storymap JS.  IT WAS SO COOL!  To finally do what we’ve been talking about this whole time was invigorating.  What a cool program!  I sensed that most of us in the room felt this way.  All of us were plugged in, and in the best sort of way.  Now I know where the sweetness of this project lies.
I decided to map out all of the buildings that my family members work in, in Center City, Philadelphia.  I chose a map “Open Street Maps: Standard” as my map design, which provided an incredible amount of detail for that particular area of the city.  It was colorful and beautiful.  I put about six locations on the map all within about a six block radius.  This felt a little clunky though.  I was mapping out 3 peoples work places, so I wish there was a way to identify each of the pin points as an individual person (i.e. my moms pins are blue, my dad’s are green, etc.).  I also wish that there was a way that we could draw lines between the points.  How cool would it be to see how their commute route?  I also had an idea of putting the transportation systems that they use on the map to show where they are all coming from, but without a line connecting the spots it seems a little silly.  Also, I was thinking that it would be really cool if we could find the exact distance between each spot.  What a useful tool this could be!
One can use Storymap for so much.  You could map out your vacation, or use it to show your hometown.  The possibilities are numerous.  Another thing that I also noticed Storymaps is lacking is the ability to put multiple media clips/links at one location.  It looks like one has to decide between putting a video or a photograph, etc.  It would be ideal if we could put a street view image with the location as well as a link to the website and a clip of what they do over there.  The way it is, I felt a little confined in what I chose to show.
A cool project I thought of was to map out contemporary photography scene in China.  Are any of us researching contemporary topics?  It would be pretty cool to research and then actually see these places or meet the people running them.  I guess we’re doing this to a degree already, though.
I can’t believe how much fun I had on the computer today.  Usually, I try to avoid the computer at all costs.  Today though I was totally infatuated.  Hopefully today was just as inspiring for my classmates as it was for me.  I can’t wait to meet up with my group and hear about their experience.  I wonder if today’s lab changed their vision of the what our project will be.  Maybe it also helped them to narrow down what it is they want to research and show.
Lets hope xx

Blogging has been hard to keep track of.  I think I need to set an alarm or something to remember to do it.  More and more I’m questioning my scheduling tactics–I don’t write anything down.  I just rely on my own memory.  How much more productive would I be if I scheduled out blocks of time to do specific things?  Organization, I’m finding, is key to being a TA.  I’m fairly organized, but there are certainly areas in which I’m lacking.
This week I have greatly enjoyed the readings on Islam.  We read a piece written by Seyyed Hossein Nasr on Islamic religion and history, as well as some writings on and by Rumi.  Islam is very unfamiliar to me, but what I read I loved!  Many of the ideologies we read about reminded me of what I know about Hinduism.  There is something about non-dualistic religions that strike me as beautiful.  Islam is that, but pays particular attention to God.  These readings hit close to home for me.  More than that, they fueled a fire from within that I’ve left to dwindle over the last few years.
I first encountered Rumi in my yoga studies–there is always a Rumi poem that comes up in practice.  It is cool to read about Rumi in a different context.  In yoga, we only take what applies to our own life.  In the context of Islam, every line is relevant.  What does this say about the importance of presentation?  Is it ethical to read the words of Rumi in all scenarios?  How can I apply these thoughts to our map project?
The project…isn’t going too hot at the moment.  The Map Test really set us back.  Hopefully this weekend we’ll be able to dig our teeth in and get a clear picture of where we are at before starting Fall Break.

Duhduhduduhn!  I just completed the first map test!  And it took me way too long.  The test was (although very long) pretty cool.  I must say, I learned a lot.  For the first time all semester, I finally have some clue as to where all that we have been learning is–and let me tell you, by knowing where it is, I feel like I have a better grasp on what it is, too.
The test covered a large range of topics from routes explored, to current events, to geographic terrain and borderlines.  It required a lot of looking at the map and not just memorizing where each place is, but understanding the geographic pattern of terrain.  That said, I had to look at the map a lot just to be sure.  I found interactive websites the most helpful–there was one that took us through Marco Polo’s route and one site that had a map that showed not only the routes of explorers, but also the religious belief of each region, the language primarily used, etc.  I also did many extensive google searches.  Wikipedia and Google Maps became my best friend.
It was really cool to see what’s already out there (mapping wise).  There are some neat maps I found on China made with  Google Maps and Timemaps.  The Timemap I found seemed a little clunky.  There were many dates, but the organization of them all was not quite clear.  I think that when my team builds our Storymap, we should be weary about how many slides we include.  Also, it kind of makes me want to set a window of time that our project is focused on (maybe over a 200 year span?).
I also wanted there to be more pictures.  On Friday, we had another tech lab with Tierney about Shared Shelf.  Of course I had heard of Shared Shelf, but I had never used it before.  It seems pretty straightforward and simple.  The only thing that bums me out is that I now have to take an extra step to put any picture in my blog–which makes me not want to put any pictures in my blog.  See, I’m already doing it.  I’ll get over it at some point, I’m sure.
My team hasn’t met for a few days now.  We’ve all been overwhelmed with work and the current events going on in Charlotte.  So long as we get back on the horse this coming week, I think we will be just fine.
Till then…
 

The tides are high here on the Digital Silk Road.  Right now we are in a bit of a adjustment period.  Think about it: Digital Humanities can seem a little like chaining a bunch of humanities students to the computer.  We’re humanities students!  We like books, not blogging!  I keep thinking back to a phrase that a teacher of mine once said: when the tides are high and the winds are strong, lower your sail.
This week has been hard.  The work load has gotten the better of us.  My whole team has been working hard, but so far there hasn’t been any great pay off.  My fear is that we are getting lost in our research and forgetting to keep our scope narrow.  Because we do not have a vision for our finished product, it is hard to find direction.
Here are things that I think we need to keep in mind as we move forward:

• We will be using a contemporary map!  We can attach photographs of old maps into our Storymap, but we cannot trace our route on it.
• We have to be explicit in what we are and are not looking at.  It is only ethical to do so.

What I have been stressing to the team this week is to be mindful of how our information is being presented.  What story we tell must fit the framework of Storymap JS.  Therefore, we do not have to think about time as much as we do about space.  Check out some examples of Storymaps here.
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Speaking of presentation, the other Silkworms and I met with Tierney to discuss how to be administrators of the blog.  I won’t go into the nitty-gritty details, but we did stumble upon the subject of web design.  I realized how much I care about making this site look good.  I think in all our efforts to get this course up and going we have made one over-site:  making a webpage that people actually see is not EASY!  And if anyone actually does see it, it better be visually enticing–otherwise they will exit right out of the window.  To address these problems, we need to do a few things:

• Start placing “Tags” on our posts.  I suggest that each team comes up with a series of tags that they consistently use in their blog posts.  This will be key in getting viewers!
• Because we are blogging so frequently, we should start to make our posts pretty.  We should stress that everyone incorporates at least one image in each post, and should use at least one hyperlink.  Keep it interactive!

Both of these things should be started sooner rather than later.  It will make going “live” smoother.

The image above was taken by the Japanese photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto.  It is a silver gelatin print taken in 1992 of the Yellow Sea, Cheju.  I first stumbled upon this artist, actually, while I was staying at a friends house.  They had an original hanging right in guest bedroom!  I did some research and quickly realized that Sugimoto is a BIG deal.  Check out the rest of his Seascapes series here!
 

The Heart…

I am [the head of] the Heart. Puns aside, this simply means that I am the Project Manager of the Heart Team.  Thus far, my role has led me to take a bit of a backseat in developing our research topic. My work instead is mainly advisory. I’ve facilitated the team as they’ve delegated their own roles, developed a timeline for their work and a topic proposal. I sit back and try to visualize their ideas as a digital project—that is, I try to determine if there is enough information on the subject matter, if the topic needs to be narrowed down, if there is a narrative, if it’s in our technical means, etc. If I can’t see it, then something needs to be modified.   Funny as it may sound, this vantage point isn’t easy for me—if anything, I’m a bit of a backseat driver.
Perhaps this wouldn’t be the case if our project weren’t so darn cool! The Heart Team has proposed to observe the ways in which religion, ritual, and music interact in the Mongolian Steppe. Our hope is that we can trace how the diffusion of musical traditions relate to these practices. If we are able to find that there is a relationship, we are going to follow an instrument that has played a significant role in a tradition across time and space—such as the horsehead fiddle.
Below is a video that explains a little bit about the horsehead fiddle:

An instrument such as the horsehead fiddle, provides insight and narrative about tradition and culture. It not only provides a narrative, but it raises questions about how the Steppe culture has been influenced by music and how music has been influenced by the Steppe culture. For instance, the Steppe are deeply tied to horses—and the horsehead fiddle not only emulates a horse, but is made up of horse parts.  Is there any relevance to this notion? We seek to tell a story that approaches this question.
What I am most concerned with is narrowing our topic down. Our tactic in choosing a topic was for every person in the group to state where their interests lie. We then took this cumulative list and worked to find a topic that could encapsulate it all. Ritual is an extremely broad subject. Can we really capture it all?
I trust the team. Partially why I have not put the brakes on our brainstorming is because I believe that if there is a way to do this, my team will figure it out. We won’t know how it all connects until our research is done—then we can be selective.

The Team…

Team roles include a timekeeper, a reporter, a recorder, and a facilitator. All roles have been well matched with a team member.  Our process of delegation came pretty naturally. Right off the bat, Nathan helped to facilitate the group. Not all the roles were as clear though; every person seems just as equipped to take on any of the roles. So, more out of default we assigned Emily to be the reporter, Jilly as the recorder, and Emma as the timekeeper. So long as each person stays engaged with their position I don’t think we’ll run into any problems.
On top of their team roles, they all have their individual research to do. Emma is specifically looking at the ways in which diffusion has influenced musical instruments along the Silk Road. Emily is researching musical movements and the ways they have influenced the performative qualities of Shamanism. Nathan is interested in religious ritual as well, but with a specific focus on music’s role in medicine and healing.   Jilly is observing the ways in which place, religion and politics have influenced traditions of dance and music.

Research Methods…

I need to stress finding common ground. Of course, there is some overlap in subject matter, but I think we also have to shape our ideas to compliment one another. Thus far, the common thread seems to be the horse. Perhaps I will suggest that in these next two weeks we start focusing our research on the horse and allow this information to determine our personal topics.
I am afraid that having such a broad topic will lead our members to stray far apart, causing our collective body of work to not be cohesive. Because of this, having regular meetings will be very important. Perhaps, we should also have work-sessions in which we allot time with the group to do our own personal research.

How’m I Doin’…

Enough about my team—what about me? When I first started working on the Digital Silk Road Project, my role was a lot different than what it is now. Essentially, I was doing what my team members are in the midst of—deciphering my passions and matching them to a time and place along the Silk Road. I chose photography as my passion and devised a plan to explore the ways in which photography is used and exploited, and how it reflects culture along the Silk Road. This project has been left incomplete. When I chose to be a part of the Heart, I had a secret wish that we would focus on photography. Immediately it was made clear that the team’s interests are elsewhere. We decided on music not because any of us are super passionate about music, but because music has a wide enough scope to incorporate our other interests.
In a way, to create this project everyone has had to make a compromise. At first when I realized that my team was interested in music and not visual arts, I felt panicked. How can I be expected to work hard on something if I don’t care for the subject matter? This is what I’ve concluded: Digital Humanities calls on us to work as a team—it doesn’t necessarily matter what the subject matter is because our personal role is what defines the project. So, what I need to figure out is what my personal skills are and what I have to offer to my team. I believe that my background in visual arts will be essential in making a tangible product. In which case, I am not making a compromise; instead I’m expanding upon my knowledge and skill base.
So in other words, to evaluate myself, I am thinking of myself as less of a backseat driver and more as someone who has something important to offer. Just like my team though, I need to do my own personal work—I need to work with Tierney and utilize other resources at Guilford to gain proficiency and confidence in digital media and databases. Like the rest of my team members, I have to stay connected and keep bouncing ideas off of the group to ensure that their vision is coming true.
To answer the question, I think I am doing well. I am in active communication with the team while being set slightly apart. I’m available for questions and concerns, but also serve as a critic for the ideas that come forth. In the breadth of the whole project, I feel strong in my position. I am a student, a Silk Worm, and a junction between my peers and the amazing resources and people we have available to us.

Just for funsies (and because I’m kind of obsessed with photography), I’ve also included a link to the first art space in China  dedicated exclusively to photography and video art, the Three Shadows Photography Art Center.
Here is the work of and a link to the artists RongRong and inri, who founded Three Shadows: