matteytobes

[matteytobes]

Charles street around Charles Village

My whole idea around the photo essay was to try and show Baltimore disparities when it comes to housing, neighborhood, and local funding.  Baltimore is a city full of neighborhoods.  However it’s also one of the most segregated cities in the country.

This a townhouse on Charles st around Hopkins, i love the townhouses around there, they look so cool to live in but once you leave here you’ll start seeing impoverished areas.

The Rec Center in Reservoir Hill looked abandoned and vacant maybe because there’s no funding towards these areas which leads to bad representations of ppl and areas.

This is 28th st, Idk what’s the significance of this photo really could be.  I was in a rush to get photos for this assignment.  What i can say is a lot of the city’s busy roads are very worn down and have tons of potholes.

This is 28th st and this street you could tell by that crack it’s in need of newer paved streets.  Too many streets in Baltimore have potholes, dirt and trash that make it look terrible.

This is in Reservoir hill and looks to be a vacant property where the building is completely torn up and abandoned.  Hopefully it’s just under construction but the way the city runs who knows.  It’s right outside North ave where the poverty is at its worst.

I know I already showed a pic of the rec center but this one shows a window covered with plastic wrap meaning it’s either vacant or hopefully under construction but nothing makes me think they’re renovating it.

This photot just proves that there’s disparities all around Baltimore and this is reservoir hill, an area that I got a ton of dirty looks from people.

[matteytobes]

Rouch journal

1) What is shared anthropology?

Its shared anthropological methods being used with the participants, subjects while going through the film making and anthropological process.  Rouch mentions how he ‘shares’ the report with the subjects, objects or animals being filmed.  Everyone involved has a shared authorship of whats being portrayed and that way, everyone’s satisfied with how it’ll come out.  The ideas of everyone are shared through anthropological perspectives.

2) How does Rouch himself and Feld discuss Rouch’s methods?

Rouch wants the camera to do all the work meaning, speaking for itself and acting as a ‘mechanical eye’ than constantly interrupting scenes.  He wants real people in his ideas, writings and seems to always putting extra effort into it.  He uses reflexivity where he’s interviewing in the shot and there’s the French Nouvelle period where all the frenchman filmed what they wanted regardless of the rules.

3) What is cinema-verite?

It’s breaking traditional film and production practices, going outside the boundaries.  The whole idea around is that there’s truth in cinema.  These theories are intriguing but there’s too many of them.

1) What evidence of reflexivity do you see in the film?

Right from the beginning, he introduces himself and explains what he wants to accomplish as well as the methods he’ll be using.  Throughout the film he does this to create situations in which more interviews take place or someone he’d ask nearby someone to volunteer to ask other people.  It’s not that hard to pick up on, when you see Rouch is when it’ll occur.

2) What evidence of Rouch’s methods do you see in the film including cinema-verite?

When he’s telling you what he intends to accomplish in this film.  As the film goes on and from learning from class, there’s no change of truth even while being filmed or not.  

[matteytobes]

Dr. Gill Review

For a while throughout this course, it took me some time to understand just the word ethnographic films but now it’s starting to make more sense to me.  We watched two pieces, the first was called Roots of Love mainly about turban culture along sikh men.  The turban is a cultural and symbolic symbol of the sikh culture, and also looks to be a way of control for parents.  Not saying everyone should rebel against their parents as everyone’s brought up differently but I like a lot of the men being interviewed weren’t afraid to disobey their parents rules or respect.  You gotta live your life not what your parents want; I think that goes for any culture you’re in.

The second film we watched at home Sent Away Boys was about Indian men wanting to travel abroad and taking their culture and values wherever they go.  I have a desire to go abroad just don’t know for what reason yet, but what I don’t have that these guys have is strong values and stricter family rules.  At some point, you gotta let your kids grow up and let them live their life so they’re happy.  

I never ever use notecards, they’re just not my way of studying.  I only use them for open note exams but regarding ethnographic filming, I admire Professor Gill ambition and drive to make these type of movies solely for the messages and ideas he’s trying to portray.  The whole point of ethnographic videos is for all types of audiences and cultures that correlate to the message beig portrayed

[matteytobes]

ai1) The Clean & Green Team and the anthropology by the wire project both have the same objectives.  Baltimore city has always tended to have a bad representation.  I’m not from here originally but I was always told that this area wasn’t the nicest or safest place to be.  Plenty of representations are placed on the city when it comes to crime, infrastructure, housing, and racial boundaries especially when it came to policing and food supply.  The whole world has so many issues where powerful elites and wealthier people could careless about working people so in both these cases, each party tries to fix the issues in their communities themselves instead of trying to get help from others that won’t come for help.

2)  I watched the piece, Life don’t have to end mainly because I saw some images of it in class as well as the title right away appealed to me.  It talked about people who were diagnosed with HIV and their lives after diagnosis.  The main point I found in it was a lot of times these people are looked at by what society sees from the outside of a person but not the inside of them which doesn’t get realer than that.  These communities have stereotypes and representations put on them that make them seem like bad people when really they’re normal people just like us.  

1) What is the representational burden placed on Baltimore?

I’m not from here originally, I’m from northern NJ right outside NYC so I’m no stranger to city life.  What I will say is before I came here, I always looked at Baltimore as kind of a dark, gothic, slummy place.  Every major city in the country has experienced many racial disparities as well as slow violence from systematic racism and prejudice.  Baltimore might be the most segregated city in the country next to parts of NY, LA or Philly.  Because of this, anybody who lives outside the city may have these unfortunate viewpoints.  With that, many of the burdens it deals with are segregation, broken down infrastructure that make people think it’s a dump.  All these things give it a bad rep causing lack of funding towards housing, education and mainly infrastructure.  Baltimore isn’t the only city out here that has these issues but they probably have it the worse because of these disparities.

2) What is Anthropology by the Wire?

Anthropology by the wire is a research baed project made by Towson students and professors studying and conducting anthropological research in Baltimore.  Students do research on inner city neighborhoods using anthropological methods and multimedia.  Students work with local community leaders to detail the slow violence that occurs in Baltimore city.  They collect data and make infographic and ethnographic videos discussing the slow violence inside the city.

3) How are notions of authorship discussed?

That just means the ideas and feelings the individuals involved in the project as well as the authors opinions.  Authorship allows aspects of life that are purposely dragged to the side by society or not allowed but this opens the door to infinite creativity.  Everyone also is given the right for what representations they want to expose instead being forced to do another.

4) What are the promises and pitfalls of a networked anthropology?

We are in the digital media age that’s just gonna expand so it’s very easy to interlink media as well as communicating to community leaders this information for their greater good.  Social media is now the way to organize charitable groups and display peoples lives whether it’s good or bad.  It allows you to see the disparities that occur in our inner cities like Baltimore but also most social media you’ll see will be relatively positive representations however that’s my opinion.  The negatives to this is like I said about the disparities, a lot of neighborhoods here in Baltimore, South Bronx in NY, or Chicago don’t have the access or accessories to use social media.  Also look at the ages who are involved in doing this work.  My parents barely can handle using a mac so grown ups like them and up won’t understand this stuff.  I didn’t realize how many different anthropological definitions  are out there so that proves right there that it can very easily confuse people like me.

5) What are the details of the collaboration with the community of Sharp-Leadenhall?

Sharp-Leadenhall is a historical, traditional communty that’s gone through it’s own transformations and adjustments.  Because it’s located south of Downtown and the harbor right by M&T Bank Stadium and Camden Yards, they’ve gotten the scraps and garbage from those areas making them get a worse representation than they already had.  This project allows the neighborhood and project leaders to collab and give the community the representation it wants to express to the outsiders.  Collaboration allows both community and project leaders to show the representations and positive outlook of the neighborhood.

6) What is the goal of Anthropology by the Wire?

The goal of this project is to get local Baltimore communities who’ve been misrepresented to show the outsiders that they’re not the stereotypes or thuggish gritty people our media makes them seem.  It’s also made to show collaboration between community and school is possible.   “We seek to provide  an alternative format, content, and delivery mechanism for the history and current issues facing Baltimore.  The ultimate goal of the project is to utilize digital technologies to discuss urban life, identity, and representation. (Collins and Durington 2014).”  

[matteytobes]

1) How do the MacDougalls dicuss the history of photography in India?

They discuss how photography was formed in India when it was first starting to be its own country.  Just how any form of art, music, expression that involves humans, it starts small somewhere and will eventually expand throughout any form of networking.  Photography didn’t just affect the way certain things like identity, licenses, passports in India but basically anywhere that requires it.  There’s no difference how people anywhere used it , it was just what one was portraying or expressing.  The further we’ve advanced into the 20th and now 21st century, the more photography is around us and used.

2) How do they discuss the process?

They immediately thought of filming and having one photograph but they would realize, that’s so hard to perfect.  So they rightfully went to the nearby town of Mussone and the people were happily engaged to participate in the filming and share each their own experiences with historical photography.  What made also intriguing was that everyone offered to use their own type of photo to help have their own representation.  It’s very nice when people are all engaged and not looking for publicity but their own stories and ideas.

3)  This an Ethnographic film?

I’m not an expert by any stretch but I think it can be argued that it is because though it was filmed in India with only the people living there, it wasn’t just about them or the area in the world they were in.  If you think about it a little bit, this is mainly about photography regardless of where it’s from.  The history of India wasn’t the only thing being discussed as it went into detail of western film/photography so that probably should make it one.

[matteytobes]

Wide Angle Youth entry

1) Why are the authors arguing for not making an ethnographic film about Baltimore?

The corrupt, unstable political system we have been in has always given Baltimore a terrible representation from my perspective.  These kids in the video have real lives to live, they’ve seen and gone through worse than I have in my entire life.  If the authors made a real ethnographic film, there would be immediate criticism and likely intense racism.  Not making one allows these kids to express how they feel, what they like/don’t like, what they want to make this city a better and safer place.  I first watched the real Freddie Gray video last night and I was sick to my stomach and felt just as angry as those people rioting because I’d be to if this was happening around me. 

Baltimore is a great place, the more I’ve been here and explored this whole area I like it a lot but I do see the disparities as it’s a city of neighborhoods just like NYC, Philly and Pittsburgh that experience that have kids like these experiencing the same struggle.  That’s kinda how I look at it these guys aren’t the only ones out there struggling but being to all those cities plenty of times, I think these kids have been neglected and just looked at as these thuggish, drug dealing hoodlums.  These kids are nothing near those kinds of people, our media makes it seem like that’s the case, but when you actually listen to them you realize they have dreams, ambitions.  They want to make a difference in the world more than most kids I’ve grown up with.  

2) What do the authors mean when they say, “Push it Along” in terms of media?

The Internet and social media are infinite, you can link and network with anyone if you just know how to put yourself and your story work.  Ethnographers and anthropologists need to expand their networks by talking to other organizations and people outside this work field.  The more people involved the better message and influence people make.  Push it Along, keep expanding, networking and making a difference and that’s what these kids are looking to do so let them; they’re the future of this city.  The power of social media is real, so they as well as students like me should use it as much to our advantage in this age we’re in.

3) Discuss the process the authors advocate at the end of the article for engaging media and communities.

That’s a lot of what I said but instead inferring to make all the community and organization leaders plus non-profit to post what they’re doing.  Use social media to your advantage not just something you use telling people how you feel or what you’re doing because the world doesn’t care about that but posting things that are meaningful making a difference by showing the work these people doing whether it’s your media or there’s, just use it.