Ethnography Project

The Journey...

The beginning of the journey started once again in the building covered with literacy (the Atkins Library).  Our group met up on the first floor of the Akins library.  Once we got together, we started discussing the objective of the assignment.  Then we each picked our own choice of literacy relating to architecture.  After having our mind made up, we dispersed and went our separate ways.  For my choice of architectural literacy I chose the "old gym".  It was pretty cold outside so I decided to stay indoors and started looking up pictures of the building (through google maps/ earth) and how it has changed.  Later I thought about visiting it.  I had already been to the building and at first I had an "old school" impression of the building.  Even before some one told me it was the "old gym" I could see from the design of the building as it had much space and thought it was fit to accommodate many activities (sports particularly).  The design of the building had me thinking of visual aspects of literacy in which just seeing a building, can tell a lot of the building.  The building was pretty much isolated and had many entrances, double doors, and placed above ground level (at least from where I was standing).  The stairs were pretty cramped, it had many steps and the floor was riddled with literacy.  The design of the floor had tiles filled with dirt and debris that told part its history.  Just by looking at it, a person can assume how old it is. In certain areas of the "old gym", a person can even grasp a sonic aspect of the literacy through the sense of smell (from the sweat and odors that may have crept into the walls where even time cant get rid of).

After completing this assignment, I came across an underlife of literacy and its relation to architecture.  I learned that buildings truly can speak.  Not literally, but as we perceive it through our senses we are submerged deep into the knowing, as if we were the reincarnation of the building itself.  Just by looking at a piece created by the mind of brilliant architectures we can tell a portion of the mystery.  Even if we were blind fold but had an acute sense of smell we could still generate manifold amounts of the buildings features.  If all of the senses were present, we could assume an incomputable amount of wonders pertaining to the architectures design.

(here are 2 quotes that I kept in mind while doing this assignment)


"It is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture. That which I have insisted upon as the life of the whole, that spirit which is given only by the hand and eye of the workman, can never be recalled."
~John Ruskin


"Although we may attain various aspects of the enigma... Who can know more of the creation than creator that created it?"~Anonymous

Mapping Assignment

To day in english 1101 we were given a home work assignment . We had to find things of literacy and describe how that thing relates to literacy.  Some of the qualities of the literacy could be visual, sonic, embodied, and textual.  An example of visual could be something as plain as a picture.  A sonic example could be music and noises.  The embodied types (a little harder to explain) could be associated with movement and motion.  the last type, textual, is the most familiar associated with writing and letters.

My choice of the literacy was visual.  The journey started as I was on my way to the Atkin's library.  I don't quite remember the exact time that I went to do the assignment, but it was around 1:00pm.  I started the journey right after my Biology class was dismissed.  I made my way up to the bell tower and thought about writing about it (the bell tower) but thought it was to easy ( I wanted to find something that I haven't found or noticed yet).  As I passed the gigantic structure I noticed another object.  It had the form of a memorial stone.  I pondered on the memorial stone decision, deal or no deal (I was still wanting to find something else)???  In the end I turned down the offer and headed towards the Atkin's first floor door.  As I walked through I noticed a lot of other literacy themes around me such as; music, writings, people reading and some other sources.  I eventually made my way to the quiet study room and a bright fluorescent pigment caught my eye.  I turned to see what it was and I chose that object.  It was a piece of artwork.  It had many different colors and intricate/complex designs, that made my mind just wonder.  In the end I sealed the deal and chose it as my object of literacy.

(The painting could be categorized in the visual themes section.)

UNCC Literacy Underlife (9:30 am)

What Is Music?

When asking some one "What is Music?" the usual answers I get are:  I don't know?What ever sounds good, what ever gets my feet tapping or Oh its just some......(long pause).... yeah!  They than try to dodge the question and change the subject.  In my opinion music is something that can't be expressed in words.  It's not like 1+1=2 or anything straightforward with an exact definite answer.  In fact it's still a mystery.  When trying to define what music is, it actually raises a lot of questions such as:  Why  do I fell a certain way (emotionally) when I listen to this (music)?  Or why do I feel happy or sad.... It's a mystery.  Music to me is defined as what Frederick Delius and others had stated.

Music is an outburst of the soul.
~Frederick Delius

Music is will said to be the speech of angels.
~Thomas Carlyle

It is incontestable that music induces in us a sense of the infinite and the
contemplation of the invisible.
~Victor de LaPrade

Music is love in search of a word.
~Sidney Lanier

Music is the shorthand of emotion.
~Leo Tolstoy

Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before
speech, and it is above and beyond all words.
~Robert G. Ingersoll

You can't go to the store and buy a good ear and rhythm
~Les Paul

I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music....
~Johann Sebastian Bach

Mid Term Assessment.

For my English 1101 midterm we did something unusual but at the same time interesting.  Class was canceled that day and we had to meet up with our group members to complete the assignment.  We all met up in the Atkins building, on the 2nd floor near the couches and sofas.  At first I was not sure if my team members were going to be there.  I thought that I was the first one to arrive but one of them had beaten me to the destination.  I was relieved to know that some one else was there and not just me by myself.  Soon afterwards our missing group members arrived.  We all sat down and tried to figure out what we were suppose to do.  For the most part I was lost.  But we eventually solved the enigma.  We had to find a mentors text and document how we found it and than do what I'm doing right now (blogging).  As already stated, our journey began on the second floor of the Atkins building.  Our first strategy, well we didn't really have one but.... we just went to the closest book shelf and started picking random books.  We soon realized that, that was not good and we were not going anywhere.  So we than tried to get on one of the computers and find the Atkins catalogue (database where all the books are stored I think).  Then we tried to search for "mentors text", and what ever came up first was our next object on the "search and retrieve list".   This lead us all the way to the 6th floor ( I think).  Once we got to the level we started searching for the book.  One of our group member forgot to write down the whole id number, so we were wandering around aimlessly again.  Eventually we found the book and saw that it was not what we were looking for.  Than we repeated the process of finding mentors text.  Except this time we searched popular mentor texts on google and saw one named "Owl Moon".  We than searched for it in theAtkins catalogue.  We got recorded all the values and the location of the book and started once again to find the mentor text.  I t was located on the 5th floor.  Finally we found it and got together to discuss what to do next.  Some of the group members took pictures of the book.  we than started to skim through the book and it was similar to a children's book.  I quoted one thing that caught my attention. "When you go owling you don’t need words or warm or anything but hope".  I chose this quote because I thought that it was unique and I never heard it before.  That was our journey to finding the mystery book and the midterm.

After looking back on this experience.  I thought that it was interesting and different.  It was a nice turn over from doing the usual "write a paper" type of work.  From the very beginning of the assignment it felt as we were on a quest or journey.  I'd compare it to an adventurer seeking something relatively hard to find (since we'er searching for a book in a place with millions of other books).  All in all this assignment was a highlight in the course.