Correspondence

Spent all day scanning letters from WISS to Obrebski and vice versa. These included details of research progress and restructuring of responsibilities so to avoid researcher conflict. Rob showed me how to determine (for the most part) whether a document is a typewritten original or a carbon copy by looking at any pixelation in the text. Danielle hooked me up with AAT in order to make sure my physical descriptions were appropriate metadata.

Its rather pleasing to know I’m recording information as accurately as possible.

The Begining of the end of my first quarter century

This year, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was my twenty-fourth birthday. I bought myself a new recycled sketchbook from CD&C.

My boyfriend’s mother gave me a new fountain pen – we went to AJ Hastings in downtown for me to pick it out. I love the way the brushed chrome feels so cool in my hand no matter how long I write with it .

The way it is weighted is heavy and perfect. I spent so much time writing with it in the sketchbook the first day that I had to put a new cartridge in before writing again the next day. I chose blue-black ink at first, but after using the black cartridge that came with the pen I think I might end up sticking with it. Its just so black and inky! In the meantime the blue-black will be used up quick enough. The pen is conveniently designed to take the shorter Pelikan refills.

The box it came in is wicked sweet too, the company (Retro51) went all out in the retro scheme.

I participated in three days of decadent eating. For my birthday celebration, my partner Jared made dinner that consisted of delicious pasta and marinara sauce with a side salad and wine, but the whole meal started off with four pounds of fresh cooked muscles! Mmmmmm… he uses elephant garlic and butter to steam them in and the kitchen smelled good enough to die for.

Thursday was Thanksgiving of course. I went to Belchertown with my brother, mother and father to see his side of the family. Did the usual turkey thing with lots of pickles. After that, my brother came back to my house to watch some football. Later on we went to my parents house in Shutesbury to visit with them and have a very rich chocolate birthday cake with whipped cream.

Friday was Thanksgiving with Jared’s mother. She came over to our house with her standard poodle Fred. We had lobster, steak, baked potatoes and salad, then Tirimisu (one of my personal favorites) for dessert. Like I said, it was a decadent three days. Saturday… I slept.

 

Elements have merit regardless of how tedious they are

Today I restructured the MODS elements I am using:

Title: Item Title
Name: Item Creator
Original Date: Item Date (if avaiable)
Language: English
Physical Description: Number of pages; typewritten or handwritten; original or carbon copy
Abstract: Notes on document contents, keywords and subjects.
Note: Used for Obrebski classifications
Location: Joseph and Tamara Obrebski Papers (MS 401, Box X:X). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Record ID: OP0000
Creation Date: Date item is scanned and record ID assigned
Category: WordPress classification
Tagged: Blog post classification

Digging back into the archive

At the beginning of this project I had the idea that much of the collection would be translated into the digital exhibit. After spending time with the material it has become evident that the collection as a while speak to a brief moment in Obrebski’s ethnographic history. This was a jumping off point for his later analytical and academic works in the United States (particularly New York City), which examine the methods anthropologists use to gather data of all kinds.

As a student of Malinowski, Obrebski was at the cusp of the ethnographic era of data collection. Important questions were asked, like how the researcher is expected to observe without becoming intertwined with the data itself. At the same time, what is happening in the community of note that can not be observed without integration?

It seems like the strongest way to present Obrebski’s Jamaican Papers is to provide a window into the collection. The story is partial – Obrebski was asked to “wrap – up” in Jamaican order to work with his US colleagues on potentially more pressing issues than WISS had to offer. Knowing this, we can still see importance in the data gathered by the Obrebskis, Edith Clarke, and a number of WISS students/employees stationed in Jamaica in 1947-48. This is the story of the information that has been maintained. I do want to thank the Obrebski family and the Halperns for remembering the significance of Obrebski’s ethnographic look at two small villages in Jamaica.

fin

The 13th NIFF is completed. This is rather mixed for me as it is a relief to have such a huge project completed, and at the same time there are aspects that remain in limbo. I am sad to see all the artists go home – but remember that many of them are rather close by in Northampton or other areas of Massachusetts.  It is refreshing to look at the valley with new eyes.

Thank you to all our volunteers for all your dedication in making the 13th annual Northampton Independent Film Festival possible! Without the community that drives it, NIFF would not exist. I especially want to thank all of the volunteers who showed up the second weekend, when it is hard to use the tickets one receives as a volunteer since the festival close is at hand! I know that I saw a number of you at the Packards closing party – thank you for staying until the end!
Photographs taken by Nate Okun on opening night will be posted on the website soon – stay tuned there for updates regarding next years season!

In terms of the monumental project of the film archive (which has had a number of logistic, but exciting issues come up in terms of housing and legal contracts), Jared Barney and I are hoping to continue  working on it through the next year if the opportunity is available. We will keep you updated! When the time comes to put past festival content into the physical library we will need support in getting all the films and doing the data entry if anyone is interested!

Thank you again to everyone for helping us to have a successful festival. I would not have been able to have such an exciting internship without your commitment!
Have a great year and hope to see you all around the valley and the web. Best Regards…

Second Weekend Kickoff

Honestly, I feel much better about the volunteer staff for this weekend than last weekend. There are a few holes in the schedule, I’ve had a tricky time getting volunteers to sign up for shifts ahead of time. We have such a supportive community for NIFF I know it will pan out okay- it has been said many times, “people have a way of coming out of the woodwork”.  Jared (my co-intern for this season) has been an amazing help, filling in as site manager when needed, sending volunteers to key areas and communicating with filmmakers at the venues.  This last part I have found to be the most intriguing aspect of interacting with NIFF – its been a while since I was able to connect with local artists on a similar wavelength.  The vortex of university life seems to swallow our experiences up in the whole conglomerate most of the time, then something like The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED shows up and these messages of empowerment and information access come shooting across so many people like lightening.  If only education felt like this more often.

How is Malinowski Controversial

Yesterday my Politics and Technology professor in the Communications department gave a lecture on ethnography which emphasized the controversial techniques of Malinowski. As the last component for the course we are reading “High Tech and High Heels in the Global Economy” by Carla Freeman, a modern ethnography text about Freeman’s new anthropological study of women informatics workers in Barbados. This is interesting for me because it is a contemporary study which references the type of cultural study made popular by Malinowski, and carried on by his students like Obrebski.

According to this lecture, critiques of Malinowski address the labeling of societal traits perhaps without perspective and that of the anthropologist embedding themselves in the area of examination. I wonder how this will be addressed in Freeman’s book, as the way the new form of anthropology looks at cultural interaction requires very close interaction with participants of the community. Freeman goes on shopping trips and into women’s homes for interviews, which is a strategy for accumulating more personal data and observation, however brings the researcher much closer to the subject. I am curious to see how this may interfere with observation of the subjects in Freeman’s study. In terms of Malinowski’s effect, though criticized for sometimes not getting close enough to the village of study, it is this interaction of researcher and subject that allows one to lose themselves in the research and to perhaps lose some perspective in the observation process.

Second Weekend Anticipation

I’m anxiously awaiting the second weekend of NIFF, but as the week goes on and the volunteer schedule fills in my excitement is growing. The first weekend was a little overwhelming, though I feel now I am starting to get a good grasp on things. Sent out the volunteer schedule and though it is slow to fill I get responses every time I send out an update. Even though there are over 60 volunteers on my list, there are dimensions that I was not accounting for. Some volunteers put in most of their time on the screening committee during the summer and don’t have extra time when the festival hits. Others fall out of the loop, get caught up in projection tasks (another crucial factor to having the festival run smoothly) or have a change of plans. On of the most important things I’ve learned from this internship so far is to have the most flexibility I can – most of the time it will influence events to run smoother. It will be a pleasure to see this festival really come to fruition through the next weekend.

Time flies when it’s all scheduled in.

This weekend was the festival kickoff. Friday night was the opening night gala at the Northampton Center for the Arts hosted by the Valley Advocate. There were media representatives from local TV stations and from the local colleges. It was exciting to adapt to the environment and make sure that all needs were met. Things came up that I had anticipated, and things came up that I had not seen coming. Either way, thanks to many of the people who make this festival happen every year, the event was a great success. I was proud to be a part of it.

We closed up the gala around 8: 00 PM and most attendees headed over to the Academy of Music for the opening night film, The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED, about the TED (Technology Entertainment Design) conference which is held yearly in California. Daphne Zuniga (Yes, the Princess in Spaceballs), hosted the film and attended NIFF for a question and answer after the film which was very informative. It must have been exhausting to document the entire conference. All the talks given at TED can be seen online at www.tedfilm.com

On Saturday there were a few gaps in volunteers, but a few people showed up unexpected which worked out well considering. I was totally amazed at how fast the time flew by. We heard from a few filmmakers that they tried to get into Club NIFF and found it closed, so next weekend we are going to try and have it open a lot more. I hope to create a real hub of NIFF, or at least a place where people can meet up that is not the frigid November air.

Hope to see you next weekend!