Ethnography Fieldwork

Earlier today my group and I met up outside the classroom for some fieldwork we have to complete for our Ethnography project. For a few minutes, we had absolutely no idea where to start. But then, we figured out how we were going to do this fieldwork. We knew that we had to go to certain places on campus to gather the data required. So, we planned the easiest route and headed of to the first destination.

The first place we headed was inside the building where our college's campus is held (I'm not placing the name here to keep the identity of the college a secret. A clue though is that there is a piece of architecture outside that lights up at night and half of it is in another language and it is also right next to the building we have our English class in.). More specifically, we headed to the downstairs lobby where I already have very fond memories involving literacy underlife that has to deal with music.

The reason why we couldn't head into the room where our school's anime club is held is because there was a class going on and anime club is later in the week and later in the day. In fact, most of what we knew as underlife involving music happens when it's warmer and later in the day. Though there was the anime opening and closing sing-a-longs and the music or music videos being shown on youtube in the lobby as well as the name-that-anime-tune contest.

We then visited the large tower where people are free to speak their minds (*cough* Crazy Preacher *cough*). There we saw nothing, nobody's crazy enough to stay outside too long in this weather, but on other days there are public music displays, people playing their guitar and such.

However, there was one thing that we thought up of that we haven't really discussed before for our musical topic: the ("robin") building where concerts are located. Yet, we couldn't get in since you need special access to the building at this time... for some reason. So we kind of people-watched to see who was going inside. I've seen a lot of musicians go inside and since class already started it was only the stragglers that rushed into the building.

Finally, we headed over to the S. Union where random people can play on the piano there. I've already had a lot happen there and I know it is a hotspot. The S. Union was crowded as always and I can remember the songs I've heard being played on that beautiful instrument which echos all over the building.

Those are the main locations on campus where music happens. We've noticed how people react to music at different times in the day, and with the weather. I also noticed there was a lot of people listening to their ipods and such on the way to class. One of my favorite past times, personally. This information will really help us once we get rolling with this project.