Victoria Park Memoryscape Trail
Victoria Park Memoryscape Trail
Victoria park - and the journey there…. some extracts of my thoughts….
I see an appropriately named pub, which lets me know I am at least in the right area…
I passed lots of green spaces on the way
An interesting looking church, of a style I don’t recall seeing before…
It’s muggy
It feels like another zone of London from where I live and I link it with Leytonstone, not too far away, where a friend lives, something about the open green spaces and the natural association I make.
A larger building - Victorian in style but higher than I am used to in Crystal Palace.
Wow Victoria (Park) has an impressive lead up - roundabout and impressive gates.
Trendy cake and coffee type cafe (which looks like it does proper food too) with a vibrant atmosphere - I enjoy a conversation I overhear by the people working there - it helps add to the happy atmosphere there! I also liked the fact a bottle of water cost £1 and not more as it often does in cafes!
The sun shines on the lake as if on time to see the sculptures and the pretty fountain in the lake looking splendid. It reminds me of what I think Crystal Palace Park (CPP)nneeds - a fountain as a reminder of Paxton and those he had installed in the park – I have not thought about before, which surprises me, but I hadn’t thought before that there are no fountains in CPP.
I see the long park roads – a cyclists paradise and my thought turns to Hyde park or even Prater in Vienna - which in the summer I quite often cycled through to work, as well as over the Danube – all in a half an hour cycle…
The audio trail is really enjoyable and I like the talk about the myths of the dogs and hearing the different opinions – leaving it open to interpretation with us.
The narrator is someone who has lived in the area of Victoria park for nine years I think it was – and this draws you in by knowing that the person clearly has a relationship with the park.
No one person speaking for a long time – it’s nicely broken up with different voices. It’s a good clear recording and the speaking is calm and nice to listen to.
It’s am amazingly surprising beautiful evening, having set out with it being much duller – it’s a beautiful route – and the canal an added bonus for me.
I felt a bit out of place to begin with - but now I feel at home as if I am walking near me in the evening - doesn’t feel like a Sunday evening in some ways to be so far away from home but it others it does with the calm atmosphere
I made some more sound recordings and have decided to do at least one on every project related trip out.
Background sounds create an atmosphere. It’s hard to differentiate some times between the sounds on the recording and the sounds in real life! I looked around when I heard the sound of the loud canal boat on the mp3 file while walking down the canal. I wondered if this kind of thing would annoy me, but I love the playfulness of this, I think it makes me more aware ….
I’m inspired to listen to some of my own favourite tracks in between listening to the trail mp3’s and this as well as making the sound recordings and listening to the trail really helps me listen to the sounds around me.
The trail map is easy to use and follow.
The trail encourages you to interact in the sense of inviting you go and get a drink and find somewhere to sit and listen to the trail.
Cafe owners talking on the trail too – it seems they are talking about what they wanted to achieve and also about the visitors they have.
I wonder what happens when trails get really out of date. They are still a memory of the point in time when they were made, but maybe something needs to change?
I did about half but not half of the distance. Will happily return to do the rest….
I like the feeling of travelling when navigating streets and journeys alone. There is some level of fear of being far from home, but also a feeling of freedom and anticipation. Sounds obvious I know, but true!
More Posts from Ret-uk and Others
Oral History Consent Forms, recording equipment etc
I meant to add this a few days ago. I thought it might be helpful for people to know where I found some resources for making consent forms and making sure I was not infringing on copyright etc, as well as some info about choosing recording equipment:
Advice on recording equipment from GEM:
http://www.gem.org.uk/soyh/toolkit/mini/mini-toolkit-4.php
Advice on recording equipment from East Midlands Oral History Archive:
http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/training/no3.pdf
Info about copyright from East Midlands Oral History Archive::
http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/training/no4.pdf
Oral history interview guidelines and techniques from GEM:
http://www.gem.org.uk/res/howto/ball/res_inter.php
Oral History Ethics from the Oral History Society:
http://www.oralhistory.org.uk/ethics.php
Oral History practical advice for getting started from the Oral History Society:
http://www.oralhistory.org.uk/practical-advice.php
This has a great guide to all things digital, including equipment by JISC:
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/
And this great link from a friend which compares main digital recording equipment:
http://transom.org/?page_id=7514
and finally, this was the video from the same friend -that helped me choose which audio equipment to get:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmwuS9QOlvs
Fingers crossed it was right :)
As I have said before I was very grateful for the advice I received from the GEM (Group for Education in Museums) discussion mailing list as well as he MCG (Museums Computer Group) mailing list for a lot of this advice. Good luck if you are embarking on the same process....
#100happydays (nearly wrote 100 happy dates! I should be so lucky!) Day four (I'm already losing count). After a restless sleepy start to the day I was pleased to pick up my local veg bag and some cheese on the way home! So today's a happy shop local day. I'll try & pretend that I didn't buy some extra milk from tesco on the way home!
Link to my Crystal Palace Park Community Audio Trail (so far...)
A selection of photos of my recording travels so far... I have some nice photos of more of the people I have recorded but want to check that they are happy for me to share them publicly before I do....
The Past on Glass: Sutton Archives, Heritage Lottery Funded Project
March 2016
In March 2016 I had the pleasure of being asked to further develop and deliver three accessible sessions for young people with learning disabilities from Sutton Mencap.The Past on Glass project was created by Sutton Archives with Heritage Lottery Funding. The project digitises and uncovers the stories behind the Knight-Whittome glass plate negative collection. I worked alongside Abby Mathews, Project Officer and Kathleen Shawcross, Borough Archivist and Local Stidies Manager.
Here is an extract from the blog post about that Abby wrote:
One highlight on our activity plan – and something that we have been looking forward to for a long time – was a series of pre-arranged workshops with Sutton Mencap, a local charity, established in the 1940’s by parents and carers. The charity supports over 80 children and 200 adults with a learning disability in the Sutton area ‘to have fun, learn new skills, socialise and make friends’.
Throughout March we ran a series of workshops for a small group of visitors from this charity based on the idea of self-image and photography – using our glass plates as a starting point to think about some of the issues surrounding portraiture, both now, and in the historical context.
We were very lucky to have the help of Sarah Glover an heritage education facilitator, in the running of these sessions. Over three weeks, a group of nine participants plus their carers attended both Sutton Central Library and a local historic building, Honeywood Museum, to learn about the collection and be involved in activities designed to explore the collection: what it is; what it represents; and to see if it held any resonance for them, as young people who have grown up in a world ruled by technology and convenience.
Read more here:
The Past on Glass Blog Post
Abbey Mathews wrote the following recommendation:
Sarah worked with us at Sutton Archives throughout March 2016 to deliver a series of workshops to Sutton Mencap. Her professionalism, creativity, delivery style and flexibility to the needs of the group made the sessions a huge success. It was a pleasure to work with her and we would recommend her without reservation to any Heritage projects looking to offer creative and worthwhile learning sessions.
Soho Stories - and yes my next task to be more selective in photos!
Sydenham Wood - had a lovely walk in the wood with the London Wildlife Trust - I'm a big fan of The Great North Wood so it was fantastic to not only hear and learn about the natural environment - but also to think about the no longer present victorian houses and gardens - see above the folly and the Lebanon cedar that appeared as a shrub in a picture from 150 years ago - & the train track that once went through to the now bat inhabited tunnel - & the interconnected-ness of it all... enjoyed the rain though of course I treated myself to some cake and tea upon return.
I don't think I showed this photo here yet. Oh oh though I know it is now going to show up on Facebook because of it all being connected and on Twitter - both places have seen this photo more than enough! I think I have nearly exhausted my advertising energies. They have so far just been over social media and word of mouth and not sure if to put any physical adverts up. I think it would be a good idea in the station cafe perhaps, but feel a bit exposed the more I put my name and contact details out there! Maybe a version with the facebook page on it? hmmmm
Welcome to the trail! I hope that you enjoy it. The trail started as a project for my final MA Museums and Galleries in Education coursework. It...
There are now 4 segments to the trail!! Have a listen if you have not before and especially to the new track entitled the 'Palace Site'. Hope you enjoy and there's more to come :) Please feel free to spread the word. It is a voluntary project - All the time and resources have been offered for free :)
Teaching, learning, music, heritage, nature, theatre, stories, art, cats, community, diversity. Kent, U.K. Instagram: @ret_uk
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