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| I started reading the 2002 book Devil in the White City by Erik Larson . I told my husband about it, and he came up from the basement with Dream City, an 1893 pictorial of Chicago's Columbian World Fair. My Inspiration A week ago I was perusing the Large Print non-fiction section at the public library. This is my favorite strategy for finding good books; the library only buys popular titles in Large Print. Beside the Sebastian Junger book I wanted, I found Erik Larson's Devil in the White City. This is a fascinating account of Chicago's Columbian World Fair in 1893. This remarkable world spectacle commemorated the 400-year-anniversary of Columbus' arrival to America. Larson's story takes the stories of seemingly disparate players, and it accelerates into a head-on collision of architectural and engineering innovation with murder, betrayal, and intrigue. Larson offers no pictures to illustrate his story. I wanted to see the architecture and engineering wonders of David Burnham, Frederick Olmsted, and George Ferris. I needed to see the face of serial killer H.H. Holmes and know the man who planned murder for Chicago's Dream City. My Strategy My experiences with Flickr began this week when I opened my account. Previously, I had disdained this idea because my only interest in photography is as memory keeper of my family. I keep all our photos on Kodak where I have folders and share my albums with friends. I like making photo books. This service meets my needs, but I realize how tied it is to what Weinberger coins the second order of organization--each photo in its place. I began by searching full text and sorting by relevance of photos. This was the most effective strategy for my needs. I began with a search of Columbian World Fair. There were over 1100 results. I noticed that the major photo contributors were Smithsonian Institute and American Experience. I spent some time at their photostreams, but I did not see a way to search within a particular photostream. I ask--Can you search within a collection or photostream? During this side trip, I also learned how to allow Flickr access to my blog so I could automatically post a pic, and I chose a template. I feel like a girl exploring new worlds upon new worlds. At this time, I decided to begin creating a gallery of pictures. I watched Flickr's tutorial on how and why to create a gallery. Since a gallery is limited to 18 photos, I created three galleries to epitomize my reading experience: the architecture, the Ferris wheel, and the infamous serial killer, Dr. Holmes. I also spent time looking at other tags used on the photos I liked. Popular tags included: Columbian Exposition, Worlds Fair, Jackson Park, Chicago Worlds Fair, white city, and Worlds Columbian Exposition. I began viewing photos in earnest. I love how users put captions on particular areas of the photo. For example, the photographic panoramas taken from the top of the Ferris captured each building and area of the fair. I gained an entirely new perspective of the depth and scope of the fair. When I read about a person, I want to visualize a face. I spent time searching for portraits of major characters in the book. I wanted to see the eyes of the ruthless killer, Dr. Holmes. I wanted to see the aging, frail landscape architect, Frederick Olmsted. I wanted to glimpse the genius of visionary architect, David Burnham. Also, I wondered what survived from this historic event over 100 years ago? I used these search topics to answer my questions and create my gallery:
My Analysis and Evaluation I have had an amazing time discovering these pictures and creating my own gallery. It as if my journey through the book is more personal. The highlight was finding the portraits. The characters of this book have come alive for me, and I have a face to match my imagination. I spent time wondering and staring. I thoroughly enjoy the third order in Flickr. The photos appear in various places, and my search grew and expanded. I would find world upon world as tags grew and collections led me to collections. It was fun to organize the galleries and be my own curator. While I was creating the galleries, I had over 5 views and 1 comment. There's a rush when others share your intrigue. I found some interesting groups on Flickr--did you know there is a group who collects the art work of serial killers? And there are groups dedicated to Ferris wheels. Who knew? While I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise, I wonder if I will continue to work in Flickr. Kodak works for me. I don't have any friends on Flickr. I am not a photographer, and I don't routinely search for photos. Is there a niche for me here? Also, why can't my searches take me beyond Flickr? While I found satisfactory pictures, I know there is more to find. Using Zemanta on my blog has brought pictures I had not seen on Flickr. I would like the Siderean experience we witnessed in the tutorial video in Module 4. I was quite perplexed when Flickr would sort my pictures by Interesting. Who decides what's interesting? Conclusion I feel like a small-town girl who just got off the train in the big city. I was eye-opening, bit scary, and seriously cool. I don't know how I fit in here, but it was a fun trip. Check Out My Galleries by Jodi Cooper Wentz |
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