Like your photo essay, an audio project creates a new kind of narrative, one in which people get to tell their own stories, and explain the meaning of places in their own lives and histories. For this essay, you will concentrate on collecting what other people have to say about the building you are documenting, and you will draw more conclusions about the part it has played in the history and culture of Mansfield. You may need to do a little more "print research" for this project, but mainly you'll collect stories through interviewing peole who own, live in, work in, or visit this place. You will take the information you collect through your interviews to create a three- to five-minute audio essay that contributes to our understanding of the meaning of this place to the people who are inhabiting or visiting it now.
What's It to You? This is your opportunity to get to know some of the people who spend time in the place you are documenting. Who uses it? Why are they there? What do they think about it? Interviewing people who are part of the current life of your place will give you a better sense of what it means to the life and culture of Mansfield today.
What Do You Want to Say about It? The answer to this question will evolve from your interviews themselves. (Interviews are your primary form of research for this project, although you will also be able to make use of previous research on your place to provide a context for your audio essay.) Keep your eye on your evolving research question: What was the role of this place in the lives of Mansfield citizens? Who are the people most connected to this place, and why? How has it changed over the years, and what is this change a sign of? Can you connect this place to cultural tropes like The American Dream or American Ingenuity?
What Do You Need to Know? The library (both OSU and Richland County), the Internet, and personal interviews will be important to your investigation. For your audio essay, you will concentrate on interviews that reveal what this place means to the people who use it - what is their history with the space? What do they remember? What to they see in the future? What kinds of emotions connect them to this place?
How Will You Do It? First you will need to find people - one or two are fine - to interview. These may be people who work or live in the place you are investigating, or they may be people who spend time there as visitors. It is very important that you get permission from the owners/managers if you wish to interview visitors.
Prepare a list of questions that will guide your interviews, but don't be afraid to follow an interesting line of inquiry. We'll work on interview techniques in class.
Because this will be an audio essay, you will want to record your interviews. If this is not possible, you will have to take very good notes. Your audio essay will be a combination of your framing narrative, the voices of your interviewees, and some ambient sound that you record where you are interviewing.
You will prepare a script for your essay, record it in the classroom, revise your first effort (maybe several times), then prepare a final version to turn in.
How Well Does It Work? For an audio essay, we aren't concerned about things like spelling and punctuation. But we will be paying careful attention to clarity of (spoken) images, diction, sentence length, etc. The organization of your essay is also particularly important. Can your audience follow the story you are telling? Do they get your point? We'll review and revise in class.
To listen to some examples, you might visit the following web sites:
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