Friday, 11 January 2013:

Last term, my research did not progress as well as I should have liked, primarily due to a number of health complaints (broken nose, biking accident, respiratory ailments) and basic personal life priorities (moving house). I managed to accomplish the following: successful completion of the ethical clearance process, preliminary field research, departmental responsibilities (Brown Bag Seminar scheduling, Collections Room restructuring and rehousing of the handling collection, November conference committee, seminar leadership, TA support for YSP MA fieldwork), a number of interviews, readings pertaining to research, basic film editing and production practice. 

I am currently working on a paper concerning the responsive role of collections management in ongoing development of heritage and tradition (as practiced in daily life). 

It is my intention to maintain my weekly reports again, starting from Monday, 7 January 2013:

7 January 2013 Monday: Merry Christmas to those in observance of the Julian Calendar and Happy Birthday to me. 

8 January 2013 Tuesday: Worked on current research essay.

9 January 2013 Wednesday: Exhibitions Committee Meeting (attended and took the minutes). Readings. Worked on current research essay.

10 January 2013 Thursday: Wrote up minutes from meeting. Emails to Sandra about yesterday’s meeting and current progress in research, to Janet about TA next Thursday, Friday, Monday and to Burt at BM, Storrie at Horniman, Peers at Pitt Rivers. Readings and essay drafting. 

11 January 2013 Friday: Out of office until next Tuesday.

12 & 13 January 2013 Weekend: Out of office.

Fabrication of Tradition, After the Fall and 'Lines' of Inquiry

JULY 2012

During the week of 23 Monday to 27 Friday, the primary research-related event that took place was Thursday 26 July: ‘Mapping Place and Faith Conference’ at St. Martin’s House, 9:30AM to 3:30PM. I fell and injured my knee on a hasty journey homeward. I also acquired a new mobile phone this week.

*Notably have ordered a new laptop to support my research efforts. Have also ordered a new mobile that is ‘smarter’ than my old one—a Nokia windows phone. I have two weeks to make up my mind about the phone.

Weekend: 28&29 July Resting my knee.

Monday 30 July Troubleshooting phone and Windows mobile tech.

Tuesday 31 July Troubleshooting phone and Windows mobile tech. New Macbook arrived. Troubleshooting new Mac!

AUGUST 2012

Wednesday 1 August Troubleshooting new Mac, learning new versions of Windows office apps, iWork apps, interconnectivity through Social media with mobile phone, iCloud and Skydrive.

Thursday 2 August Troubleshooting new Mac, learning new versions of Windows office apps, iWork apps, interconnectivity through Social media with mobile phone, iCloud and Skydrive.

Friday 3 August Troubleshooting new Mac OS X.7 Mountain Lion. Sorted home office space.

Weekend: 4&5 August Caribbean Carnival and severe cloudbursts.

Monday 6 August Continuing to learn about new Mac and especially the use of coordinating calendars between iCal, Google and Windows Live. Sorted home office space. Implementation of new strategy for remaining focussed.

Tuesday 7 August Reviewed previous notes from ‘Lines’ by Ingold. Reconsidered the concept of display and museum practice in terms of reconstitution of tradition and shared narrative. Updated my training record (which I need to send to the University graduate office soon).

Wednesday 8 August Reviewed previous notes from ‘Lines’ by Ingold. Reconsidered the concept of reconstitution in terms of ‘lines’ –as differing interpretations of space in the way that Ingold discusses the variable approaches to impressing ideas (in writing) onto blank page; Ingold suggest that some of the basic intentionality in the expression of words upon a page may include seeing the blank page as a landscape for a journey, colonization, surface of a body, or mirror of a mind.

Thursday 9 August Downloaded Kindle for laptop and purchased Kindle version of ‘Lines’ by Ingold. Catching up on journals and training reports. Successfully registered for RAI research accounts. Today I started the ‘reintegration’ process of my thesis in earnest.

Friday 10 August Posted blog updates to Orovoco. Transferred notes from notebook to highlights and notes in Kindle for Mac edition of Ingold’s ‘Lines’. Implementation of new, more structured approach to work pattern this past week, seems to have been very helpful to productivity. Reviewed notes on David Akin’s article (recommended reading by Ben): ‘Ancestral vigilance and the corrective conscience’ (along with Babadzan response and Akin’s response to that response).

Weekend: 11 & 12 August Birthday BBQ and housewarming at the Grace family’s new home.

APG, Cross-Communicability of the Common Cold Between Carbon-Based and Silicon-Based Life Forms and 'Summer Vacation'

2 & 3 June Weekend: Saturday and Sunday

Social Media, Jubilee Brunch with Colleagues.

4 Monday Bank Holiday

5 Tuesday Bank Holiday

6 Wednesday Preparation for Supervision

7 Thursday Supervision and sent report of supervision.

8 Friday London RAI Conference and Volunteering with MEG.

9&10 Weekend

11 Monday-15 Friday UofL Museum Studies Research Week.

16&17 Weekend

18 Monday Final Prep for APG

19 Tuesday APG Interview (Passed).

20 Wednesday Lead Museum Studios with Ingold article: Material Against Materiality.

21 Thursday June-21 July:  Very little daily research. For the most, have been reflecting upon the project and the recommendations from the APG. Notable occurrences:

4 Wednesday ‘Fourth of July’

5 Thursday Job Interview (didn’t get the job).

6 Friday Caught up on correspondence, social media etc.

7&8 Weekend

10 Tuesday: London: Discussion of my research with Dr. Ben Burt at the British Museum.

14&15 Weekend: Read Jen’s Museum Studio seminar article about ‘Atmostpheres’ and tried to overcome cold.

16 Monday Answered Jen’s recommended seminar questions—but mostly slept and drank tea.

17 Tuesday: Correspondence, project review, scheduling, confirming travel plans for Thursday.

18 Wednesday Computer crashed (Has my machine caught my cold? Is my cold infectious to computer technology—that is, a virus that can cross over from a carbon-based life form to a silicon-based form of life? Is it possible for such a virus to mutate and function in the inverse? Do I need to upload some form of virus protection to my own organic computational matrix before using my computer again?)

19 Thursday Trip to Birmingham: visits to the MAC ‘The Playmakers’ and the Museum of Art. Discussed salient points from Jen’s Museum Studios seminar.

20 Friday updating research journal and drafting an exhibition review for ‘The Playmakers’.

21&22 Weekend

7 Monday May Library Research.

8 Tuesday

Generic Skills Training Session Round Three.

9 Wednesday

Journey London and British Library Research.

10 Thursday

Renaissance ‘Workshop of Workshops’ British Museum Day One.

11 Friday

Renaissance ‘Workshop of Workshops’ British Museum Day Two.

12 Saturday ‘The Weekend’

13 Sunday Brunch with Colleagues

14 Monday

Marking Papers

Reading List and taking notes

15 Tuesday

Marking Papers

Reading List and taking notes

16 Wednesday

Brown Bag Seminar Steampunk Movement and Museums

Supervision with Sandra

SSCC Meeting

Producer’s Group Meeting at Phoenix

17 Thursday

Reading List and taking notes
APG Drafting

18 Friday

Reading List and taking notes
APG Drafting

19 Saturday Weekend

20 Sunday Amy Barnes Birthday

21 Monday
Reading List and taking notes

Dinner with Amy and Petrina then Being Elmo

22 Tuesday

Reading List and taking notes

APG Report and Research Week Intensives.

23 Wednesday

Blackboard Redesign Planning Session Ceri and Linda

Museum Studio Seminar
Reading List and taking notes

24 Thursday

APG Report and Research Week Intensives.

25 Friday

APG Report and Research Week Intensives.

26 Saturday Weekend

27 Sunday Clearing my Schedule for APG Report and Research Week Intensives.

28 Monday

APG Report and Research Week Intensives.

Scheduling with Virginia confirmed.

29 Tuesday

APG Report and Research Week Intensives.

Email Inquires Pertaining to Research sent.

30 Wednesday

APG Report and Research Week Intensives.

Drafted Diagrams.

Blackboard intros drafted and sent

Brown Bag Schedule Draft sent

Putting abstracts together.

Scheduling with Prof. Laura Peers confirmed.

31 Thursday

APG Report and Research Week Intensives sent.

Abstracts Draft sent

Update of Journals 1 and 2.

Update of Training log.

01 Friday June (Slight prognostication.)

Tacking and jibing the sails as necessary for the next bit of the journey . . .

Monday 30 April – Sunday 6 May

30 Monday April: Updated footnotes for Viv’s forthcoming publication and sent update to Viv. Ordered books. Updated blogs. Asked Viv about ‘Mediascapes’ access.

01 Tuesday May: Viv emailed a recommendation that I ask Ross about ‘Mediascapes’. I emailed to Ross, who recommended both the geography department and Bob. I emailed Bob first, who responded with directions for how to access that application. Paid bills, ran errands. Re-read Ingold’s ideas about objects and agency.

02 Wednesday May: Placed all readings I intend to use of APG into the same file, researched for library texts needed, requested holds be placed on resources, made travel arrangements for London conservation training sessions. There is a film related to my work that I’m having trouble tracking down—will have to find out if our library can somehow obtain/borrow it.  Mom’s birthday, day one.

03 Thursday May: Sorting belongings; discovered old but useful resources in the process. Wrote thank you notes. Mom’s birthday, day two.

04 Friday May: Returned to consideration of ‘agency’. Though there is not directly applicable literature to my heuristic process, the question of ‘agency’ is at the heart of my research therefore, I will make a more thorough explication of that in my work.

05/06 May: Caught up on social media—which in many cases is a very important current resource in ‘research support’ . . . but not really in the case of this past weekend. Was quite important for general peace of mind and well-being so . . . okay, can be viewed, if not as direct ‘research support’, as at least ‘researcher support’.  :)

23-29 April 2012

23 Monday April: Supervision five with Sandra, Brown Bag Seminar planning with Viv.

24 Tuesday April: Wrote and sent report of supervision session five.

25 Wednesday April: Attended ‘Mapping Faith Workshop’.

26 Thursday April: Revisions to APG Report.

27 Friday April: Revisions to APG Report. Sent Revised APG Report Draft to Sandra

28/29 April Weekend.

Spring Breaking.

‘Spring Break’ 09-15 April

09 Monday April: Informed by my mother that my paternal grandfather Eddie James died last Friday, 06 April. This means that in the past roughly one year, I have lost my father, my godmother, my paternal grandmother and now my paternal grandfather. Having trouble concentrating today.

10 Tuesday April: Re-read Myths to Live By. Made family phone calls.

11 Wednesday April: Family phone calls and arrangements; will not personally be in attendance of the funeral. Made preparations for tomorrow’s research day and the interview with Peter Barber.

12 Thursday April: Interview with Peter Barber, Maps Room, British Library, London.

13 Friday April: Raw transcription of interview with Peter Barber. Updated social media. Read article for next week’s seminar discussion of ‘Narrativity’.

14/15 April Weekend—did nothing in direct support of research. Please note: have learned that the university libraries in London (and surrounding) close for the week before and two weeks after the Easter Break. In response to this, students bereft of their familiar faculty, descend in force upon a beleaguered British Library. There were no open desks in ANY of the reading rooms . . . 

‘Spring Break’ 16-22 April

16 Monday April: Transcription of interview with Peter Barber and citing references. Read background articles for the interview. Taped BBC 4 broadcast discussion of Drake’s Circumnavigation Medal, part of “Shakespeare’s Restless World’ exhibition preparation.

17 Tuesday April: Reviewed and edited raw transcription. Answering emails.

18 Wednesday April: Cy’s seminar discussion of ‘Narrativity’.

19 Thursday April: Today my father would have been 70. Taking a day away from research for personal reasons. Also battling a cold.

20 Friday April: 'Disciplinarity' Symposium at Museum Studies, University of Leicester. Still miserable with cold and feeling incredibly tired, I left the seminar an hour early.

21/22 April Weekend—did nothing in direct support of research.