For this week's class, our group laid out the groundwork for our project, brainstorming how our project will look, what research should be conducted and a plan for how we would complete it.
Figuring out what form of media we would be presenting our project was the first step forward in our brainstorming session. At first we were considering making a video as our form of media, a mash up of clips of Regent Park before and after revitalization that had some connection to gang related violence. Throughout the video we would have interview clips of our group members and specialists from Regent Park. Half way through, we decided that it probably wasn’t the best form of media we could use. In order to make it a truly interactive experience, there wasn’t much that could be done through a video. Instead we opted for a story map of Regent Park.
By using a story map for our media project, it meant that we would be able to give control to the viewer by making it a self directed interactive experience. One of the key features that we will implement in our project to make it an interactive experience is a map overlay. A map overlay would allow us to show past and present data and research relating to gang related violence by combining a map of Regent Park before and after the revitalization. In addition to the map overlay, we would include interview clips of our members and specialists from Regent Park to add a sense of relatability to viewers instead of just numbers and graphs.
A main priority of our project is to present the community of Regent Park in mind. Since the topic of gang related violence is a very touchy subject, we want to hear the voices of residents and how they themselves feel about it. When talking to our group members we already got the sense that the revitalization had a positive effect on the community. Julie pointed out that some areas of Regent Park were closed off and sketchy, but after the revitalization the architecture of the community was more open and that residents felt much safer.
For the planning of the project, we gave tasks to each member of the group. Andrew and Meghan will be covering most of the scholarly research and concepts for the project. Asae, Julie and Semhar will be doing more of the community engagement work by communicating with the specialists of Regent Park for research and the interviews. Walied and Lloyd work for Regent Park’s Safety Network, the members of our group spoke highly of them and their knowledge of crime in Regent Park. Every member of the group will be brainstorming questions for our interviews, we will be asking different questions for both the community experts and our group members. Meghan will be leading the research on finding spatial data for crimes in Regent Park as she has prior experience.
For our timeline, we will first start by coming up with interview questions. Asae, Julie and Semhar will be working towards communicating with community experts to find time slots for interviews that we hope we can record sometime after reading week. We already have a few community members in mind such as Walied and Lloyd as well as community organizations such as Regent Park Television, Shoot for Peace and Mothers for Peace as they all have the experience and knowledge surrounding violence in Regent Park. During the time between interviews, we will begin our research into answering our question, if and how has gang-related activity changed in Regent Park since revitalization. After completing the filming and editing of our interviews, we will then begin on creating a smooth experience for a story map that is both informative and interactive.
Dawn in Regent Park: Andrew, Asae, Julie, Meghan, and Semhar.