Introduction
Christian Fleury, Architecture, UWM
The goal of this project is to explore how people construe and construct their world. I examine different ways people describe their world by indexing interviews taken in the Washington Park neighborhood of Milwaukee between the summer of 2014 and 2016. The breakdown of the way each person discusses their unique worldview is done in part with the use of semantic analysis techniques. By looking at what people say and how their frame their responses to interview questions, allows for a better understanding of how people see their world.
TranscriptionThe process begins with transcribing and tagging the interviews. An autogenerated transcription from YouTube is transferred to a document and formatted to fit an interview setup. The next step includes listening to the interview and adding appropriate punctuation and labeling. While listening, I take notes and mark timestamps for soundbites to come back to later. I identify speech patterns, phrases, repeated words, and ideas that the interviewee uses in order to make a point.
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Mind MapThe next step is to create mind maps that highlight an important theme from the interview and break it down. This process allows me to break down what the interviewer says and organize the terms and ideas from the interview in a taxonomic tree-format. I will use the interview of Reverend Joanne Bauman as an example. At the time of the interview, she was busy refurbishing vacant homes to house previously incarcerated individuals, who needed a second chance. Her main clientele were men on parole who needed a stable place to live while rebuilding their lives after incarceration. Her goal was to create a caring family system within each household where residents would hold one another accountable.
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While looking into this interview a pattern emerges. Rev. Bauman appears to separate her world into two different categories: within and outside of the home. In the mind map I use different colors to represent her viewpoint: Red for concepts and ideas she uses to describe spaces and practices outside the home, blue for within, and purple for elements that describe how the two domains connect. The resulting chart is organized to demonstrate that she sees the work of improving the neighborhood as separated into two categories: Practices and Goals. The section under the subheading, “Practices,” lists actions and work that she and others deploy on an everyday basis in order to achieve their “goals,” listed under the latter term. The setup and visual organization of the mind map shows the action-based mindset of Rev. Joanne Bauman. She is a “doer” and her descriptions of her world reflect that.
Baumann's Idea Of Function Within The Home
Baumann's Idea Of Functions Within The Neighborhood
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Another example of a semantic study is the taxonomic mind map generated from the interview with Gerry Coon. Coon is a homeowner in the neighborhood who is interested in historical preservation and helping revitalize his block. In his interview he focuses primarily on the potential and possibilities for developing his neighborhood. Compared to Bauman, Coon’s map is much more inter-connected, representing the ideas-based line of thinking during the interview. Coon is aware of the issues and has many innovative ideas to solve them. He is an idealist who sees potential in his neighborhood and the content and structure of the interview taxonomy demonstrates those qualities.
Coon Describes The Crime In His Area
Coon Discusses Benefits Of Revamping Old Properties
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Stakes
Why is this project important? This project provides a new set of perspectives and reveals neighborhood histories that are not always told. These mind-maps help us visualize the content of the oral histories and understand the values of the interviewees. The taxonomies tell their story in a new way, organize the views of the residents of the neighborhood in an easy-to-understand visual form. In addition, since these interviews were taken in the summer of 2014 some of the interviewees have passed. This project keeps them alive, not just in their words and voices, but now also by highlighting their values and beliefs.