Tourist Productions 2005

In terms of documenting and analyzing the site I will first go to Williamsburg at a time when many people in the community will be out, for example a Saturday morning before synagogue. I will walk around neighborhood getting a feel for different sections. I will take notice and record my visceral reactions to the site: how to I feel in the neighborhood? Am I drawn to certain areas? What strikes me? Surprises me? To capture the experience I will use a small microphone, worn discretely, to record words or images, “memory triggers,” that will allow me to remember my experience. After getting an intuitive feelings for the area, I will do the soundwalk for women and the soundwalk for men. I will analyze the particular construction of this walk in the context of experiential tourism and soundwalks in particular.

Bruner and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett’s framework for analyzing a site in Culture on Tour of the Mayers Ranch Massai Production will be helpful for analyzing the soundwalk within the context of Hasidic Williamsburg. What narrative is being created? What historical context is it framed in? How is the Hasidic community framed within the larger community of Williamsburg?

Watching Divan, I was struck by its humor and self-reflexive tone. Was the tone necessary to provide a protective layer for Pearl in the precarious position she was in between these two worlds? It will be interesting to see whether the female soundwalk has a similar tone. In the examples of “progressive tourism” we have looked at -- Bruner in Culture on Tour, Lippard in On the Beaten Track and Cardiff’s Central Park walk -- tone and a recognition that the boundaries between the tourist and the tourist attraction are more malleable that at first glance have been key elements. Using Divan as an example of progressive tourism, or progressive travelogue, I will explore how it compares with the soundwalk in terms of its self-reflexive qualities and malleability of narrative. Bruner’s “The role of narrative in tourism” will provide a helpful lens to examine narrative construction.

I will interview Pearl Gluck; Barbara Truesdell’s “Oral History Techniques” and Willa Baum’s “Tips for Interviews” will be helpful for how to prepare, conduct and process the interview. In my interview with Pearl, I will explore what experience she wanted to give the listener and how she dealt with the questions of insider/outsider and gender. Maybe I will also interview a man that used to live in the Hasidic community and does not anymore, or the man who narrates the men’s tour, Joseph Piekarski.

It is important that I keep my project bounded and to that end I will focus on either the insider/outsider or the gender question. After I walk around Williamsburg this week and do the soundwalks then I will have a clearer idea of exactly how I want to focus by research. I am in email correspondence with Pearl; she is excited about the project and has forwarded my email to the soundwalk people about being a beta-tester.

On the one hand, I am Jewish so I have a certain amount of access to and a background in Judaism, on the other hand my knowledge is not as extensive as some and therefore I can augment my knowledge as need be as my project progresses.

Working bibliography
Methodology
Sklar, Deidre. “Can Bodylore Be Brought to Its Senses?” The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 107, No. 423, Bodylore (Winter, 1994), 9-22.
Using embodied knowledge to conduct research

Bruner, Edward M. 2005 The Role of Narrative in Tourism unpublished conference paper.
Bruner, Edward M. 2004 Culture on Tour: ethnographies of travel. Chicago : University of Chicago Press
Helpful for research methodology and the use of narrative

Experiential tourism/soundwalks
Hildegard, Westerkamp. “Soundwalking” Sound Heritage, Vol. III Number 4, Victoria, B.C. 1974, revised 2001
http://cec.concordia.ca/econtact/Soundwalk/Soundwalking.htm
provides an overview of soundwalks, including how to make your own and is helpful to inform how soundwalks are constructed
Egoyan, Atom. 2002. Janet Cardiff. Bomb Magazine (spring).
Biagioli, Monica. 2000. Janet Cardiff: The missing voice (Case Study B: An Audio Walk). ArtFocus 68 (spring). -- Both articles deal with Cardiff’s work and will inform my analysis of the soundwalks

Hasidic Community of Williamsburg
Poll, Solomon. The Hasidic Community of Williamsburg
Kranzler, George. Hasidic Williamsburg: A Contemporary American Hasidic Community.
Kranzler, George. The Face of Faith; An American Hassidic Community.
These books will provide background knowledge about the Hasidic community.

Harris, Liz. Holy Days: The World of a Hasidic Family
This book will give me some background knowledge about the Hasidic world. It will also be interesting to see what her tone and narrative is as a non-Hasidic woman.

Photography of Irving Herzberg (1915-1992)
Photographed Hasidic Williamsburg community, question of representation

Zakutinsky, Rivika and Yaffa Leba. Around Sarah’s Table.
10 Hasidic women’s stories -- helpful in my exploration of gender