Contracting, Conspiring, Completing

Creating a group contract never appeared to be a massive undertaking, however, the due date for the project presented certain challenges. While it makes sense to present a full group contract early in the semester, the relative lack of familiarity with the project left me... concerned.

After a few trips to the Charlotte Public Library, our research led us to a conclusion: this is a huge undertaking. Ideas for organization of the project developed over time. We initially consented to select eras, around a decade a piece, upon which to base our research. We quickly realized that a decade of music not only included an incredibly diverse number of artists to log, but also presented us with too large body of other mediums (such as venues, shows, sheet music, and radio broadcasts) to reasonably manage. Eras were quickly presenting more problems than they solved.

We quickly decided that a better method by which to evaluate the music scene in Charlotte was selecting a medium. We resolved that each person should select from venue, radio, sheet music, magazine, recorded music, or photographs. We once again ran into a problem; creating any sort of narrative with no cross medium integration was nearly impossible.

Eventually, Tina decided that the best way to approach the issue was using Venue as an organizational tool, and so it stood. By focusing on certain venues each (concert halls, bars, hotels, radio stations) we are enabled to focus our research. Many venues in Charlotte have been host to bands large and small, national and local, signed and unsigned, from a variety of different backgrounds.

Drafting a contract, then, became much simpler. The Contract was now a way to decide what areas we needed to focus on and to be realistic about each of our responsibilities to the project and to the group. I decided that I would take overarching control of the website as well as focusing on contemporary music venues; most notably Tremont and the Double Door jazz club in uptown Charlotte. Our group has now decided what it wants to do with the website and how to represent the material in an interesting and valuable manner.