To Cope

The Unknown

Like a child in the dark, we’re all frightened from time to time. I had always assumed that over time, fear would fade to be replaced by a dignified bravery. Repeatedly, Dr. Cox’s class has taught me otherwise.

Entering this semester, I could not have been more terrified. As a post-bac student, I didn’t know what to expect. I applied for the class, History in the Digital Age, knowing only that digital history had something to do with computers and something to do with history. Put bluntly, I felt inadequate. Unfamiliar with graduate school, I could only take solace in the fact that Dr. Cox had allowed me entry to her class. Upon entering the room, all of my fears were realized. “Wow, I’m unqualified.”

Alas, my good fortune is incomparable. Aside from my initial jitters, my fears were unfounded. During the first class, we met each other and I was quick to realize that I was not looked down upon; in fact, my experience was quite the opposite. As much as the class was a subject of my curiosity, I was met with genuine interest. Rather than being disregarded, I quickly was made to feel an equal.

As the class drew to an end, Dr. Cox initiated the group selection process. I was blessed to have an interest in music, a topic which caught the attention of three great people: Tina Wright, Reggie Rucker, and Anna Boyer. Between the four of us, a quick chemistry developed. Thus, my journey through HIST 6330 began.

The Project

The assignment was seemingly impossible. Chronicle Charlotte’s musical history and display the findings in an online exhibit. With haste, the group met to discuss the assignment. Initially, the project appeared implacable.

Our first sojourn to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg library brought little success. As we listlessly perused the contents of the Carolina Room, progress was little more than meaningless babble. As our time at the library drew to an end, we finally found traction. We discussed the topic and, by and large, agreed that a chronological representation of different mediums (venue, sheet music, recordings, etc.) would offer some continuity. We left that meeting with happy hearts. Ignorant to the long road ahead, I celebrated the small success.

We soon developed a mission statement. Having realized that selecting specific mediums, in reality, offered NO opportunity for continuity, a change was in order. We decided that if we each focused on a specific set of venues, defined temporally, we could adequately represent Charlotte’s music scene. Without burdening you with the thick details, our goals were as follows: utilize Venue as a structure by which to explore the diversity of musical culture in Charlotte. The aim was to show the change in culture over time and to understand the motivating factors for the change.

Each of us chose responsibility based on our specific skill sets, but I chose to be the web-master. Having once designed a website in Dreamweaver, I was not confident at all pretty confident in my ability to confront this task. Having a personal stake in the North Carolina music scene, I thought it only proper that I take on the Contemporary Music Venues section. I wanted to present the modern venues in Charlotte as part of a grander culture in Charlotte. I assumed with my connections within the rock, metal, and jazz scenes, I would have a respectively easy time forming an exhibit based on these subjects. In the end, my personal familiarity with the subject has served me little and less.

Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon (either way, we amount to dinner)

In a project such as this, the standard problems of History are only compounded by the mystifying enigma that is computing. Ideas about how to accomplish our goals were informed by what we had seen on different Omeka sites, such as the Silver Age Comics webpage hosted by the Atkins Library.

That website is immaculate.^{definitions 2 - 3} The layout, the colors, the information… it so beautifully presented. The Silver Age Comics website is easily navigable, but incorporates all of the (for lack of a better term) cool features that would excite computer nerds. The website instilled, within me, what could only be termed as a “delusion of grandeur.” After viewing the website, it was only natural to assume that we had an equal opportunity for success; after all, we were using the same web host/creation engine: Omeka.

As fate would have it, this was not the case. The Silver Age Comics website was not only developed by professionals, but utilized the full (and expensive) version of Omeka. Early in the class we had great expectations. We planned on using many plugins (to which, we would find, we had no access.) In our group contract we cite Contributions and Dropbox, which would allow users to upload their own content and Neatline, a timeline which incorporated mapping to offer our users both spatial and temporal coordinates for their viewing pleasure.  
Instead, to accomplish our goals, the only tools we had were hard work, ingenuity, and cumbersome web building software.

The Sound of Perseverance

Coping with the absence of our expected materials has been far more informing than I could have imagined  Part of life is adapting, and that’s exactly what we have done. We realized that certain materials, such as videos, are un-applicable. Omeka has strict rules which preclude the embedding of any fancy moving pictures video files. The neat organization which we so desired would be forgone for function. As a group, we decided that any video would be linked off site. Much the same, we decided against trying to impart any visitor participation. Without the Dropbox or Contributions plugins, any contribution would have to be our own.

More interesting, however, is how we adjusted to the absence of the aforementioned Neatline feature. Reggie first suggested that he would develop an individual timeline. We thought that was great, even if it isn’t interactive, a timeline offers a sense of continuity which is somewhat hard to obtain within the bounds of our available materials. Following Reggie’s lead, I decided I would design a map. Initially, I intended to embed a Google Map with all of the information from the website, but instead resolved to host the map off cite and create a simple picture which redirects the user to the interactive map.

Another issue I was forced to confront was the banner. While it seems a modest imposition, designing a banner for a website is challenging work. At first I resolved to pay a friend to complete the banner, however, my friends are less than reliable. As time went on, I was resolved to design my own banner. I downloaded an image editing program, GIMP, which is both free, and rivals Photoshop in terms of its capabilities... plus, its free...

 After hours of reading forums, cussing, crying, and sweating, I created THE GREATEST BANNER OF ALL TIME.

As the website is, it reflects a massive change in the social stratification and culture of Charlotte. Tina’s section, Charlotte’s Early Music Venues, offers a good overview of some of the more traditional venues of music, but also sets the stage for later festivals and venues. Her work represents a majority of white performers. Specifically, her piece on festivals informed my section on the Jazz Charlotte festival. Reggie’s section on Black Music venues shows the dynamic changes in racial acceptance; many of my venues are host to multiracial performers. Anna’s section on WBT also informs mine, as radio has been a great area which modern venues have used to advertise.

Really, this has been an exercise in lateral thinking. Building a website was never my intention in signing up for this class; but the challenge really offered me the opportunity to explore unfamiliar territory. At first this project, this class, and this setting were all frightening; but from this fear, creativity and perseverance met to create a true historical tool.