Hello Matthew, Tim, John, Matthew, many thanks for the 'ill organised stuff'! - if this is what you call ill organised then I'm in real trouble and will have to postpone my properly confused and ill organised contribution for a while :-) Very much looking foward to discussing this along with John's chronology and Tim's vast pool of texts at our next meeting. I've gone through most of the the material and it certainly makes abundently clear why this process is so critically important. It would be an understatement to say how shocking this data appears when laid out in this way. In fact, it's a great example of how to course through it - where conjunctures scream, jump off the page. "....Chinese construction workers refused contracts in Warsaw; paid for first month then no more; stopped working & demanded wages after 3 months, early June. fired, evicted from dormitories & visas revoked in July.......... Maharashtra nationalists attack Bihari migrants seeking railway jobs..........prostitution market developed in Sanso, Mali, since nearby Morila gold mine opened 2001: women brought from Nigeria in alleged transit to eg. Spain or Senegal, then 'asked to settle' at Sanso with pre-emptive debt." and on
Really looking forward to laying this out on the 'scroll' and getting to work with those coloured acetates!! On this, I thought it might be a good idea to try to put down the basic structure we've agreed for inputting information. Please feel free to add, correct.
As far as I understand it we've agreed that the chronology should be divided into sections that increase in size up to the present - from 2005-2010. Each year from 2007? is curently divided into 4 sections/quarters. The period prior to 2005 will most likely take the form of a 'bottleneck' of data strands - certainly going back to the early 70's (further in some cases). For the moment at least, we've decided to situate the data in random groups/clusters? and pretty much anywhere on the page (as long as it falls within its time? date slot).
We've talked about 'guides', booklets, paragraphs, an index, colour codes to enable the reader to navigate the chronology and input additional data where necessary.
We've talked about scanning the chronology at a future date, essentially filming it and then possibly utilising, intercutting visual material (e.g. youtube footage) to further clarify points (Tim).
We've talked about the need to connect complex strands and where necessary chase material 'off the page'. Matthew, Tim, we talked a little about this when we first laid out the chronlogy but I've forgotten how it works.
A few questions: How to head and categorise information: type, geography, location, sector/industry, key words, stats, source etc... How to deal with stacked information that occurs across a single day. Tim gave a great example of a single day at the last meeting (Sept 11 2009) - certainly a productive one for those Shoreditch office raiders!!
I'll try to add more later but please put down anything I've missed. In terms of sharing material I've now contacted a friend and asked him to set up a wiki for us -which should make the job much easier. I'd be more than happy to run through this when we next meet.
Very best and looking forward to the next meeting. Anthony