---
tags: storyLab
---
# SPACE WALK

## DESIGN CHALLENGES AND IDEAS

* activity should involve photos at locations
* we want to come away with a bunch of photos that have latitude and longitude in the exif data
* we'll write a script that grabs lat and long and student (or other stuff that's relevant) and then use this to programmatically generate the map
* we need to motivate it by connecting it to some sort of content that could conceivably be part of a Harvard College course
* should we have a simultaneous video shooting element?
* potential course content
* Primitive Navigation-style activity that will create interesting spread between the data points (i.e. walk for 10 minutes due west from X and take a photo, or, separated by enough time not to see each other, walk from X to Y)
* something that maps Harvard experiences meaningfully, like a place where you experienced X, or your favorite place to do X, or the first X sort of place you encountered
* ideally there's something meaningful in the location alone, and in the clustering of locations that we get from this
* way-finding
* take a way-finding map and get to X, then Y, then Z, taking photos every ____
* mem hall stories maybe?
* [Harvard Memorial Fund](https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:44891160$9i)
* [Mem hall website](https://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/history.html)
* [Mem Hall Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Hall_(Harvard_University))

### IDEAS FOR JORDAN

* Harvard Lore
* One of the semester-long projects in GenEd 1097 (aka 'Tradition, Performance, and Culture' aka 'Intro to Folklore') is the compilation of a set of items of "HarvardLore". Each student is responsible for documenting fifteen items, which can be Harvard-centric superstitions, legends, jokes, rituals, etc. Students are encouraged to approach anyone who might be the holder of such knowledge - fellow students, d-hall workers, building managers, Deans, department admins - anyone - to get items for their collections.
* We were brainstorming over the summer a bit and thought it could be intriguing to show off some of these items on a dedicated website. With student permission, we could overlay the items on a map of Harvard's campus, and so create a sort of "tour" of HarvardLore. While they aren't required to collect images, geo-tagged images would be especially helpful for a site like this.
* A LOT of the items we get are very building specific, and I'd imagine there's a good chance the LLUFs will have already know a lot of the stories we're collecting. To start off, here are some buildings or landmarks which come up frequently:
* Johnston Gate
* The John Harvard statue
* Widener
* River Houses (for the River Run)
* Holden Chapel
* Dunster House (usually related to its ghost)
* But ANY location can be rich in local traditions
* NB: I know Lowell Brower, also in folklore, has been leading spooky campus tours for his currently running course "Supernatural Storytelling: Ghost-lore, Occult Legends, and the Politics of the Paranormal" - long term he might also like something like this!

* Architectural History
* document building elements that document a specific era
* split map view, one of harvard campus, and if you click on the data point/location, a global map on the right lights up with origination of style(s) found in the harvard building?
* react/coding lab - architecture texture guessing game

## DRAFT PROMPT

Today we're going to play with a couple of mechanics:

* selfie-video story-telling
* geo-tagged selfie-photos to get location
* database generation from media
* visualization of airtable records holding lat and long info

And we're going to do so by connecting to a couple of projects MDFs have recommended

* the Harvard Lore project that Elizabeth mentioned Folklore and Mythology being interested in
* a classic intro Architecture Class assignment Taylor from the GSD pitched

So here are the steps

1. everyone meets Jordan at Cambridge Common
2. all get a prompt
3. go collect photos
4. return and debrief