Crossing the Liffey

Since the Liffey divides Dublin's North and South Sides, many Dubliners have to cross the river each morning and evening as they commute to work or school. I decided to spend a morning documenting some of the ways they do so. I wanted to be sure to explore the Docklands especially after a reading we did in the first half of the course, entitled "Cultivating a Cultural Dockland," by Brian O'Connell of The Irish Times. The article, written in 2006, outlines some of the projects at work on "Dublin's evolving riverside" (see below), particularly by describing the cultural community that is finding economic and community support there. While artistic expression is not necessarily the focus of my blog, crossing the river is an everyday experience of many Dubliners, and so I think it is important to note, as O'Connell does in the article, that "Just like the waterfronts of Vancouver or Boston, Dublin Docklands is a large-scale development project where a culture and urban regeneration have made for uncomfortable, yet necessary, bedfellows." His parallel of the docklands with those of Vancouver or Boston point out that in major ways, the project of developing the docklands is a project of globalization.

Other Means

One effective way to collect data for my project would be to interview them about their experiences with public transportation and with their feelings about the role it plays in Dublin's day-to-day functioning. This is challenging because people on the move don't always have time to stop and chat, but if I could talk with a few people (even if I can not capture them on video) I would be able to allow my subjects to speak for themselves. It would give my project a bit more of a human dimension, since as it stands now I am mostly assessing their use of public transit from an objective position and trying to capture the setting in which the human interaction takes place. I can hypothesize where my subjects are heading, but I can never really know unless I allow their voices to become part of my project.

The sounds of people on their way to work are often just as interesting as the sights, and so I could definitely see the value of an audio component to my project. While this may sound obvious, one of the things I notice most in City Center as distinctive from New York is how different the sounds are as I walk from one place to the next. I wonder if I will react to the sounds of NYC differently after hearing these for a semester.

So that my project can hopefully be an accurate reflection, I am also hoping to gain some understanding of Dubliners in motion by using sources such as the National Transport Authority, the state body responsible for public transportation in the greater Dublin area (http://www.nationaltransport.ie/) and other informative sources. This would change my archive by presenting me with a greater range of experiences than I am likely to encounter on my own.

Now Landing at the Dublin Airport

While it is difficult to capture the action of an airport such as Dublin Airport, as William Langewiesche said, "The story of how aviation became practical as a means of transportation...is the story of how the world became small." While workers in today's globalized economy cooperate in major ways in the online space (making travel for business less necessary,) the advent of practical transportation by plane changed the international work dynamic incredibly. The ability of workers in Dublin to cooperate with those all over the world, as we read about when we focused specifically on the Google organization in the first half of the semester, relies not only on teams in various cities but on effective communication between those teams- and, when necessary, ability for team members to travel to meet with one another face-to-face. Now, according to the Dublin Airport website, "Dublin Airport manages an average of 60,000 passengers per day, rising to 80,000 during the peak season, and more than 600 aircraft movements every day." All of these passengers- whether they are coming to or leaving from Dublin for personal, leisure, or business reasons- are part of the globalized Dublin- a Dublin whose influences and ideas extend far beyond city limits or Ireland's borders. I also found it interesting, on the "Filming and Photography" section of the website, to learn that there is a 250 euro per hour charge to film within Dublin Airport, as far as I understand, for commercial reasons. While the website does not specifically mention use of photography in the airport for research purposes, I wonder what the response would be if I were to request permission to photograph as part of a research project. I fear it would not be positive, because airports are so necessarily focused on security of individual passengers. While I couldn't capture the kind of departure and arrival images I have hoped, Dublin Airport plays an important role in Dublin's global identity because it allows the people of Ireland to see the rest of the world and vice versa.