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.

The Project

My project plan is to choose a different mode of transport to focus on each week (for example, the DART, the Dublin City Bus, bicycles, taxis, pedestrians, or air travel.) I would like to create a sense of the many kinds of people who rely on these various forms of transit. My subjects will be anyone who uses public transportation in the city of Dublin, and I will attempt to create a sense of the way a cosmopolitan city like Dublin relies on its transportation infrastructure to function.

Some social issues may arise because I am somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of taking pictures of people without their knowledge, and yet telling someone that you are going to take their picture could change the way the picture comes out. I want to avoid posed photos, and yet I am still figuring out the balance and when would be the best time to ask a potential subject for permission.

My main challenge in beginning this project was that I haven't been in Dublin much in the past two weeks, so I had to rely on some earlier photos I had taken, such as the one from Enniskerry and from City Center during my first days here. I think I may have more entries to come from the City Bus, since it epitomizes my interest in the different groups of people that it brings together. It seemed like a fitting place to begin my posts, though, because it is really where my interest in the topic began.

A Few Days With Dublin City Bus

Dublin City Center

The 10 Before the Parade, March 17

Cities and People on the Move

For some reason, I have become fascinated with the ways people move from place to place. Especially since coming to Dublin for the semester, I find myself on busses, airplanes, and trains wondering who my fellow passengers are, how they ended up here and where they are going.

I think this interest certainly has a foundation in my move to New York City a few years ago, since prior to that most of my transportation took place in cars in a Pennsylvania suburb. I am interested in urban spaces, and these are so often focused on and transformed by the importance of moving from place to place. Entire cities change in order to make room for a new road or a new train track. People will base where they live based on what subway stop they can access easily. Parents base similar decisions based on the ease with which they will get their children to school safely.

In a cosmopolitan city like Dublin, it seems that people are always on the move, and so I decided for my visual ethnography to try to capture what it means to be a Dubliner in motion. Whether this means catching people on their way to work, or observing anxieties around the need to get somewhere, or simply standing still and seeing what happens around me, I think it will be an interesting way to see the city. I will ask myself who people are and how their transportation (and their destination) shape their identity in the city.

I hope to create an archive of photos that will capture the diversity of experiences with the everyday need to travel around the city. Since everyone needs to get from place to place, regardless of how they spend their time, the bus, train, or road is an interesting space that brings together students, adults, families, visitors, and natives of the city. People who live in seemingly separate spheres in the city are still traveling on the same roads and in some of the same ways. This is something I hope to capture in my ethnography.

I think urban transportation systems are important because they are an indicator of and a tool of globalization. Dublin is an increasingly global city, and the efficient movement of its residents from place to place is important in their increased involvement across previous boundaries--key to globalization.

My take on the city will be that of a relative newcomer: I am spending a semester at UCD as a study abroad student from Fordham University, where I am an American Studies student. I will graduate next May with a minor in Communication and Media Studies and, probably, a concentration in Cultural Products. This semester is an exciting one for me, as I have the opportunity to explore a variety of new places.

I hope that my project will produce a variety of interesting images that will help me to gain a better understanding of Dubliners in motion.