Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Correspondence from Arlanza Library

            The public raffle was part of the March 5th On The Line one-day event at Arlanza Library in Riverside, California. University of California, Riverside Anthropology major, Edith Macias managed the whole raffle at the Arlanza Library.
            My correspondence with Edith began when I received an email with an attached image of the signage for the raffle.
 
Photo Courtesy of Edith Macia

          Our correspondence continued with me emailing her questions of how she managed the raffle, how was the participatory aspect received by the public, any interesting conversations about the raffle concept with clotheslines or the California state legislation with the “Right to Dry.”
            I intended to incorporate Edith’s experiences into my writing, which was planned to be posted on the On The Line website. This writing was part of my preliminary proposal to aid in the documentation of the background and experiences from the raffle.
            In her email Edith shared with me how she organized and managed the raffle. I was pleased that my proposal was not followed like instructions, but more as a loose structure. One example of the methods Edith used at the Arlanza Library location was that she collected names on paper for the raffle drawing instead of distributing prefab raffle tickets. Edith mentioned how her signage was effective by having the public approach her about what was being raffled off.
            As I began my first stage of writing, the bilingual signage is what provoked more questions about the participatory elements of the raffle. I knew Edith’s experiences came from either her research with the neighborhoods near Arlanza Library or she could have been some how familiar with the area.
            I knew my single author approach was not appropriate, since I did not attend the March 5th program. From my previous experiences with new media and research with digital humanities, I proposed to Edith and Susan Ossman, Director of On The Line program, that a blog was better suited for presenting the multi-voiced experiences and research from the raffle. Susan and Edith accepted the blog idea. 
            This blog, On The Line 2016 Public Raffle, has been launched to be a collaborative way of writing about the public raffle, while utilizing new media to extend the participatory concept from the public physical location (the library site) to virtual social spaces. 
 
References

Fox, R. ed. (1991) Recapturing Anthropology Working in the Present. Santa Fe, School of American Research.

Lippard, L. (1973) Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. Berkeley, University of California Press.

Okely, J. & Callaway, H. eds. (1992) Anthropology & Autobiography. London, Routledge.
                   
Pink, S. ed. (2012) Advances in Visual Methodology. London, Sage.               

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