News
Thursday 29 November 2007
29/11 : Genre Class
Folklore Genres Fall 2007Folklore Genres is, according to Dr. Antonsen's syllabus, "designed to introduce and explain major concepts in folklore study while exploring a range of folklore genres and implications of genre theory.
On a more fundamental level, it is designed to give you a taste of examining the folk and the lore in folklore. Some readings and discussions focus on the lore (the expressive forms themselves): guiding principles, dominant aesthetics, matters of form, function, and performance, etc. Others deal more with coming to understand the needs, expectations, and even cultural-political circumstances of groups of people (the folk) through examining their expressive forms.
Projects in the Class
Game Paper (pdf)
The paper was designed for the students to document a contest. It was to focus on how one determines the winner. Is it determined by speed, strength, or intelligence? My paper was on software piracy as a game, for the pirates are in groups and attempt to upload a new pirated item before another group. One wins by being the first to upload a fully working item before another group. The paper helps the students work on their folklore skills to analyze a group.
Traditonal Food Way Culture (pdf)
Coming Soon!
The project was to go out into the field and document a food way event, item, something relating to food from a culture that one is not familiar with in life. I chose a friend/coworker of my wife who is an Occupational Therapist. She emigrated from Colombia after college and is a Physical Therapist. Along with her mother, I documented a typical Colombian American dinner event. It was a wonderful experience to meet someone, help them cook, learn about their culture, their food, and try something new. I was glad that she desires to teach her kids how to cook Colombian food in the future to keep those traditions alive.
Tradional Food Way Culture Photographs (pdf)
Coming Soon!
29/11 : Folklore Public
Folklore Public Fall 2007Folklore Public is, according to Dr. Evan's syllabus, "a survey of public and applied folklore. We will look at the history, politics, and major institutions of public/applied folklore; at working with individuals and communities; at festivals; exhibits, media productions and other issues of cultural presentations; at the relationship of public/applied folklore to social work and social activism; at ethical issues; and at practicalities of budges, grants, and other matters.
We will discuss and evaluate specific public/applied folklore products (videotapes, radio programs, CDs, web pages, etc.) in class. The class will include field trips, visits from public folklorists, and participation in the Kentucky Folklife Festival. Students should finish this class with a grasp of the complex and ever-changing world of public/applied folklore, and an ability to look at public folklore issues critically.
Projects in the Class
Grant (zip file with 3 pdf)
A grant I did for the class. The grant is proposing doing a podcast and website combo on Bowling Green, Kentucky's Folklore. The initial project is on the legends of Bowling Green including Western's campus legends, the legends of Lost River Cave among many others. This is a new way of doing a similar project as Roots to Routes, for example.
Kentucky Folklife Festival Paper (pdf)
Part of the class was to volunteer for the festival. I did most of my volunteering over at the Food Ways Tent. I did volunteer for a morning over at the Marbles games like Tennessee Square or Rolling Ball. As part of the project, we interviewed people at the festival regarding their experience such as what they thought, improvements, how well the festival shows off Kentucky's folk groups, among numerous other items of interest. After the festival, a partner in the class and I wrote together a paper on our experiences at the festival and how well it went for everyone. We critically looked at the staff, the organization, the food, volunteers, and a few other items.
Saturday 24 November 2007
24/11 : Folklore Fieldwork
Folklore Fieldwork Fall 2007 A Halloween festival in Bowling Green, Kentucky in the fall of 2007. The project was for an ethnographic photography project. |
Folklore Fieldwork is, according to Dr. Brady's syllabus, "the systematic gathering of information concerning human activities and relations in a person-to-person setting. It is the central and emblematic method on which folklorists and others base their professional efforts. This course will lay the groundwork for graduate students to begin this practice, both in developing specific skills and in acquiring an understanding of the history and issues relating to the use of this method in the ethnographic disciplines."
Projects in the Class
Informal Interview (pdf)
An interview I did with a fellow classmate for my first fieldwork project. The project helped me learn about doing an interview, the typical mistakes one makes, how to write up a report, and analyze one's own experience to learn better fieldwork experience.
Ethnographic Photography (pdf)
The photographs are various photos I took for the two photography projects I did for the class during the semester. The first project was "24 Hours in a Day" on October 10, 2007 Bowling Green, KY of my life. The second was of two Halloween festival's in on October 20, 2007. These photographs were a few of the ones my professor for the class, Dr. Erica Brady, thought were the most ethnographic and the best picture quality overall for their respective project.
Ethnographic Interview Full (pdf)
An ethnographic interview done over at Potter Hall, 442, on November 15, 2007 with Mr. Howard Bailey who is the Vice President of Student Affairs. The interview was on Western Kentucky University's campus lore. The interview was my first full interview experience with fieldnotes, data form, photograph, and index content log.
Ethnographic Interview Audio Sample (mp3)
This is an interview done with Mr. Howard Bailey who is the Vice President of Student Affairs at Western Kentucky University. He has been with the university for forty years. The sample audio is him talking about the haunting experiences he has had while he worked over at Barnes-Campbell on Western's campus back in 1971 when he was an Resident Assistant.
Ethnographic Transcription (pdf)
The transcription was for an interview with Mr. Howard Bailey. Mr. Bailey has been with the university for forty years and is well respected at Western Kentucky University. I did the interview for class as part of my final project for fieldwork. It is only a partial transcription but is a good representation of the full thing. The interview was regarding Western’s Folklore.
Monday 12 November 2007
12/11 : Contact
Information:Arthur Gordon Van Ness, IV
Bowling Green, KY
agvannes@gmail.com
http://www.thespook.org
http://www.agvannes.com
12/11 : Links
- Western Kentucky University
- Western Kentucky University Folklore Department
- Western Kentucky University Anthropology Department
Class Projects:
Projects:
12/11 : Research
I am currently in my spare time continuing my own research on college and university folklore. The site is called The Spook. I started the project in June of 2007 as a way to not only document campuslore but also help me gather information for my research. So far, it has been successful and people have been forthcoming with help and thoughts. Through this site and my own research, I hope to write and publish books on college and university folklore in America. The project is not meant exclusively to be academic, for I also hope that people can learn about their college through enjoyment of the stories and even get a few scares.Longwood Univeristy Haunts
LU Raw Documentary Film
Coming Soon Streaming Video!
(Due to Technical Difficulties This Option is Not Currently Available)
A raw documentary film I recorded of Dr. Jordan at Longwood Univesity on June 13, 2007 in Grainger Hall room 113. The speech Dr. Jordan is giving is called "Tales from Under the Ground: Some Glimpses of Scary Happenings from Longwood's Olden Days." This speech is given around Halloween time every year in Jarman Auditiorium. I recorded it during one of his summer school classes with his permission to help with my research. The film has a lot of great information, slides, and spooks. The film is good quality since I am new to the area of documentary films. There are only a couple of places where the audio is difficult to make out or the camera moves but it is good quality for a first try I think. If you have some of your own tales or experiences, please share at The Spook.
Western Kentucky University Haunts
Wku Haunts Raw Documentary Film
Coming Soon Streaming Video!
(Due to Technical Difficulties This Option is Not Currently Available)
I video recorded along with Clinton Shurtz the Western Kentucky University Haunts on the Hill ghost walks the weekend of Halloween in the fall of 2007 here on campus. The event is put on by the Communications Honor Society here at Western. The stories are fasinating and researched by the Kentucky Musuem Folklore Archieves. I am including a sample story of the ghost walk. The video quality of this full verison is not perfect, good though, considering I have done no editing and had to compress a file from 9 gigs to 500 megs. I am still learning how best to compress a file to keep the video quality.
Potter Hall Haunts
Western's first residence hall, Potter Hall (named for Western regent J. Whit Potter) was built for 250 students in 1921. It served as both a women's and men's residence hall, and also housed the college cafeteria, before it was converted into an administration building in 1994. Potter saw many generations of students pass happily through its doors. But for one, college life could not alleviate her despair.
The ghost of Potter Hall would walk the floors, push aside furniture, make strange noises, and call residents' names. Night clerks heard keys turning in locks and the sound of change being inserted into a vending machine–even heard the drink fall–but saw no one. Like the proverbial whistler in the graveyard, staff would pass by one of Potter's basement storage rooms quickly and reluctantly, and never at night.
Trying to make sense of the mystery, some of the residents used a ouija board to contact the spirit, who responded with alacrity, but also with sorrow and bitterness. Her name, it is said, was Allison. Some years ago, she had committed suicide by hanging herself in that basement room that everyone seemed to avoid. She gave precise details of her death–the date, even the location of the room where it happened.
When the residents asked a housekeeper about the incident, she was surprised by what they already knew, as the tragedy had been carefully hushed up over the years.
Since Potter Hall's conversion into an administration building, Allison has been heard from less frequently but a 1994 incident, where she loudly banged on the pipe in the room where she died, suggests that, unfortunately for her tortured soul, she may still be "alive and well."
12/11 : Class Projects
Class Projects:Fall 2007
Classes
Spring 2008
- Folklore Beliefs, Folklore Theory, Anthropology Ethnographic Video: Coming Next Semester!
12/11 : C.V.
Cirriculum Vitae:
Arthur Gordon Van Ness, IV (pdf)
My Curriculum Vitae is a combination of my current folklore experience, archaeology, and computer science. I waited four years after graduating from undergraduate to go to graduate to make sure that when I went, I was doing it in the field I truly was interested in following. I, therefore, have had experience in multiple areas from fixing computers to running an archaeological dig.
Thankfully, in graduate school, I am gaining valuable experience learning folklore. I did an interview with, who was at the time the Hall Director for Potter Hall at Western Kentucky University, who actually found the young lady who committed suicide that haunts the building. These types of experience along with grant writing and further fieldwork experience, I believe, are helping to prepare me for work in the public sector of folklore.
Arthur Gordon Van Ness, IV (pdf)
My Curriculum Vitae is a combination of my current folklore experience, archaeology, and computer science. I waited four years after graduating from undergraduate to go to graduate to make sure that when I went, I was doing it in the field I truly was interested in following. I, therefore, have had experience in multiple areas from fixing computers to running an archaeological dig.
Thankfully, in graduate school, I am gaining valuable experience learning folklore. I did an interview with, who was at the time the Hall Director for Potter Hall at Western Kentucky University, who actually found the young lady who committed suicide that haunts the building. These types of experience along with grant writing and further fieldwork experience, I believe, are helping to prepare me for work in the public sector of folklore.
12/11 : Current Project
Folklore Fieldwork Project:I am currently looking for informant to interview on WKU ghost stories.
I prefer a staff or faculty that has been here a few years.
Please email me at agvannes@gmail.com as soon as you can!
Thanks,
Gordon Van Ness
WKU Folk Studies Masters
'07-'09
Tuesday 06 November 2007
06/11 : Gordon Van Ness
| I am Arthur Gordon Van Ness, IV. I at attending Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky for my masters in Folk Studies. |  Coming Soon: Actual Picture of Folklorist that is also the first and only Computer Scientist as well. |
| I am doing the thesis track at Western on Western Kentucky's Universities Folklore. As part of this research, I am working on next semester doing a documentary to go along with my thesis. After graduation, I hope to go onto get a Ph. D. in Folklore. I am looking at Ohio State University for a Ph. D. in English with a Concentration in Folklore. I am currently enrolled in Folklore Fieldwork, Public Folklore, and Folklore Genres. Next semester I am taking Folklore Belief, Folklore Theory, and Anthropology Ethnographic Video. I am currently in my spear time continuing my own research on college and university folklore. The site is called The Spook. I started the project in June of 2007 as a way to not only document campuslore but also help me gather information for my research. So far, it has been successful and people have been forthcoming with help and thoughts. Through this site and my own research, I hope to write and publish books on college and university folklore in America. The project is not meant exclusively to be academic, for I also hope that people can learn about their college through enjoyment of the stories and even get a few scares. | Current News |
29 Nov