Well, I leave El Cerrito this year with mixed emotions. I was hoping to get more video of interviews with the actual villagers, and while every effort was made to set some of these up, no one in the village was very interested in being interviewed. The older villagers summed it up by saying that they are just very private people. And while over the years they have given interviews and been tape-recorded, video was just a little too much for them. Again, I felt like an outsider, prying into their lives. Regardless of how important I think it is to get this all documented before it all fades way, their wishes must come first. There is a reason that these people have chosen to live a harder life out here in the middle of nowhere under some harsh conditions, and being left alone is probably one of the major ones.
So I leave this place feeling torn between wanting to share the uniqueness of this tiny New Mexican village and on the other hand wanting to hide it away from everyone. I feel split in two by my conflicting feelings. On one hand, I am a Gringa, a stranger to this place. I have no roots here, no family history, no right to document this place and its traditions. A stranger with no voice. On the other hand, something about El Cerrito draws me in and makes me feel protective of the village. While I am not a landowner in the village, is it not still my right to try and learn ab out this place, and in learning be able to teach others. As a US citizen, is it not my right to voice my opinion on the preservation of this village. I am not sure there is really any one correct answer.
So, I am left with packing up and trying to get in as many last shots of the village as I can. On my way out, I plan on visiting some of the scenic over-looks to use for "infinity" back-drops in Second Life. As I pull out over the mesa and the village disappears, I can't help but feel that I am witnessing the death of a village.
Flooding in the Canyon de Pena
Friday, May 28, 2010
During one of his lectures about the ditch, Dr. Nostrand mentions that one of his students theorized in a paper that the physical geography of the area is such that given the right rain conditions, a downpour over the Canon de Pena could potentially aim water runoff directly at the ditch where it is most vulnerable. Five years later, water rushing out of the mouth of the Canon de Pena carried boulders and debris into the Pecos, and while it caused little damage to the ditch, it did weaken the bridge downstream so much, that it was replaced with a new steel bridge. It also prompted the villagers to reinforce the ditch embankment with rock-filled wire mesh gabion baskets.
And it's a good thing, because once again the Canon de Pena flooded and was pouring water at a rapid rate into the Pecos. So when Jeff Roth came running up to base-camp saying that water was rushing from the Canon de Pena, I grabbed my stuff to go take pictures.
What had been dry and calm just hours before now looked like a river unto itself. We were lucky to get both still shots and some video of this weather development. We were also lucky that it wasn't as much water as it could have been, the bridge stayed solid and there didn't seem to be any damage to the ditch.
After it stopped raining, Jeff Roth (geography, Stephen F Austin University), noticed that the ditch had stopped running, and all other concerns were sort of put away for a while. No matter what side you happen to fall on in the great development debate, the ditch is still the most important thing in the village. Water is life to the village, and no matter what, the ditch has to be cleared. It seems to be the one thing that can always be agreed upon.
After the rain finally stopped (or at least let up for a bit), I took the camera out to take shots of the river. The Pecos is not the clearest of rivers at any given time, but I had never seen it running as red as it looked on this particular evening.
And it's a good thing, because once again the Canon de Pena flooded and was pouring water at a rapid rate into the Pecos. So when Jeff Roth came running up to base-camp saying that water was rushing from the Canon de Pena, I grabbed my stuff to go take pictures.
What had been dry and calm just hours before now looked like a river unto itself. We were lucky to get both still shots and some video of this weather development. We were also lucky that it wasn't as much water as it could have been, the bridge stayed solid and there didn't seem to be any damage to the ditch.
After it stopped raining, Jeff Roth (geography, Stephen F Austin University), noticed that the ditch had stopped running, and all other concerns were sort of put away for a while. No matter what side you happen to fall on in the great development debate, the ditch is still the most important thing in the village. Water is life to the village, and no matter what, the ditch has to be cleared. It seems to be the one thing that can always be agreed upon.
After the rain finally stopped (or at least let up for a bit), I took the camera out to take shots of the river. The Pecos is not the clearest of rivers at any given time, but I had never seen it running as red as it looked on this particular evening.
Mapping and Photographing the Village Part 2
Thursday, May 27, 2010
What makes getting these texture shots in El Cerrito difficult stems from three different sources. For one thing the weather has been incredible. The rain storms begin about an hour and a half after lunch, and quickly turn into an incredible explosion of thunder, lightening and hail - hail the size of golf balls. And while this natural display of ferocity is tremendous to behold, it sure puts me behind schedule. Even after the storm is over, the light changes and the dampness makes everything a different color than when it was dry and the sun was out.
Everything can change in an instant out here due to weather, and one of the things villagers and visitors like to do is go walking around after a storm to see what artifacts or other kinds of stuff have washed up. There are several places around the village that are famous for turning up points, choppers and other types of tools. On one such walk, Texas State Alumnus, Cynthia Castle, thought she had found some type of chopper. As it turned out, it was just an old piece of shoe leather. Cynthia also found an old suitcase that had washed up. I noticed that she asked the villager who was with us if it was okay for her to grab the suitcase on the way out. As she said, she didn't want to offend anyone, and I thought that this was a good lesson on how to be respectful towards the villagers. So, weather was the first thing that kept me off schedule. Luckily, no one was hurt during the storms, and only 2 windshields were busted from hail.
Another major difficulty of doing this texture shoot is that it is sometimes impossible to see El Cerrito through its years of accumulation of stuff that sits in front of many of the structures. Vegitation overgrowth, melting adobe, junked cars, all sorts of building materials, you name it - seem to be strategically placed to hide the buildings I would like to photograph. I actually heard one of the visitors who has been studying this place for years comment on what a junk-yard the village has become. But as Dr. Brock Brown points out, when you are at 6200 feet in elevation, and there is no infrastructure for trash pick-up, and it takes 40 minutes to get down the bumpy unpaved road, and it would cost big dollars to have anything towed or hauled away, junk just kind of has a way of accumulating over the years. So I just slog along, and take photos of junk that tend to be a little hard to decipher.
The other thing that makes it difficult to get all of the photos that I want for village textures is the undercurrent of village drama that is going on. One of the things that makes El Cerrito unique is that it hasn't really done a lot of changing. Dr. Nostrand calls El Cerrito "a window into the past." When you go to El Cerrito, it is easy to see how life was lived in the past because not a whole lot has changed.
But the traditional village of El Cerrito seems to be slowly dying. There are only 13 residents, and most of them only come in on the weekend, and do not actually reside in the village full-time. Amongst those that DO reside in the village, there is a rift between those who want development and those who do not. Right now the big issue seems to be water rights and water issues. Two years ago, meters were put on all of the houses (even those that have no current occupants). They replaced the old thinner pipe with larger thicker pipe, and now the water-pressure has dwindled to a mere trickle. Since everything operates on gravity, those closer to the water tank have decent pressure (still not very strong), but people further down the line are unable to shower.
The situation was explained to us by one the residents of the village from her point-of-view at the horno fire last night. She is a descendant of one of the original families to live in El Cerrito, and she sees the meters as a way for outsiders to build an infrastructure for developing the area. From her point of view, the well was dug by El Cerrito for the people of EL Cerrito, and why should they have to pay for their own water? She worries because she feels this is just the first thing to happen on the way to full-scale development. There has been talk of installing wind turbines along the tops of the mesas surrounding the village. Other villagers, who seem to be pro-development are buying up land and trying to sell it. She spoke of seeing strangers in town doing measurements and gathering photographs and information, but being unable to get any information out of themas to why they are there.
So, even though everyone knows that Dr. Nostrand's group is in to work on the school house, I am off working alone, taking pictures and mapping out the village. I imagine that I am looked upon with suspicion and wariness as I plod from house to house, prying into the village's life and villager's homes. I start to feel like an outsider, a stranger. And it is a fact that there are some villagers who do not like us coming here. Still, I get what photos I can while I ponder my feelings and question what kind of impact my project will have on these people's lives.
Everything can change in an instant out here due to weather, and one of the things villagers and visitors like to do is go walking around after a storm to see what artifacts or other kinds of stuff have washed up. There are several places around the village that are famous for turning up points, choppers and other types of tools. On one such walk, Texas State Alumnus, Cynthia Castle, thought she had found some type of chopper. As it turned out, it was just an old piece of shoe leather. Cynthia also found an old suitcase that had washed up. I noticed that she asked the villager who was with us if it was okay for her to grab the suitcase on the way out. As she said, she didn't want to offend anyone, and I thought that this was a good lesson on how to be respectful towards the villagers. So, weather was the first thing that kept me off schedule. Luckily, no one was hurt during the storms, and only 2 windshields were busted from hail.
Another major difficulty of doing this texture shoot is that it is sometimes impossible to see El Cerrito through its years of accumulation of stuff that sits in front of many of the structures. Vegitation overgrowth, melting adobe, junked cars, all sorts of building materials, you name it - seem to be strategically placed to hide the buildings I would like to photograph. I actually heard one of the visitors who has been studying this place for years comment on what a junk-yard the village has become. But as Dr. Brock Brown points out, when you are at 6200 feet in elevation, and there is no infrastructure for trash pick-up, and it takes 40 minutes to get down the bumpy unpaved road, and it would cost big dollars to have anything towed or hauled away, junk just kind of has a way of accumulating over the years. So I just slog along, and take photos of junk that tend to be a little hard to decipher.
The other thing that makes it difficult to get all of the photos that I want for village textures is the undercurrent of village drama that is going on. One of the things that makes El Cerrito unique is that it hasn't really done a lot of changing. Dr. Nostrand calls El Cerrito "a window into the past." When you go to El Cerrito, it is easy to see how life was lived in the past because not a whole lot has changed.
But the traditional village of El Cerrito seems to be slowly dying. There are only 13 residents, and most of them only come in on the weekend, and do not actually reside in the village full-time. Amongst those that DO reside in the village, there is a rift between those who want development and those who do not. Right now the big issue seems to be water rights and water issues. Two years ago, meters were put on all of the houses (even those that have no current occupants). They replaced the old thinner pipe with larger thicker pipe, and now the water-pressure has dwindled to a mere trickle. Since everything operates on gravity, those closer to the water tank have decent pressure (still not very strong), but people further down the line are unable to shower.
The situation was explained to us by one the residents of the village from her point-of-view at the horno fire last night. She is a descendant of one of the original families to live in El Cerrito, and she sees the meters as a way for outsiders to build an infrastructure for developing the area. From her point of view, the well was dug by El Cerrito for the people of EL Cerrito, and why should they have to pay for their own water? She worries because she feels this is just the first thing to happen on the way to full-scale development. There has been talk of installing wind turbines along the tops of the mesas surrounding the village. Other villagers, who seem to be pro-development are buying up land and trying to sell it. She spoke of seeing strangers in town doing measurements and gathering photographs and information, but being unable to get any information out of themas to why they are there.
So, even though everyone knows that Dr. Nostrand's group is in to work on the school house, I am off working alone, taking pictures and mapping out the village. I imagine that I am looked upon with suspicion and wariness as I plod from house to house, prying into the village's life and villager's homes. I start to feel like an outsider, a stranger. And it is a fact that there are some villagers who do not like us coming here. Still, I get what photos I can while I ponder my feelings and question what kind of impact my project will have on these people's lives.
Mapping and Photographing the Village
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Mornings come early around here. The sun is so bright at 5:30 AM, that it gives me the illusion that I have slept until 10 AM. So, I started out early on my quest to map and photograph the village. I decided to divide everything up into blocks. I drew in a structure map as I photographed. The first block was fairly easy. All of the structures are separate from one another, and it is clear what belongs to what.
The next block I attempted was not so easy. In Hispano tradition, as families grow, and children get married, they would just add an extra area off of the original structure. Some of these structures have been here since the mid-1800s, and it is very difficult to see where one structure begins and another ends. Other blocks of that I needed to map and photograph made me feel like an intruder. I mean, some of the villagers are probably not all that happy about us being there, and they all kind of seem to live in the same place. And I started thinking about how I might feel if some outsider showed up outside my house snapping pictures without my own understanding of why they are doing that. I spent a very retrospective day considering the ethics of my project, and questioning whether I think the simulation of El Cerrito, NM is worth the time I spend as an intruder. Because sometimes I wonder if ANY of us should be out there, and think that maybe they would have been better off not ever being studied.
This is what I pondered as I tried to methodically map and photograph the village.
Tonight, one of the villagers wants to have a small village meeting with our group to discuss some of the conflicts that are going on on the village. We are all supposed to meet around the horno at the school house and sit around the fire while she speaks. I am interested to hear what she has to say because one of our ideas for the sim is a conflict management scenario.
Dr. Nostrand is also asking the village's mayor doma (she takes care of the village church) if she will agree to being videotaped and interviewed. I am hoping she says yes because she is one of the oldest living villagers with family roots in this village from the beginning.
Until then, it is point and click for the rest of the afternoon.
The next block I attempted was not so easy. In Hispano tradition, as families grow, and children get married, they would just add an extra area off of the original structure. Some of these structures have been here since the mid-1800s, and it is very difficult to see where one structure begins and another ends. Other blocks of that I needed to map and photograph made me feel like an intruder. I mean, some of the villagers are probably not all that happy about us being there, and they all kind of seem to live in the same place. And I started thinking about how I might feel if some outsider showed up outside my house snapping pictures without my own understanding of why they are doing that. I spent a very retrospective day considering the ethics of my project, and questioning whether I think the simulation of El Cerrito, NM is worth the time I spend as an intruder. Because sometimes I wonder if ANY of us should be out there, and think that maybe they would have been better off not ever being studied.
This is what I pondered as I tried to methodically map and photograph the village.
Tonight, one of the villagers wants to have a small village meeting with our group to discuss some of the conflicts that are going on on the village. We are all supposed to meet around the horno at the school house and sit around the fire while she speaks. I am interested to hear what she has to say because one of our ideas for the sim is a conflict management scenario.
Dr. Nostrand is also asking the village's mayor doma (she takes care of the village church) if she will agree to being videotaped and interviewed. I am hoping she says yes because she is one of the oldest living villagers with family roots in this village from the beginning.
Until then, it is point and click for the rest of the afternoon.
Day 1 and 2 in the Field
Monday, May 24, 2010
Arrived in safely in El Cerrito at around 5:30 pm, just in time for dinner. Everyone showed up around the same time, and this seems to be the year of Texas State Alumni, as opposed to field school students.
As we turned the corner coming down the mesa and the village came onto view, I immediately began to notice things that I had gotten completely wrong in the Second Life sim. The agricultural fields (long lots) took up a lot more area than I rembered, and there are just tons of structures I had forgotten about. I definately know that I want to make the mesas flat megaprims to free up more space for village and fields.
I decided to spend the first couple of days with Dr. Tom Windes from NMU doing dendrochronology work because he will be leaving after that, and I wanted to get some video lectures from him.
It turned out to be very serindipitous for me, because Tom is mapping out the village using a compass and tape measure, which gives us a very accurate map of the structures. I am pretty sure he is open to sending me some copies to use to map the sim in exchange for some help doing some mapping up-river in San Miguel.
So, today, TX State Alumni, Cynthia Castle and I drove to the village of San Miguel to do some dendrochronology work on a structure from the early 1800s. I am also capturing some stills for the b-roll for the dendro video. The wood is more exposed in the San Miguel site, it's more spacious, and I can get better shots of the different types of wood he discusses in the video.
As we turned the corner coming down the mesa and the village came onto view, I immediately began to notice things that I had gotten completely wrong in the Second Life sim. The agricultural fields (long lots) took up a lot more area than I rembered, and there are just tons of structures I had forgotten about. I definately know that I want to make the mesas flat megaprims to free up more space for village and fields.
I decided to spend the first couple of days with Dr. Tom Windes from NMU doing dendrochronology work because he will be leaving after that, and I wanted to get some video lectures from him.
It turned out to be very serindipitous for me, because Tom is mapping out the village using a compass and tape measure, which gives us a very accurate map of the structures. I am pretty sure he is open to sending me some copies to use to map the sim in exchange for some help doing some mapping up-river in San Miguel.
So, today, TX State Alumni, Cynthia Castle and I drove to the village of San Miguel to do some dendrochronology work on a structure from the early 1800s. I am also capturing some stills for the b-roll for the dendro video. The wood is more exposed in the San Miguel site, it's more spacious, and I can get better shots of the different types of wood he discusses in the video.
On the Road
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Made it the state line in 6.5 hours!
Only 4.5 more hours to go...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Only 4.5 more hours to go...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Blogging with iPhone
Friday, May 21, 2010
I am writing this entry to test this blogging application I dowloaded that allows me to use my iPhone to update my blog. So this I the first time I am testing it out.
I was hoping that maybe I could use it to blog while I am in El Cerrito, so Emin could know what I am up to each day! But connectivity is always questionable out there.
But at least this way I can post something when we go into Las Vegas.
Well, I am going to post this now and see if it worked. Then it's back to packing.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I was hoping that maybe I could use it to blog while I am in El Cerrito, so Emin could know what I am up to each day! But connectivity is always questionable out there.
But at least this way I can post something when we go into Las Vegas.
Well, I am going to post this now and see if it worked. Then it's back to packing.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
El Cerrito travel plans
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Well, time is flying, and it's already time to start packing for the real life trip to El Cerrito, because we leave in 5 days!
For the project, I have gathered some screen captures of the sim that I can refer to as I am walking around in the real village taking photographs and recording video. I need a million shots, and I won't list them all here, but for sure, I want to get shots we can use to enclose the sim with the infinity effect like AM Radio has done in his wheat field.
I am also making sure to bring some white cardboard pieces to use as back-drops for taking photos of plants and leaves and such. And I will be recording ambient noise at various places. I want to kind of go for a kind of ghosts past feeling, so that as an avatar walks through any given area, he will hear the sounds of field school conversations that have taken place.
Anyway, other than work stuff to go with the sim, I have a million other things to pack. The weather was below freezing in El Cerrito last week, so I am not sure that summer has quite arrived at 6500 feet.
Off to make lists of what to pack!
For the project, I have gathered some screen captures of the sim that I can refer to as I am walking around in the real village taking photographs and recording video. I need a million shots, and I won't list them all here, but for sure, I want to get shots we can use to enclose the sim with the infinity effect like AM Radio has done in his wheat field.
I am also making sure to bring some white cardboard pieces to use as back-drops for taking photos of plants and leaves and such. And I will be recording ambient noise at various places. I want to kind of go for a kind of ghosts past feeling, so that as an avatar walks through any given area, he will hear the sounds of field school conversations that have taken place.
Anyway, other than work stuff to go with the sim, I have a million other things to pack. The weather was below freezing in El Cerrito last week, so I am not sure that summer has quite arrived at 6500 feet.
Off to make lists of what to pack!
What's Been Going On
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
So much has been happening lately, that I haven't been able to keep up with the blog, so I thought I would make an entry while waiting for a video I made about this project to finish compressing on another machine.
Mainly we have been cleaning up some of the building stuff and experimenting with the shared media player and the interactive portions of the sim. We had a show and tell with our boss the other day to show him what we've been working on, so I wanted everything to work just right.
I also called in Dr. Brock Brown who has been in on this project since the beginning. He is our local subject matter expert on El Cerrito, NM, and I felt that I was at a point that I was ready to show him what we have created so far in order to get his input on what we need to concentrate on. We leave to go to El Cerrito in a couple of weeks, and I wanted Dr. Brown to help me come up with a list of things that need to be included so that I can get photographs of everything while I am there.
We discussed doing some video interviews of the villagers with some help from Dr. Nostrand, as well as some animations of long lot irrigation. Dr. Brown believes that one of our next steps is to come up with a concrete lesson plan for college students using the sim. He also suggested that I make a video (screen capture) so that I could show other people what I am working on while we are actually in the village and there is no internet access. That way these individuals can see what it is actually like without logging in, and maybe we can get some ideas from them about how to use the simulation for educational purposes.
Eventually I will do a proper machinima with one of the avatars giving a tour of virtual El Cerrito, but since our departure date is so soon, I decided that I would use Emin's Flip Camera to record what was happening on the screen. For the sake of time, I am going to go ahead and publish this without it being cropped, etc. But I will clean it up later.
View the video.
Mainly we have been cleaning up some of the building stuff and experimenting with the shared media player and the interactive portions of the sim. We had a show and tell with our boss the other day to show him what we've been working on, so I wanted everything to work just right.
I also called in Dr. Brock Brown who has been in on this project since the beginning. He is our local subject matter expert on El Cerrito, NM, and I felt that I was at a point that I was ready to show him what we have created so far in order to get his input on what we need to concentrate on. We leave to go to El Cerrito in a couple of weeks, and I wanted Dr. Brown to help me come up with a list of things that need to be included so that I can get photographs of everything while I am there.
We discussed doing some video interviews of the villagers with some help from Dr. Nostrand, as well as some animations of long lot irrigation. Dr. Brown believes that one of our next steps is to come up with a concrete lesson plan for college students using the sim. He also suggested that I make a video (screen capture) so that I could show other people what I am working on while we are actually in the village and there is no internet access. That way these individuals can see what it is actually like without logging in, and maybe we can get some ideas from them about how to use the simulation for educational purposes.
Eventually I will do a proper machinima with one of the avatars giving a tour of virtual El Cerrito, but since our departure date is so soon, I decided that I would use Emin's Flip Camera to record what was happening on the screen. For the sake of time, I am going to go ahead and publish this without it being cropped, etc. But I will clean it up later.
View the video.
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