All right. My dissertation project's done! And ready for beta-testing of sorts.
What it is:
A State is an audio podcast tour of about a half-mile stretch of State Street, the tracks corresponding to 22 brass plaques set into the sidewalk by the city in 1996. The plaques, along with several informational kiosks, were originally meant as part of a "self-guided walking tour" of State Street landmark buildings. I've created audio for each stop that sometimes complements and sometimes (err, mostly) contradicts the original tour's intentions. The tour takes you from 190 North State (the ABC Building) to 400 South State (the Harold Washington Library).
How to participate:
1) Go to http://web.mac.com/rclaff and click "Subscribe" to download the podcast tracks of the tour into iTunes. I don't know how the magic works on a PC but if you're having trouble, feel free to contact me and I'll try to send you the audio files or give you a CD.
2) On the left-hand side of the webpage, download a PDF of the accompanying map (NOTE: it's designed to print legal-size). You can also download the map from here.
3) Take the tour! It's designed to be taken whenever you wish, and it lasts about 70 minutes in all (15 minutes of walking and about 55 minutes of audio).
Also, I'd be forever greatful if you'd leave me some feedback on the podcast page, or here. Thanks!
5 comments:
Chicago, as I imagine is the case with many cities, seems to be covered with layer upon layer of commemorative sediment. I vividly remember walking over one of the bridges spanning the Chicago River and stopping in my tracks when I noticed a plaque marking the spot on which a man lost a really dumb bet, the resulting payment being that he had to dive off said bridge into the river. Yuck. My dog has dived into the Chicago River on occasion and came out much the smellier. The point is that I haven’t been able to remember which bridge I was crossing when I saw that plaque. I wish that was on a walking tour so I could know that I didn’t imagine it. Actually, I wish all of the now seemingly random, but at the time significant, municipal memorials and civic shrines were explained in a podcast. Can we start with the memorial street names? Who the hell are those people?
The highlight for me came at the very end. I loved bustling down State St. hearing names that vaguely remind me of something I may have once known about Gilded Age families and the commerce heyday of Chicago, only to finish by hearing you gush most passionately about the quite gush-worthy library. It was passionate and charming and I am right there with ya. Also, the conspiracy theorist who was abducted by Martians and taken to Saturn (the location of the Martian Guantanamo?) caused me to laugh conspicuously.
The real adventure was not so much in the content for me, but the experience of actually trying to physically accomplish a walking tour on State Street. I had the bright idea of arriving at State and Lake at 4:50 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. The ensuing rush hour chaos provided everything I needed: buses drowning out the podcast at key moments, a man arriving just in time to photograph the Chicago Theater marquee, getting nearly run over both by natives thinking I was a gawking tourist and tourists who simply were gawking. Add to this the fact that I forgot my handy map and the whole thing ended up being less a guided tour than a mini-expedition. (Note: Like any good expedition, I made a discovery: the plaque for the Palmer House which the podcast says does not exist.)
Evan, thanks for your thoughtful comments. I really appreciate them.
You know what's funny - about two days ago I walked by the boarded-up State St. entrance to the Palmer House Hilton and saw the plaque. I spent about three minutes swearing silently and then thought, "Oh hell, I've been fibbing like a bastard already on the tour, it's sort of appropriate that I tell them there's no plaque when there is one."
I love that it became an expedition for you. That's kind of how I felt when I first went down to find all the plaques. I remember feeling distinctly like the "flaneur" of Baudelaire/Benjamin fame: A figure observing and in the process, making him- or herself conspicuously observable.
I just returned from my walk down State St, through history, and around Rachel's brain. For me, the hi-lights are definitely the stories. I like the mystery, I like the taste of it at the beginning and the return just was you're wondering if it ever will. I like all the things that I noticed that weren't part of the tour and making mental notes to tell you to add them next time (because I feel/hope that this is an ongoing experiment in re-imagining the space.) For instance--17 N State is the building that holds the Joffrey offices, I realized after noting several ballerina boys and girls entering and exiting. I never would have noticed that if I hadn't been stopped. I liked being a tourist in my city. I, like Evan, laughed out loud about the Martians on Venus, then realized, "subtract the iPod and add a tin-foil hat and I AM one of those crazies, listening to voices no one else can hear and laughing out loud." Unfortunately, I didn't download the last track by accident, so I'll have to make up my own entry for the Harold Washington library. It will involve the same personal memories tangled in historical facts that characterized the whole walk.
Thank you, Chloe! Hmmm... now I'm thinking about what happens when/if you miss a track, especially the last one... makes a WHOLE different performance experience out of it, but is that a bad thing? Maybe not! Just a different thing. Cool.
Hi there, I found your blogspot through your recent post on http://www.vocalo.org/node/14919
It looks like your link in this post to your mac page isn't working. http://web.mac.com/rclaff It gets an error message.
I'm glad that you are posting things on vocalo.org. I'll be listening to your work there. :)
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