OHD_COL_0324 Thank you notes
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Tag Archives: Seaton Delaval Hall
OHD_RPT_0323 Possible options for MP3 players
I have opted to only look at MP3 players that are not touch screen because one not everyone likes touch screen and they are way more expensive. I am slightly worried about obsolescent USB cables but if we don’t loose them then we will be fine and we can always rely on tech nerds to keep strange cables.
Factors to think about:
- – SD card expansion: Having this would be super useful for having the oral histories available to listen to because then we can store a lot of one device. It also means we can switch out audio files easily by changing SD cards.
- – Bluetooth: Bluetooth does not have to be necessary since you can very easily connect to speakers with an AUX cable, but it might be useful if the speaker or MP3 player are in awkward positions.
- – WAV files: There is debate whether a WAV or MP3 makes that much difference when playing the audio, although people do agree that archiving a WAV file version is definitely worth it. We can always make MP3 files from WAV files and then keep the WAV files on a hard drive. WAV files are also way bigger than MP3 files so we would be able to store and allow access to more MP3 files via a player than WAV files.
OPTIONS
SanDisk Clip Sport Plus
- – Can do bluetooth
- – 16GB
- – No memory expansion support
- – Can support WAV
SanDick Clip Jam
- – Micro SD expansion
- – Does not play WAV
- – 18 hour battery life
- – No bluetooth
- – can be charged while playing
Oakcastle MP200 MP3 Player
- – SD card
- – Recommended to switch off while charging
- – Bluetooth
- – Supports wav
BOSEMSA
- – 21 hours battery
- – Bluetooth
- – SD card expansion
- – Supports WAV
- – People complain about folders being a mess
OHD_FRM_0303 SDH OH questionnaire
OHD_SCP_0315 NT Volunteer memberships
OHD_SSH_0309 Email about copyright
OHD_RPT_0298 NT OH report
OHD_WKS_0297 SDH OH workshop
OHD_RPT_0296 SDH oral history strategy
Seaton Delaval Hall Oral History Strategy
V1
Hannah James Louwerse
1. Aim
The overall aim of the strategy is to embed oral history practices into the Hall’s existing research activities to create an ongoing process of collecting, interpreting, and sharing oral histories.
2. Roles
2.1 Core Oral History Team
The core oral history team consists of the General Manager, the Collections and House Manager, and the Volunteer and Community Officer. These members of staff already lead and support the volunteer Research Group. Their added responsibilities will encompass:
- setting up designated oral history training for volunteers and staff;
- organising the recording of new oral histories;
- recruiting volunteers for the recording and processing of oral histories;
- offering emotional support and guidance to the interviewers and transcribers.
In addition, this group will make up the reviewing team in charge of checking sensitive content in both the archived and newly recorded oral histories. They will also lead the oral history review which will take place annually during a Research Group meeting.
2.2 Supporting Site Staff
Although the Senior Communication and Marketing Officer is not part of the core oral history team, their contribution is essential for the successful implementation of the strategy. They will advise the core oral history team in matters related to the Hall’s reputation and data protection issues.
2.3 Supporting regional NT staff
Identifying and recruiting candidates for oral history interviews will require drawing on the expertise of regional National Trust staff, such as people business partners, estate managers and cultural heritage curators in, for example, archaeology.
2.4 Volunteers
Conducting interviews, managing data, and transcribing or summarising new oral histories will to a large extent be executed by NT volunteers. Equally, they will play a vital role in the researching of the archived oral history recordings.
3. Collecting oral histories
3.1 Scope and Focus
There are two forms of oral history which the Hall is aiming to collect:
- institutional memory
- histories of the cultural fabric of the Hall and the surrounding area
The recording accounts on the maintenance, restoration, and management of the site will help the Hall build an institutional memory. Collecting this information will create a collection of recordings which demonstrate the wide and diverse range of work done to preserve the site, its collection, and its history. It also avoids the loss of knowledge that occurs when an individual leaves the Hall. Histories of Seaton Delaval Hall’s cultural fabric will include recording information and stories about the collection, the hall, the gardens, and the surrounding area etc.
3.2 Pro-active Collection
The oral history is to be collected in a pro-active fashion, fully into the Hall’s knowledge gathering practices. Moments for potential collection are, for example, when a new item is acquired; as part of a research project; after restoration work; or when a significant person visits the Hall. More moments of collection will emerge as oral history gathering becomes a common practice on site.
4. Recording and processing oral histories
4.1 Training
A handful of staff and volunteers can be trained in oral history interview techniques, processing the recordings, and analysing the oral history material. Training sessions should be arranged at regular intervals, e.g., every three years. An analysis of training needs and requirements will be reviewed annually during a Research Group meeting. The training can be done through the oral history society or through Northumberland Archives.
4.2 Interim Storage
An interim storage solution needs to be arranged with the IT Department and Data Protection Office. Both have specific requirements for digital devices and Microsoft SharePoint.[1] In addition, there are restrictions on what external devices can and cannot be connected to Trust computers. Until a solution has been arranged, it is best to follow two main principles of digital storage: keep the recordings in three different locations and ensure those locations follow data protection law.
4.2.1 List of stored material
All material listed here contains personal information.
- Audio files (a WAV copy and a MP3 copy)
- Interviewee data sheets
- Recording permission forms
- Copyright and reuse forms
- Summaries and/or transcripts
- The Seaton Delaval Hall oral history catalogue
4.3 Ethics
4.3.1 Paperwork
There are two ethics forms necessary to collect and archive an oral history recording:
- a Recording Permission Form
- a Copyright and Reuse Form
The Permission Form must be signed before the recording device is switched on. The Copyright and Reuse Form is signed after the interviewee has read the transcript/summary of their recording or has listening back to the audio. The Copyright and Reuse Form allows the interviewee to close all or part of the recording for a set amount of time. Note that both forms contain personal information and therefore need to be stored in adherence with data protection law.
4.3.2 Sensitivity checks
Sensitivity checks are the responsibility of the core oral history team. They will read or listen to the oral histories and assess whether there is any sensitive content. Sensitive content comes in two forms:
- information the interviewee might not want out in the public domain
- information that could upset the listener of the recording
If the former is flagged by the core oral history team because they believe the interviewee might not want to share particularly information publicly, they should mention this to the interviewee before they sign the Copyright and Reuse Form. This may result in the interviewee wanting to close a particular section of the recording. If the team finds material which fits the latter, any sensitivity warnings should be added to the index.
4.4 Indexing
The spreadsheet created for indexing the Hall’s oral history recordings allows for easy tracking of progress and searching. It is also compatible with the British Library’s method of cataloguing in case the recordings are at some point donated to the British Library. The index contains personal information and therefore needs to be stored according to data protection law.
4.5 Transcripts and Summaries
The strategic aim is to create both a transcript and a summary for each oral history recording. Transcripts are essential if the audio file is lost or is corrupted. Interview summaries allow for content to be described in more searchable terms.
5. Archiving
Oral history recordings can be archived at Northumberland Archives. However, backup copies should be kept at the Hall in case the recording is also archived at the British Library. This is especially crucial since Northumberland Archives only excepts MP3 files and the British Library requires WAV files.
6. Reusing oral histories
In connection with the Hall and the collection, oral history can be used in interpretations and exhibitions. In addition, new staff or contractors can access the hall’s institutional memory and learn about their predecessors and their work by listening to the stories shared. The overall objective is for oral history to be a fully integrated and accessible resource, equally available for consultation as any item in the collection.
[1] For example, the IT department does not want WAV files to be put on SharePoint because they are very large, while the Data Protection Office requires all personal data to be stored on SharePoint.
OHD_AUD_0295 Listening session audios
OHD_SSH_0294 Screenshot of email
OHD_RCP_0293 Receipt of deposit
OHD_COL_0291 Collection of preinterview stuff
OHD_FRM_0290 Final copyright form
OHD_PST_0289 Feedback from listening session
OHD_WRT_0243 The digital needs of the Research Room
The Research Room digital infrastructure is set up in this way
The Research Room digital infrastructure is not there to support permeant preservation. It is possible that we might need to build in a system where the contents of the research room is reviewed in order to keep the volume of contents under control
1. SharePoint
This is where files go where the National Trust does not have full copyright. In order to access these files you need to contact a National Trust member of staff. These cannot be very large files, for carbon neutrality reasons.
2. Secure SD cards
These are SD cards or hard drives which hold files where the National Trust does not have full copyright. In order to access these files you need to contact a National Trust member of staff. These can be very large files.
3. Research Room SD cards
These are SD cards or hard drives which hold files where the National Trust does have full copyright. You can access these files by putting them into a device available in the research room. These can be very large files. Moving stuff onto these SD cards is not smooth yet.
4. Third Party Websites
This is where files go where the National Trust does have full copyright and is happy for a wider audience to have access. These can be very large files and because they are not part of the national trust network they do not effect the trust’s carbon neutral aims. Ethically questionable. Moving stuff onto these website is not smooth yet.
5. Research Room devices (tablets)
This is where smaller files go and larger more popular files where the National Trust does have full copyright. For the easiest of access. Moving stuff onto these on these devices is not smooth yet.
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Research Room volunteer training programme
Every one goes through the process but you dont have to do all of it
OHD_DSN_0225 The first draft design of the Seaton Delaval Hall sound walk
OHD_WKS_0207 SDH Creative Community Workshop
1st edition
Workshop – Building new knowledge from multiple perspectives. Generating 360 degree interpretation involving communities in telling their stories and sharing their knowledge.
The community that surrounds Seaton Delaval Hall already shares their stories, so the first step is to capture them, which can be achieve through oral history recordings and other story sharing sessions. But capturing is completely pointless if we do not have a good plan of where we are going to put it and what we are going to do with it. These two questions need to influence each other, there needs to be something that bridges them.
Items
- Cassette
- CD
- SD card
- QR code
- Transcript
- Hardrive
- Photographs
- Postcard
- Diary entry
- (Artifact) – delicate object
- Newspaper
Possible idea: Make a table with two columns: Where are we going to put it and where are we going to put it. + no man’s land
Ghost
- Box
- Sketchbook
- Folder + forms
- Quilt?
Possible idea: Start with the idea of a no man’s land the space between the museum and the archive.
Possible idea: Create the rules of no man’s land
Topics
- Banquets
- Flower festivals
- Fundraising
- Curtain Rises Project
- Tearooms
- Surrounding area
2nd edition
Workshop – Building new knowledge from multiple perspectives. Generating 360 degree interpretation involving communities in telling their stories and sharing their knowledge.
This workshop will hopefully allow the participants to make the concept of a “360 degree” history of the hall more tangible and practical, through various hands on fast paced activities.
Activity One – Word association
Task: Do word association with the term “360 degrees”
Aim: Get the participants to break down the idea concept of “360 degrees” into more tangible ideas and warm up their creative thinking.
Activity Two – A 360 space
Task: The group is split into there groups. Each group a assigned a “space” where they have to create their “360 degree” history. The three spaces are a room, a box, and a booklet. The group then comes back together and presents the three spaces to each other.
Aim: To get the participants to physically create the idea of a “360 degree” history of the hall in a restricted space.
Activity Three – The fourth dimension
Task: The full group of participants are given newspaper headlines from the future. The participants then have to think how the events in the newspaper affect their space.
Aim: To get the participants to think about how they need to future proof their spaces within the “360 degree” history.
Activity Four – Reflection and conclusion
Task: Allow the group to reflect on their work.
Aim: To bring the workshop to a conclusion and have the participants articulate their workshop journey.
OHD_PRS_0203 Capturing voices: Designing a system for better oral history reuse
For paper that is title “designing a system for better oral history reuse” I am not going to spend a lot of time talking specifically about oral history or design. The reason for this is because designing a system for better oral history reuse involves a whole bunch of topics, which for the sake of this talk I decided to map for you to give you a better picture of my work. This is a pretty rough map, there are many things I can talk about and I realise that there are also many overlapping and interconnected themes and all of this will probably change in a week. I am not going to spend my precious ten minutes talking you through this whole map. Instead I am going to expand the themes that I am currently interested in at this point of my journey.
In 1969 Mierle Laderman Ukeles published her Manifesto for Maintenance Art 1969!, in which she describes how the world consists of two systems: Development and Maintenance. Development involves the creation of stuff, while Maintenance is about keeping the created stuff in good condition. This theory also applies to Oral History, the Development is recording the oral history and Maintenance is the archiving and reusing of those recordings. Now my research does have a Maintenance focus but in order to do Maintenance you still need to have Development and currently I am doing some development. I am recording oral history interviews with people and I have recently come across a very interesting problem that I am going to talk about first and then I will move on to Maintenance part which is also offers plenty food for thought.
“When I was being trained in museums, conflict over cultural heritage was a constant source of surprise – like the first hot day each summer, when, year after year, one is somehow shocked by what are, in fact, seasonable temperatures.”
I find this a very amusing comparison by Liz Sevcenko, who was Founding Director of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, which is a network of historic sites that foster public dialogue on pressing contemporary issues. The institutes within this coalition are often sites of very intense trauma with many of the sites handling issues like genocide, war, and other atrocities.
This is Seaton Delaval Hall. Built in the 1720s the hall and its residents, the ‘Gay Delavals’ became renowned for wild parties and other shenanigans. In 1822 the hall went up in flames severely damaging the property. In 2009 after the death of Lord and Lady Hastings the property was taken over by the National Trust. A face value Seaton Delaval Hall is not necessarily like the institutes that make up the Sites of Conscience. It is a National Trust property near the sea, it has a nice rose garden, and a cafe that does excellent scones. But it is also a grand hall built in 1720s in Britain, which can only really mean one thing the Delavals, who were the family that lived in the hall, got some of their income from the British Empire. This is from a report done by the National Trust addressing various properties history with slavery and the British Empire. Sevcenko is right, summers are warmer than winters and there is conflict in all cultural heritage sites no matter how twee they look.
In a paper about the Sites of Conscience Sevcenko points out “Heritage can never be outside politics – it is always embedded in changing power relations between people”. Seaton Delaval Hall and many other National Trust properties are no exception, however these changing power relations go far beyond the British Empire.
A couple of weeks ago I meet the child of the old estate manager who, their whole life, lived and worked in the hall until they had to move out of the East Wing due restoration work, I will refer to them as Robin. Robin remembers when a different family the Hastings lives at the hall. Lord and Lady Hastings lived at the hall until their deaths in 2007, nearly also long as the original Delaval family. During their time there, the Hastings opened the hall to the public and regularly threw medieval banquets to raise money for the restoration of the hall. Robin also remembers the German Prisoners of War who were held at the hall during the Second World War. Their whole life Robin has been witness to the changes at the hall seeing it gradually evolve over time.
But Robin’s history does not really fit with the narrative the National Trust has for the hall. For those who are unfamiliar with the National Trust a lot of the properties are very busy with the idea of “spirit of place.” Seaton Delaval Hall’s spirit of place is deeply connected to the original Delaval family, who were known to be pranksters and excellent party people, think 18th century Gatsby, only with the aforementioned connections to the British Empire. A lot of the hall’s promotional material is built around this and it has functioned as a source of inspiration for various installations. The history that Robin remembers is seemingly under represented at the hall, because it does not really fit with this spirit of place.
To a certain extent I am trying to solve this particular problem by recording oral histories however in the case of Robin I have come across a problem. Due to their relationship with the National Trust Robin refuses to speak about their history with the National Trust. They will only give me stories from before the National Trust took over. This is because they know that if archived their recording will be donated to the National Trust archive. This means I cannot record the oral history I would like to because of current power structures.
To recap the political situation of the hall: firstly we have the hall’s connections with the British Empire, which nationally is slowly being addressed with things like the report and yet the hall’s spirit of place I feel is currently not fully considering these connections. And then we have a more recent power dynamic with Robin and the more recent history which clashes with the spirit of place. In case you were wondering Robin is not alone there are some local people who are also not happy with the National Trust.
Liz Sevcenko concludes in her paper on the Sites of Conscience that:
Sites of Conscience do not try to suppress controversy in order to reach a final consensus. Instead of being regarded as a temporary problem to be overcome, contestation might be embraced as an ongoing opportunity to be fostered.
The National Trust might decide to stop suppressing the narrative of slavery and move away from the glorification of those who benefited from the crimes of the British Empire, but this does not solve new power dynamics that are appearing, the one blocking Robin from telling their story. In order for Seaton Delaval Hall to become a Site of Conscience, they need to be open to criticism now. They need to open up a dialogue and allow the historical narrative to change and morph over time.
So the Development side of my work is very complicated but it is essential that I do not get to bog down in the Development because that is the reason why I am doing this CDA in the first place. Currently within oral history there is a preference to record over reuse. As the oral historian Michael Frisch describes oral history archives are like “a shoebox of unwatched home videos.” This valuing Development over Maintenance is exactly what Mierle Laderman Ukeles addresses in her manifesto and her art. The big reason for the inequality according to Ukeles is because Maintenance involves tasks that are either seen as domestic and ‘feminine’ or labour done by the working class.
However, this under valuing of maintenance can have really annoying consequences for example, I always get frustrated when I clean my fridge. There are so many little ridges that stuff gets into it is infuriating. As a designer I know that this problem could easily have been avoided if someone has just asked a cleaner some questions about how they clean a fridge. But they didn’t because people do not value maintenance. But in reality cleaners are extremely powerful, if cleaners go on strike you have a big problem.
Archivists are also part of the Maintenance system. In an article title ‘When The Crisis Fades, What Gets Left Behind?’, a direct quotation from Ukeles’ manifesto, Charlie Morgan, who is the oral history archivist at the British Library, describes how there was a rush to record the varied COVID-19 experience, but little thought was put into how the recorded material will be stored, let alone archived.
This article reminded me of a meme my friend sent me a couple of months ago, because Morgan did not treat ‘the archive’ as a concept but as a physical institution with staff, coffee machines, and opening times. Shortly after reading this article I had a meeting with the lead archivist at Tyne and Wear Archives Newcastle. They echoed both Morgan and Ukeles when they explained that the reality of being an archivist means you spend the majority of your time on management tasks rather than on the act of archiving. I need to bring these ideas of maintenance and the everyday archive into my development and design of this oral history reuse system. I cannot be like the fridge designers and forget about the person who cleans the fridge, because cleaners are powerful and archivist are the maintenance staff of our history. If archivists stop doing the maintenance then we are in deep trouble.
Rounding it off. One of the founding ideas behind oral history is that it gives a voice to the voiceless, however this has now become an outdated view as you can see from the things I have outlined here. Firstly, I currently am experiencing a situation where I am unable to give a voice to the voiceless because of the power structures that are present in at hall between people like Robin and the National Trust. And secondly if oral history does give a voice to the voiceless but then does not consider how to keep that voice alive by neglecting ideas around sustainable archiving and maintenance, then that voice is again lost. The aim of my project is to incorporate these ideas into my design for this oral history reuse system that will be housed at Seaton Delaval Hall.
I hope you enjoyed my little talk on what I am currently obsessed with within my web of topics. If you ask me in a couple of weeks time what I am thinking of it will probably be something completely different.