Research Project Update

So I finally managed to head down to the City of Toronto Archives today. On their computer data-base I was able to get maps of the area from 1890 to 1923. In the High Park folder I found even more maps - one from as far back as 1873 (the year it was given to the City of Toronto by architect and engineer John G. Howard), and others from brochures/ park magazines between the years 1991 and 1996.
I hope that these maps - especially the more recent ones, created solely for visitor use - will help with our research project.
We're meeting tomorrow to discuss who is going to speak to which "expert", how we're going to bring all of our findings together and submit them, and how we're going to present the final project on March 1st.

Park Report and Thesis Thoughts

So Friday was not as warm as expected... but I went to High Park like I had planned and got the research I wanted anyway. I didn't stay as long though - I got there at around 1 and left around 4. I started at the Bloor entrance (closest to High Park subway station) and walked along West Road to Grenadier Restaurant. I discovered that most of the park's visitors were hiding from the cold in there; one of my questionnaire respondents was in there for a casual meeting regarding a children's art camp that takes the children to the park for the "Shakespeare in the Park" plays in the summer; another answered the questionnaire of their way out of the restaurant. After spending some time there I decided to walk towards the Hillside Gardens where I came across the rest of my questionnaire respondents. After this I walked back up towards Bloor Street taking a different route - a foot path through picnic areas #s 7, 8, and 9 and along the sports fields until I exited the park. I took pictures of all signs and maps that I came across as well as any areas that I thought required signage such as forks in roads, paths, and trails. I discovered that there was a significant amount of signage and other wayfinding systems near the park's entrances but fewer and fewer the closer to the heart of the park you get. Anyway, this and more will go into the group report so I'm going to stop it here about the research assignment.

Now about thesis... I'm still interested in pursuing what I suggested in my original proposal which is to create an entirely hand-crafted book using only manual forms of printing such as linoleum block/ wood block printing, offset printing, etching, screen-printing, and using movable type. The issue is choosing a topic for the book; some options that I have been considering are the history of books - something that I've already got books on because of classes that I've taken at OCAD and, before then, York University - or the history of corsets - something that I've become interested in over the past few years - or the art of henna - something that I've only just become interested in. All of these ideas require varying amounts of research so I am going to start looking for some sources in relation to each of these topics and go from there.

Group Project - Week 4: Gathering Information

Based on our time-line, we are each going to go to high park to gather information through both observation and participation. We'll be walking around the park and recording our findings in any way that we can - by taking photos, notes, brochures, etc.
Tomorrow we are all getting together to create a quick questionnaire for visitors of the park to fill out - though we have not formally discussed this, I think that maybe only the people that haven't already gone to the park to do research this week will be involving the questionnaire aspect to their park visit/ exploration.
I personally have not gone yet and won't have time to go until Friday so I will definitely be using the questionnaire as part of my research method. Friday's supposed to be a nicer day: Mix of sun and cloud; high of -1, low of -6 - probably the nicest day this week, so hopefully more people will be out and enjoying the park. I'm going to try to be there between noon and 4 to get as many different people as possible to talk to and observe: people taking a stroll/ jog/ walking their dogs on their lunch break to children getting off school and ending with adults finishing work and getting a start on their weekend.

I love High Park, I've been going there with my family for as long as I can remember and have been going with friends whenever we all have time since most of us live in Toronto now. It's a perfect oasis in the big city and I love exploring it - and trust me there's always more to explore - but for some reason I often end up needing to use my intuition to get to where I want in the park which I think is a problem for people not as familiar with the park (i.e. tourists) or anybody who's taken a wrong turn and can't seem to find out where they are... I guess I'll figure out what the real situation is once I actually get there and do the research on Friday.