University of Alberta, Augustana Course Project
Curtis Rempel and Gwendolyn Bracken
Mission Statement
We want to explore the identity of a community, of individuals, of Mirror Lake, and the
development of identity alongside place. Specifically, we want to bring to light that identity formation is reciprocal, as changes to the lake impact Camrose, and changes to Camrose affect the lake. These shape each other, and have shifted with each other over time. We want readers to be more cognizant of the deep layers of connection between nature and themselves, and to be aware of the intentional foundations of Mirror Lake which is considered now a natural place, and the humanness is inextricably linked with nature. Though ideals have shifted throughout the community’s history, the lake still reflects what the community idealizes. Our goal is to have the reader be more cognizant of their relationship with nature and to make more intentional decisions regarding the world around them.
Website Layout
We will be using the Landscape theme, without any menu options. We are going to have a landing page with an image at the top and a video in the main body of the page. This page will appear simple and clean. The applications we decide to use will be seamlessly included within the narrative we share on our site and will not appear as separate or disparate elements.
Landing page. Video of Mirror Lake: Reflections of Identity, What is Nature. An eye-catching, enticing and humourous visual element that will entice the reader. To meet that requirement the video will be short to keep the attention span of the viewer but enticing enough to introduce our project. People would be ‘driven’ to the video, and anyone who is interested by the video will be drawn into the rest of the project. Curtis will be the lead for the video. He will be writing the script by March 10th and filming will commence in the week following. See our proposed schedule. The video will be completed using a variety of devices, including a professional camera with tripod, phones, and potentially other equipment which will need to be borrowed from the school. Both Gwendolyn and Curtis will feature in the film. Curtis will be editing the video with Adobe CS6, unless this is not available through the school. In that case, he will be using the iMovie program on his mac laptop to complete this. Windows also offers a free program called MovieMaker which is also an option.
Below the video on the Landing page will be “The Hub.” We are planning to use the Image Hotspot plugin to visually draw people in to Mirror Lake. We have a couple of image options to use for this, but if we find one from a better angle in an earlier period, we may later in the project change which image we use. Each link on the image will introduce a child page and offer a link to it. Each child page will have a clean, simple look, and a hyperlink a the bottom to send them back to the map centred on the page. This is important so that users can feel free to click another child page link and continue their journey through the site without having to scroll down and find the plugin area on each return. They will be able to be explore child pages in any order, each merely a piece of the puzzle. Similar themes and questions/discussions will run through all of them, and the reader can explore the site in whatever way calls to them. They will be titled based on themes or content, not by date, to encourage exploration rather than an organized step-by-step reading. The pages will be succinct and direct, the text will be significant to telling the narrative but not overly bulky or large. We will be keeping reader attention span in mind, and visual aesthetic, focusing on use of images to separate text.
Dependent on if we can find images which are significantly similar bridging the history
of Mirror Lake, Gwendolyn would like to use the wipe tool to compare an older image to a more recent one. We are aware that we may not find an image which will allow for this contrast. On some of these child pages we will present clips of audio or video or both, depending on the preference of the oral history interviewee at the time of the interview. We will not be transcribing the any of these interviews, though we may decide to use text to emphasize certain important quotes in a visually bold and engaging way. We will be embedding YouTube video, as discussed above, if the interview is filmed. If it is only recorded, the audio will be uploaded to SoundCloud to be embedded into WordPress using the SoundCite plugin. We will go through the audio and pick select clips to include on our site. The full audio will be available via a link on a separate page, potentially the bibliography page or at the very bottom of the Landing Page, whichever we decide looks cleaner and simpler in the end.
For the layout of the child pages, we have a couple of options for organizing the information they may contain. Curtis and Gwendolyn’s creative writing ‘voices’ will be present throughout the child pages. The pages will all contain thematic links to each other.
Option 1: More significantly thematic collections of archival and narrative elements.
1. Foundations: discussing steam, power, water, the ‘origin’ of the lake and its first
uses, acknowledging that it was created by humans for economic and community-building goals to link through time how these goals have remained/changed.
2. Forging Identity: Naming of Camrose, Naming of Mirror Lake, importance of
place names to concepts of identity, forging of identity, how Mirror Lake is a focal point of the community of Camrose, ways in which the lake has been used to define and signify Camrose, how these have shifted over time.
3. Future Thoughts: Dredging the lake, paddle boats, beaches, what is nature, how do
we define and understand human interactions with nature, how do present ‘uses’ differ from those in the past, what do we assume in the concept of use.
4. Bibliography
Option 2: Each archival element is its own child page that gives further information and explores the significance of it. Each child page will be digestible and significant.
- Place Naming – Including Twoney Interview
- Jeremy Interview
- Sediment Issue/ Maintenance of Mirror Lake/ Engineering
- Raj Interview
- Railway
- Power
- Critical Reflections / Self Assessment
Partway through the project, as we come across more (or find an absence of) archival sources, we will reconsider the number and organization of our child pages to present the strongest possible and most engaging pages.
Research
We will be researching in several places and ways. The Camrose Museum will be the starting point for early Camrose history. We already know of sources available here discussing the early naming of Camrose, and some early economic and industrial history. This is also where we will likely find many older photographs. Dariya, a student working at the Museum, has already met with both Curtis and Gwendolyn, and is familiar with both the project and the anticipated sources of research, and will play a vital role in guiding us towards sources of information and archival documents relating to our project. The Railroad Museum in Camrose will also potentially have many resources connecting to the economic and industrial history of Camrose in relation to the lake. This may provide unique perspectives on industry and community development in Camrose, and the importance of Mirror Lake in these respects. The City of Camrose and Parks will also possibly have unique sources we would be able
to access.
We plan to conduct oral histories. In preliminary research, Gwendolyn received names for a couple who instigated and participated in a naming contest for Mirror Lake in the 1970s. This also falls into identity creation and imagination. At this time, it was decided the lake in Camrose was significant enough to the community to hold its own place name, rather than simply calling it ‘the Lake’. Gwendolyn still needs to find a way to contact this couple and see whether or not they would be interested in speaking to us for the project, how comfortable they would be with being recorded for an oral history. She will be working on contacting them in the next couple weeks, and they are scheduled in for later in March. This section on naming will also be linked with the historic naming of Camrose. We have already spoken to Jeremy Enarson, an Engineer with the City of Camrose, who has insight into the importance of Mirror Lake to the Camrose community identity, as well as knowledge of past and current uses, maintenance, and potential future endeavours. He has access to knowledge and documents through the City from the 1970s onward regarding the upkeep and maintenance of Mirror Lake, which we will potentially draw from depending on our need for archival materials. We will need to have an idea of what we are looking for in order to guide Jeremy’s search for relevant documents. It appears these are somewhat challenging to access, though in the public domain, and we would need to be specific as to what we are looking for. Jeremy, and the other interview participants, will be emailed a link to the site to oversee how their discussions and ideas shared with us will be used towards the project, and will be able to correct or suggest differences in meaning if we misunderstood them. This will happen after the ‘rough draft’ of the site is up on March 27th to allow us opportunity to consider their feedback.
Both Gwendolyn and Curtis will be present for the oral history interviews, and audio or
video clips of these will be used with permission on the site with the application SoundCite or embedding YouTube. The oral histories will likely be used in multiple ways and on multiple pages throughout the project due to their broad and thematically connected view on the importance of Mirror Lake to the community identity in Camrose.
Schedule and Collaboration
Friday March 2nd 11am-1pm: Both Curtis and Gwendolyn will conduct further research at the Camrose Museum with Dariya. They will be searching for more history on Mirror Lake, early industry of Camrose, Camrose naming history, photographs on Mirror Lake, and any other sources they happen to find pertinent to the project. Also: Gwendolyn and Curtis will each write a narrative/nature writing/reflection piece on Mirror Lake for the project site.
Wednesday, March 7th: Skeleton of the website by midnight. Gwendolyn will be troubleshooting the Image Hotspot Plugin and outward links to child pages. Curtis will be troubleshooting YouTube embedding and making the video size appear the same as the webpage borders, large and eye-catching.
Saturday, March 10th: Script for video completed by midnight. Written by Curtis, will be edited by Gwendolyn by Sunday at midnight. Also: Gwendolyn and Curtis will each write a narrative/nature writing/reflection piece on Mirror Lake for the project site.
March 12th – 17th week: Complete Oral Interview with Raj about spiritual connections to Mirror Lake, impact on identity formation, and importance to the community. This will be set up by Curtis in the preceding weeks. Both Curtis and Gwendolyn will conduct the interview at a time convenient for all involved. Also: Curtis will work on returning links in the skeleton website to return the user to the Image Hotspot Plugin area of the Landing Page. This is important so that users can feel free to click another child page link and continue their journey through the site without having to scroll down and find the plugin area on each return. Also: Gwendolyn will be conducting archival research to continue to uncover documents for use in the project and to increase her and Curtis’ knowledge about Mirror Lake, potentially at the Camrose Museum, the Railway Museum, City Hall, or other places. Until we exhaust all resources available, we aim to continue to research throughout the project. Also: Gwendolyn and Curtis will schedule a time for filming the video. This may take several sessions.
March 19th – 24th week: Complete Oral Interview with Pat and Dennis Twoney about the naming contest for Mirror Lake in the 1970s, place naming, identity formation, and impact on the community. This will be set up by Gwendolyn in the preceding weeks. Both Curtis and Gwendolyn will conduct the interview at a time convenient for all involved. Also: Both Curtis and Gwendolyn will be completing the filming of the video. Curtis will be working on editing the video. Also: Gwendolyn will be conducting archival research to continue to uncover documents for use in the project and to increase her and Curtis’ knowledge about Mirror Lake, potentially at the Camrose Museum, the Railway Museum, City Hall, or other places. Also: Both will continue to work on fleshing out the website and adding the narrative and historical elements. Also: Gwendolyn and Curtis will each write a narrative/nature writing/reflection piece on Mirror Lake for the project site.
Tuesday, March 27th: Rough Draft of the website goes live. We aim to have the video complete, roughly edited, and available on the site by this time. The website will have working plugins and child pages and we will request testing of the return functions and feedback on the site in general. We will be giving feedback on our peers’ sites as well. Also: At this time we will share a link to the project with all interviewees to be able to see what the project looks like and offer suggestions. This will be done via email when the rough draft goes live. We will convey to them that it will be a work in progress until April. We will ask for feedback until April 7th, and will incorporate the comments into our project as they fit with our project goals.
March 26th – 30th: Gwendolyn and Curtis will go through the oral interviews and pinpoint important themes and quotes which fit with the general direction of the project and the child pages. These will be incorporated into the website. Also: Gwendolyn will be conducting archival research to continue to uncover documents for use in the project and to increase her and Curtis’ knowledge about Mirror Lake, potentially at the Camrose Museum, the Railway Museum, City Hall, or other places.
Also: Gwendolyn and Curtis will each write a narrative/nature writing/reflection piece on Mirror Lake for the project site. Also: Both will continue to work on fleshing out the website and adding the narrative and historical elements.
April 2nd – 6th: Gwendolyn and Curtis will each write a narrative/nature writing/reflection piece on Mirror Lake for the project site. Both will continue to work on fleshing out the website and adding the narrative and historical elements. This week we will keep an eye on length of text, relation of images, and polishing the look and accessibility of the website. We will make sure all the technical elements are working properly. We will take into account any comments we have received from our interviewees within the focus of the project. Also: Any last archival research, any last site photography, focusing on the look and read, the accessibility of the project.
April 9th – 14th: Final edits, tinkering, polishing.
Tuesday, April 17th: Final version of the website due. We aim to have it up and running by Sunday, April 15th to test for any issues. Also: We will send out another email with our project link to our interviewees letting them know that the project is complete. They have permission to share it with whomever they wish.
We both believe the workload is approximately equal, tailored to our individual skills and passions.