This project explores people’s understanding climate and weather through two distinctive weather-related experiments: a) the production of a ‘weather talks memory bank’ of recordings and b) by researching, producing and trialling a ‘weather walk’, using a prototype GPS-enabled mobile phone application, to both deliver authored audio content and capture user reflections. The subject of the trial ‘weather walk’ will be the work of a key figure in British meteorological history- Professor Gordon Manley, and the area around Great Dun Fell in Cumbria, NW England, Manley’s former meteorological field station. The research for the weather walk will be based on Manley’s personal and academic archives, including his scientific and popular writing, currently held at the University of Cambridge Special Collections. My role in this project alongside Sam Meek relates to the design and testing of a Smartphone-based app to deliver media to users in the field and to allow them to record their own reflections tagged to a location. The media elements are derived from archival material including imagery, notes, audio and video recordings. The interesting geographical research question relates to the way various media elements ‘work’ and are relevant in the landscape. Also of interest is the information people choose to capture (through notes, images or audio) and the geographical references contained within it. Research Outcomes |
