On November 30, I had an opportunity to visit Vintage Pinball in Del Ray, Florida. It is a commercial establishment with coin operated machines (mostly pinball) from the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the machines are for sale. Inside there are three rooms filled with pinball machines set to free-play, about 30 in all. Due to family obligations I wasn't able to spend as much time as I would have liked, but for $10.00 a customer can spend as much time as they like there (even come and go). Being exposed to machines and actually being able to play them is far superior to reading about them in books. When you are a player you get the full experience and see the moving parts in action, including how the ball interacts with the artwork-covered environment. There are subtle details that are easy to miss, and some of the mechanisms in pinball machines are so unique, it is hard to understand them from text alone. From this experience, I have concluded that for any machine I want to examine in depth, I should have at least some hands on experience. If that is not possible, I will look online to see if there are any videos of people playing the machine. I am also curious about people's first-time impressions and reactions to machines when they are released, but this information could be tricky to come by for half-century old machines!
The past two weeks have been packed with projects, papers, and presentations. Even when I was traveling, I was working on assignments. I am looking forward to intercession, not because I won't have to do work (on my thesis), but because I can really focus on it without competing coursework for a few weeks! There is another important project I am working on concurrently, outside of RIT, but at least it is somewhat related to my research. I also hold an internship at The Strong, where I am currently working every Friday in the Archives.
During the intercession in December and January, I will spend most of my time doing collections and archival research at The Strong National Museum of Play, where many of my pinball sources come from. I have been thinking about which machines in particular will be good subjects for my thesis. The Strong has many machines, but not all of the ones I would like to examine. That is where the library and archives will come in handy! Monday through Thursday (with the exception of holidays), I would like to put in 3.5 hours of thesis research, followed by 4 hours of internship work. (Fridays will remain the same, with 7.5 hours of internship work.) At first I thought it would be excessive, but I have a long way to go! It is better to put the time in now than to wish I had later.
Since I do not have a lot of prior knowledge in women's studies, I will also need to begin reading some current texts as well as foundation texts that inform the field today. I might have a better idea which sources best suit my needs once I meet with my advisors. Their suggestions may help me narrow my scope and choose key topics that will point to where I need to look. I will do this reading in the evenings and on weekends. Once I have gathered enough pinball-related material for my thesis, I can focus more heavily on women's studies. The more I think about it, it seems a bit "backwards"-- how can I examine the material with a critical feminist lens before having fully developed one? Since I will not be able to spend a lot of time at The Strong during Spring semester, I have to get that time in now.
My goals for intercession are to "complete" most of my pinball-related research and read at least one long women's studies text.
My goals for intercession are to "complete" most of my pinball-related research and read at least one long women's studies text.
In addition, I have come up with a primitive overall plan of work:
December 21-31: Research at The Strong - Books and Magazines, Collections
January 1-15: Blogs, Magazines, Articles, Exhibits Research, Finalize Outline
January 16-31: Update outline. Women’s Studies Research - Books & Scholarly Articles
February 1-15: Update outline. Begin Rough Draft using research notes.
February 16-29: Primary and Secondary Read Draft, Feedback, Revision
March 1 -15: Primary and Secondary Read Draft, Feedback, Revision
March 16-31: (Spring Break) Travel if necessary, otherwise continue writing.
April 1-10: Primary and Secondary Read Draft, Feedback, Final Revision
April 12-16: Finishing Touches on Thesis (DUE WEEK 12 / April 12-16).
It sounds like you have a great plan for your progression as the year goes on. But make sure you also have time to go off on research tangents which can always lead to fun results
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sam. I would certainly enjoy going off on tangents, although considering the way those tend to work, you don't always realize you're on them until after-the-fact! Not all of the research makes it into the final thesis, but doing the research can be an enriching experience nonetheless. I can't wait to hear about your experiences over intercession, when the climate is more appropriate for historical brewing practices.
DeleteMelissa,
ReplyDeleteI am so proud of your progress thus far. You started out the semester with an entirely different proposal and have completed a whole 180 degrees on your topic. However, as Sam said, you have progressed so much in the past month with your newly proposed project. Your plan of work seems well thought out. I am glad you had the chance to go to Vintage Pinball. Was it helpful to go there? I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors over intersession!
Thanks, Jenna. Vintage Pinball had a nice sampling of 1960s-70s machines with a wide variety of subjects. I started to identify themes that seem to have paralleled film and other forms of popular culture, such as westerns, surfer culture, space exploration, and the circus. I would hesitate to refer to them as genres, because the did not necessarily have an impact on the rest of the game design (just the artwork). These themes seem to have had an impact on how the artist decided to interpret the overall look and actions of the figures within them. I hesitate to make any broad statements, but women appear to be absent from space-themed games while they are plentiful on beach or surfer themed machines. I can only speculate as to why at this point.
DeleteMelissa,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you have put a great deal of thought into the structure of your project and your plan of work. That will greatly benefit you as we move forward into next semester. As you mention in your post, your content knowledge is much greater in pinball than in gender studies. I am sure, here in the College of Liberal Arts, there may be faculty and other resources that can help you guide your research.
Melissa - I wanted to share a comment from a student in my "Museums and the Digital Age, Fall 2015" class: very interesting topic. I would recommend adding a list game design research or history with RIT launching the new Magic Center/Studios.
ReplyDeleteMelissa - I wanted to share a second comment from a student in my "Museums and the Digital Age, Fall 2015" class: "Very interesting, although a little confused about this between arcade games and feminism. Clarify a little more? Maybe look at how this has changed over time -- modern technologies are sure to have had an interesting impact."
ReplyDelete