Loch Discourses Project

Loch Discourses Project

Here is my Loch Discourses project. I took hundreds of photographs at different locations around Loch Leven. I looked through all the photographs and started to see various themes and common factors emerging. I began to sort them into groups under various broad headings which I eventually narrowed down to four discourses; conservation, education and Weberian and functionalist, with eight sub-groupings. They are:

·        Conservationist Ideology Outdoors

·        Conservationist Ideology Indoors

·        Educational Ideology Outdoors

·        Educational Ideology Indoors

·        Functionalist Ideology Outdoors

·        Weberian Rationalisation Outdoors

·        Functionalist Ideology Indoors

·        Weberian Rationalisation Indoors

I found that each of the groups frequently bleed into the others. For instance, the category “Functionalist Ideology Outdoors” had photographs of seats which had poetry inscribed into them, so they could equally be under the heading of “Educational Ideology Outdoors”. Similarly, the seating areas for both outdoors and indoors had directional elements in them, guiding people in a certain direction, so they could also come under the category of “Weberian Rationalisation Outdoors” or “Weberian Rationalisation Indoors”. The same problems arose when it came to the conservation and education categories. For instance, some of the information boards were educational but addressed conservation issues, so a decision had to be made as to which category was most relevant. Factors considered then included considering the nature of the vocabulary used in the text and how it was presented; for instance if it was conversational notes on a whiteboard which the public could write on and which the professional conservationists could provide explanations on, then that could more readily come under the heading of “Educational Ideology Outdoors” – some could argue, however, that since the subject matter was conservation then it should come under the “Conservationist Ideology Outdoors” heading.   

The photographs of the fixed binoculars and telescopes presented major challenges as they could come under almost all of the headings provided. They are used for conservation purposes but also as a tool to educate the public; they are based indoors but are used to examine stimuli which is outdoors; they have seating which is organised indoors, and they have an element of Weberian rationale as their fixed position directs the public on where to look and also where they must be located in order to facilitate this which in turn throws up issues pertaining to functionalist ideology. This provided a particularly tricky conundrum regarding which category was most relevant. It was decided to put the photographs into the group with which they seemed most strongly to identify, however, there are elements of the other categories in almost all of the photographs in this display. 

The problem of personal reactivity arose many times in this project as the highly subjective nature of this task became apparent. It became clear that what the researcher sees may not necessarily be what another person would see. It became clear that my ideas and life experiences influenced how I saw the photographs and how I categorised them. I was aware that by categorising the photographs, the viewer would be influenced to think a certain way when they view the photograph. When I, as the researcher, look at the photographs, I can clearly see how they are connected. I hope that this comes across to the viewer when they look at the project. I am uploading the photographs according to the categories mentioned and in that order, so they will be viewed over a series of eight posts.

Best wishes, Kim

Conservationist Ideology Outdoors