Sonic Walk – Exploring campus in this new way was a very interesting learning experience, since most of the time when I am walking between classes, I have headphones in with music playing. The spread of sounds across campus is much larger that I expected it to be: some hallways are almost completely silent, but take a step outside and the catwalk next to Healey is filled with a cacophony of construction sounds. The Harborwalk down by the water in front of Campus Center is a relaxing spot where waves crash against the rocks and people jog by with their pets, but a short bus trip to JFK/UMass cranks the volume as Red line and Commuter Rail trains whizz by at speed.
None of these sounds surprise me in and of themselves (UMB calls itself an “urban campus,” which anyone listening to these sounds would agree with), but it’s the incredible range of sounds that can be captured on a single campus that surprises and impresses me.
Tiny sidewalks make room for more parking spots, giving people no choice but to walk in the street
For my photo essay, I will be exploring the transportation issues in the city of Boston. The T is almost always having issues, delays, or shutdowns, traffic is a nightmare during the morning and evening rush hours, preference is given to cars at almost every street corner and intersection, all making New England’s flagship “walkable” public transit city anything but navigable by someone without other means of transportation. I have ridden a “standing room only” Red line car at 5pm, and I have also sat on a completely empty one. I have driven through downtown Boston and been both confused and frustrated by the street layout and traffic light/signs. I have walked miles and miles through the city and every step crossing a street seems like it’ll be my last, with cars whizzing by at speeds never imagined possible by the creators of Boston’s concrete grid (or can it even be called that? I don’t think there’s single 90-degree angle anywhere). Any area not designated for housing (another problem in and of itself) or for protected green space is filled with parking for these speeding metal boxes, shrinking sidewalks. All of this is to say that Boston is strategically, if not uniquely, positioned to reimagine itself as the walkable, bike-able city of the future, complete with a fully-functioning public transit system that gives people options for getting around; this future is possible only with campaigning, effort, and investment into Boston’s infrastructure sooner rather than later.
I took the above and below images to illustrate two of these issues, those of car-designed infrastructure and of the mismanaged and underfunded T system. I manipulated these photos by cropping to center the subjects within their surroundings, balancing color channels to make the important aspects of each image stand out, and increasing/decreasing exposure on certain parts of the image to further isolate the subjects.
A lone passenger boards an near-empty outbound Orange line train during rush hour
On the Boston Housing Crisis: ever-growing population with nowhere affordable to live, an issue only exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic forcing people to make health, housing, and financial decisions simultaneously in situations where all three can’t be satisfied at once.
On Boston’s Transportation Issues: Standstill traffic during the morning and evening rush hours, injuries and deaths on streets not designed for pedestrian safety nor the speeds which modern cars are capable of, and countless delays and shutdowns of the T system causing people to spend extra time and money just to get to work every morning and then back home every night.
Multimodal – refers to using different “modes” (sound, visuals, etc.) to convey meaning in different ways (using color, videos, images, etc). Multimodal is more abstract and describes the actual “thing” that carries the meaning.
Multimedia – instead refers to conveying the actual meaning through different specific mediums or “media”, such as podcasts, documentaries, text, photos, etc.
