For our first ExCap project, I chose to make typology of actions that take place on a specific section of a trail in Schenley Park. I was interested in the various types of people, animals, and interactions that take place in this spot after once having noticed that someone left a laptop on the bench there and that there was a note on the bench the following day. Just for fun, I chose to present this in a parody nature documentary format. I had so much fun with this and wish to continue, improve and refine… this is as far as I could get for today.
Types of Schenley Trail Goers (video footage is not exhaustive)
In setting up this trail capture system, I had many highs and lows. Below is a log of my travails.
Friday, September 27th
I spent 3 hours in Schenley Park, from 4:00pm to just after 7:00pm. The first hour was spent setting up the trail cam. (I wanted to find a sturdy and inconspicuous spot that I could easily access. It’s important for my project to maintain the same view, so I needed to find a spot that would allow me to remove and replace the camera in the same spot easily. I asked my friend Audrey to come to the park with me and asked if she could bring her ladder. She did, although the spot I selected didn’t require the use of the ladder. Thanks Audrey!) For the next 2 hours, I left the trail cam mounted by the tree. I was content and excited to see what it might capture.
above, the trail cam set up from behind. below, the trail cam set up from the trail! It’s so camouflaged!
zoomed and highlighted, in case you couldn’t find it.
~A reflection on my setting up the trail cam.~ I got very dirty while setting up the trail cam because I climbed up and down the dirt hill to set it up. I startled some deer that were on the hill. They must have thought I was a freaky human, because I’m sure most humans they encounter don’t climb the steep hills, pressing their hands and knees into the dirt as I did. As I was setting it up, I was sitting next to a tree (for support). Seated beside the tree, toggling the trail cam settings, I saw many people pass through the trail below. Walkers, bikers, dogs, joggers. Not a single person or dog looked up at me. I was not hiding… had they looked up they would have seen me. But they did not look up.
Saturday, September 28th
Currently, I am sitting at a table in Schenley Park Café. It is Saturday, September 28th at 10:32AM. I arrived at the park a little after 8:30am to set the trail cam up. I’m worried because yesterday, I left the trail cam for 2 hours, thinking it was recording activity. I stayed nearby, reading while waiting for nightfall, with the camera in view. My plan was to collect the camera as soon as it stated getting dark. (Around 7:15pm). I picked up the camera, super excited, because I had seen various passerby on the trail… but it turned out that that the trail cam hadn’t filmed a thing!! I was confused!! Frustrated!! Because I had tested the set up before in studio, and on the trail, and the video recording based on motion detection worked as I expected.
I decided it would try again the next morning. Early. This takes us to the present moment. While I sat upon the hill by the tree setting up the trail cam, not a single passerby noticed me. More groups of joggers, walkers, etc. I even filmed some of them with my phone. I continue to be shocked at the fact that so far no one saw me. I wonder how they would react if they did see me! My guess it’s they would be startled and think I am a weirdo.
I’m sitting here, writing these notes, feeling very worried that the trail cam may not be recording. I think it is, because I spent time setting up and confirmed that it was recording before I left it. The interface is not helpful in confirming what the camera is doing. This makes me wish there was a way for me to access the live footage, to receive confirmation that the camera is indeed recording, and that I am not wasting my time. Although I actually enjoyed the time I spent waiting for nightfall in the park yesterday, of course I felt like my efforts had been a waste. Because of this, I have submit request to borrow a GoPro Hero 5 from IDeATe. I hope I can pick it up today. I’ll pick a second spot for the GoPro and will remain nearby as it films! I have downloaded a bluetooth remote control app for the GoPro, so I hope that can allow me to control it from afar. At least this way, I will KNOW that the recording is happening while it happens instead of having to wait and see. This lack of immediate feedback from the recording device makes me think of photography when you didn’t know what you were capturing, or if the camera was working well, until you developed it. In this case, I don’t get to see what the camera is capturing until I remove it from its spot. This is inconvenient!
Speaking of spending time in the park – well… I’ve actually never spent so much time ~still~ in the park. When I’ve spent a lot of time in Schenley, I’m usually in motion, either walking or running. Through my stillness, I’ve noticed and become interested in some new features in the park that I hadn’t thought about before. The first is the variety of textures on the park surfaces. I’ve collected some sort of transect samples in petri dishes (I used petri dishes only as a means of standardizing the amount of material samples collected). I really want to put these dishes under the STUDIO microscope. I was amazed by what I saw under the microscope when we did the spectroscopy workshop a couple weeks ago because though it I was able to see the movements microscopic bug on a leaf that was impossible to see with the naked eye. This was shocking! Amazing! I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was like a portal into another dimension, where the familiar looked so different, it became unfamiliar. And I questioned what is really there. We see something like a leaf and we think we know what is it. But do we?
The other new interest is in tree hollows! They are everywhere and they are so mysterious to me! What goes on inside them? As humans don’t see what’s inside of them usually because our bodies are too big. Also they are dark. I would love to use a probe to scan or capture the forms they have on the inside and the activities they allow for plants, animals, fungi, & bacteria. How best to capture tree hollows? What devices could I use to capture the secrets of the tree hollows?
So it is now 11:22am. At noon I will go to the trail cam and confirm that it has been recording videos. WISH ME LUCK! After I check on it I’m going to go to IDeATe to try to borrow a GoPro…
UPDATE I last checked trail cam footage around 12:00pm and it was recording! I’m sooo excited. Set it up again, I think it’s working.. I hope it’s working… I borrowed a go pro from ideate…. It’s 3:09PM
Tuesday, October 1st
9:00am. Update on Schenley Trail Cam – This morning I witnessed something truly amazing.The acorns I left on the bench on Sunday were scattered across it. As I returned to my perch on the hill to set up the trail cam this morning, a passerby stopped by the bench. He spent a few minutes rearranging the acorns on the bench. Since I was so close to him, I tried my hardest to remain completely still. Once he left, I saw the message he wrote. It says “Hi” — this is so amazing to me. Why is it so amazing? Perhaps because that was the message I left, and because he had the exact same idea. It felt like mystical telepathy.
Below is a link to the video of the guy placing the acorn message below.
The acorn message that someone place on the bench on Tuesday morning.
Finally, I just want to express that I’ve enjoyed this project so much and am inspired to do more! I’m eager to investigate human behavior and non-human mysteries in the park. I’m eager to leave more messages for people; I want to capture more footage from my spot; and I want to make new and better videos from my collected footage! What if I could keep this going as the leaves changed colors? Today I also saw deer in front of this spot, unfortunately the trail cam did not capture them.
-Kim