Project Proposal: Lobby Culture of Belmont

There are many places where people congregate around the college campus. At Belmont people gather at the cafeteria, the library, the Beaman, the Curb Café, or sometimes outside in the quad. However, perhaps the most interesting place that comes to be a gathering place is the residence hall lobby. No matter which lobby you walk into there always seems to be a certain type of crowd at each one. I would like to examine the residence hall lobby and the people that call the lobby their preferred place to hangout. I would study how the people in each lobby are different, but also the similarities that are true for all lobbies and that define lobby culture at Belmont University.

In order to accomplish this there are some questions that I would need to answer. How did a certain group come to dominate a lobby, and why do other groups of people dislike gathering there? Is the culture defined by a type of person? Are there more men or more women that gather in the lobby? Are there different appeals to hanging in different lobbies, such as the lobby at Thrailkill has a TV, but the lobby in Maple does not. Finally is there a Discourse and a literacy that is required to be a part of the lobby culture?

I would conduct my research by spending time in each of the lobbies. Though my role in each lobby would be very different. At the Thrailkill lobby I would be considered an insider. I am part of the community and know the people who live there. However at places like Herron I would be an outsider. I do not live there and I am not familiar with the people that do, it is a girls dorm and almost everyone who spends time in the lobby is a woman. As a result I may be shunned because I do not fit their Discourse. Thus there would be an interesting spectrum of insider versus outside that I would encounter while researching the lobby culture.

While spending time at each lobby I would observe the people who are there and begin to become acquainted with certain people that make up the core group of each lobby. I would take photos of each lobby, record conversations if possible, and perhaps also film video. Finally near the end of the project I would interview some people. I would like to do this at the end because I think that people would treat me differently and act differently themselves if they knew what I was doing and my intentions for being there.

Possible Project Ideas

DJs and Nashville:

I have been DJing for the last four years and I thought that it would be interesting to further explore the life of a DJ and their place in Nashville. I would go to different clubs and observe DJs as they work, what kind of equipment they use, what type of people they are, and what type of music they play. I would also try and arrive early before any music starts and possibly interview some of them to get their thoughts about being a DJ in Nashville.

The Gazebos of Belmont:

I have always been intrigued by all of the people that come to the gazebos on the quad and play music. I would like to investigate the different types of people and music that they place. I would also like to interview them about why they chose to play in a gazebo (over other places), as well as what they hope to accomplish with music in their lives. I would take pictures as well as audio recordings of the musicians in addition to my interviews. Unfortunately I would need to do this during a period of nice weather. It is cold outside at this time of season and not many people are playing in the gazebos. But hopefully they will be soon...

People of the Lobby:

My freshmen year I used to hang out in the lobby of my dorm a lot. It is interesting to walk through dorms on campus and see the same group of people in the lobby each time. I would study how a certain group took "control" over the lobby versus other groups/people. I would also look at what types of people hang out in the lobby, what are their majors? do they procrastinate homework in order to have free time to hangout? What gender is more prevelent? I would try to determine similarities that are visible for all of the dorms, and see if there is a certain type of person that is drawn to the lobby. What is the culture of the dorm lobby? and how is it unique?

Live Musicians:

As a musician I highly enjoy watching other people perform. I would like to know more about what motivates a musician to perform and what is their goal of a performance. I would go to different venues around Nashville and talk to musicians, get photos of singers or bands, and record audio from their shows. I would need to examine a broad range from street musicians, bands that play at venues on Broadway, and those that play at Clubs. I would interview them if possible about how long that had been performing, what drew them to music, and where they hope to be in the future. I would also look at the types of people that perform and compare them to the across all of the places that I would visit.

In this video there is a Discourse mismatch between the librarian and the blonde woman. As soon as the blonde woman walks into the library and begins to talk it is clear that she does not fit into the "library" Discourse. She is asking for the wrong thing, saying it in the wrong way, and her personality does not fit the "library" type. Even when she tries to fake the Discourse by whispering she still is not able to control the "library" Discourse in a believable manner.

the things I write

I would not say that I write much outside of assigned writing for assignments. However,

I would not say that I dislike writing.

I enjoy writing creative accounts: a collection of ideas for a song, maybe a joke, or maybe a blog post...

Every now and then I like to try my hand at poetry and watch where it leads me. Sometimes short, sometimes long, sometimes a song.