My Expectations

Thought Paper 1

Andrew Cole

What do you want to see when touring the neighborhoods of San Francisco. How is studying signage in San Francisco ethnography or visual anthropology?

While touring the streets of the beautiful San Francisco I hope to see imagery that represents the city’s spontaneous personality. I would like to be able to experience the different parts of town and clearly see changes in how the signage is spread throughout different demographics. Studying the signs throughout the city would help me understand San Francisco’s ethnography and how they developed over time.

When traveling through the city I want to learn the types of transportations and how people get around the city. I think that traveling by public transportation can be a very important part of learning new areas. By doing so one can learn different sections of the town, routes to take for certain destinations and they kinds of people who take the public transit systems. Walking throughout the city is going to be a great way to see gradual changes in the signage systems. We will be able to see transitional areas going from more developed areas to low developed sections. To me this is important to see because what I know about signage is that it is all strategic. This aspect interests me along with seeing all the amazing colors they create.  Next, I believe that while traveling and studying the signage is a great way to get to know the ethnography of the city. By studying the signs we get a sense of why they were placed in those areas. This obviously introduces a background to an area, such as if the signs cater to more of an African American or Mexican population. Which I could conclude the area that we are in has a high concentration of those races.

I hope to learn all that I can about San Francisco through its amazing signage and imagery by traveling through different areas. As well as learning the ethnography of the sections we are studying.