The term ‘Fieldnotes’ (not to be confused in present context with the Chicago based company Field Notes that produces high quality memo books, notebooks, journals and planners that are notably popular among artists and scientists) refers to qualitative notes recorded by scientists or researchers in the course of field research, during or after their observation of a specific phenomenon they are studying. The notes are intended to be read as evidence that gives meaning and aids in the understanding of the phenomenon. Fieldnotes allow the researcher to access the subject and record what they observe in an unobtrusive manner.
One major disadvantage of taking fieldnotes is that they are recorded by an observer and are thus subject to (a) memory and (b) possibly, the conscious or unconscious bias of the observer. It is best to record fieldnotes immediately after leaving the site to avoid forgetting important details. Fieldnotes are particularly valued in descriptive sciences such as ethnography, biology, geology, and archaeology, each of which have long traditions in this area.
This explanation of the term at hand comes from Wikipedia which has become one of the most common sources of information for people all over the world post Encyclopedia. According to its page about itself (how very meta of you, Wikipedia) the site changes or develops at a rate of slightly over 2 edits per second. That is 120 edits per minute, 7,200 per hour, 2,880 per day, 20,160 per week, 86,400 per month, 1,036,800 per year and if we calculate based on this equation what the total number of edits has been since its inception on January 5, 2001 we arrive at the number 18,475,200. That is an obviously large number that I’ve come to find as representational of the current state of informational flux we call ‘news’. Like a crystal, current events will look different from every angle of which they are viewed.
So, if you would like to keep up with the field notes I plan to gather while in Hungary over the coming year, I invite you to FOLLOW. I plan to record cultural observations, archeological findings, newly acquired craft skills, genealogy research on the Humenik’s, really good art, and hopefully my experiences with other artists living in Europe. I would like it to serve as an informational archive of my experiences to evolve in tandem with the art I produce in a new place. Full disclosure, I welcome the effects of memory as well as conscious and unconscious bias. Üdvözöljük (which means means 'welcome' in Hungarian).