While Stuart has been orienteering, I've been working on the code transcripts that will eventually become the captions that accompany our sound files. The aim is to create vector based text files that act as real time transcripts of the sounds (like subtitling on films), providing greater accessibility and sensory enhancement to the sounds; depending on how you can or like to access sounds, you'll able to hear them, feel them, see transcripts and any combination of those. Until the screens we've ordered have arrived, we can't test how the files will look within the final work, but by using vector based text, they should scale up without losing definition.

More interesting than the technical talk perhaps, is the challenge of creating a sound transcript. Being deaf myself, I'm intrigued by how much information is left out in captions. Sometimes that's necessary; there's only so much time you have to read a caption before the next one comes up, so when there is a lot of dialogue, the captions need to favour 'readability' rather than detail. But with many of our sound files, we can explore the description of a sound; does an air compressor on a train hum or drone? How do you describe the sound of a bucket blowing around an alley? How much is one person's perception of a sound and how does that influence the transcript? We'll begin posting a few example files shortly so we'll see if our approach works for other people.

Today, among other things, I worked out the orientation of the sign when we place it in Chalkwell Park. I had a guess when actually in the park and after my calculations today I realise I was quite a way out (over 20° I reckon). My house isn't quite on the alignment that I thought it was either so it was a good process to go through. I laid out a few adjoining OS Explorer maps (176 & 184), oriented them against the compass. Luckily, they are marked with True North and Magnetic North so I was able to get the maps at the right angle, define the line to be taken between Chalkwell Hall and Colchester Castle, and plot the number of degrees from Magnetic North. I also calculated the angle of the drive of Chalkwell Hall, even though it was small it was marked on the map, and I'll check that in the morning when I go to the site just to make sure.