Here, There and Everywhere explains the racial and historic undertones of jazz in the city of Chicago, but lacks interactivity that would familiarize users with the Chicago jazz scene. Website interactivity is widely documented and widely used in Digital Humanities projects and acts to embed the user in the project’s narrative. An interactive Digital Humanities phenomenon explained throughout the course was Second Life. Second Life is not only an object of study in DH, but can also be used as a platform to convey meaning and emotion that will ultimately humanize a project. To project and embody the Chicago jazz scene, a 30’s era jazz club can be created in Second Life as an interactive teaching tool to enhance the project. 

To do so, a conglomeration of skill sets and assets would be needed, which we as a group lack. But we understand enough about DH to illustrate a methodology for creating a 1930’s Chicago Jazz club. Our interviews talk about particular clubs in Chicago, such as Club 409, serving as a basis of knowledge for further research. The interviewed individuals were born in the 30’s, but the clubs they talk about and remember come from a more contemporary era. The clubs collected can then be analyzed against archival databases to highlight whether they were around during the 30’s. This will narrow down our list of jazz clubs, and with this list we can now search for floor plans and building layouts.

Once a 30’s era Chicago Jazz club is pinpointed, we need information on the layout of the club to create a lifelike representation. Architectural plans, eyewitness accounts, and fire codes will be found online to act as a basis for programming. These forms of data create a 3D representation of our club in space, which can then be translated from inches of pine board or square feet of tile to code and pixels. The special representation of our club in Second Life is a start to incorporating users into the Chicago jazz scene.

The jazz club as outlined plays to the senses, but only the visual. Jazz is a visceral experience that utilizes auditory senses to instill emotion and feeling. Our club should have performers on stage, such as Louis Armstrong, playing his music to second life users. We can search 30’s era music charts for known Chicago jazz artists to underline popular music that would be played in clubs. The use of sound, coupled with the visual experience of being in a jazz club, would enhance our project immensely. This DH tool of interactivity places our users in the correct time and place, which in turn imparts sensations and feeling not possible purely with texts or pictures. 

Short walk through of virtual jazz club:

"Second Life."  http://secondlife.com/.