Jessica Speer

what i do

• I work as a Research Specialist at the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at DePaul University, where I consult with faculty on their research, from methodology to grant proposals. Most often I work with them to make dissemination or data management plans, translate their findings in a way that's generally understandable (and maybe even interesting to look at). I also edit the weekly newsletter and blog, re/search, plan workshops, trainings, and events and work on SSRC's harm reduction-based research looking at injection drug use and sex work.  
• I play music and make noise in various projects, including The Shamblers, New Mexicoe, The Speers, Lady Rollins, and Radiation Spider. Inspired by oral historian, radio personality, and amazing Chicagoan Studs Terkel, the off-beat journalism heard on The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon on WFMU, and composer, radio artist, and sound ecologist Hildegard Westerkamp, I have begun to explore audio documentary work and non-musical sound art.
• I volunteer at the Read/Write Library in Chicago, where I recently assumed editorial duties for the blog and generally help out. I am proud to have volunteered in the past at the best radio station in the universe, WFMU and at the associated best online music project anywhere, the Free Music Archive.  
• Long-term archival projects include digitizing the collection of DIY record label Colonial Recordings USA and putting them online. There are rumors about other archival projects in the works.  
• Current projects include interviewing my neighbors, recording at protests, building an Arduino and Processing based interactive archive of sounds triggered by RFID-tagged objects, circuit bending a Barbie toy guitar, and writing a blog about digital collections called ANTELOPIST.