Monday, February 22, 2010

Round 01: Kate

Where Were You When

National identity is in constant dialogue with contemporary mass media as personal experience is mitigated by the realism of representation, the declarations of marketing, and the potential for replaceing individual memory with its televised counterpart. Collective memory should be a contested media in which historical pasts and current paradigms are both made and remade in constant interaction with all sorts of new facts and simulations.

you are the archive

individual --------------> group
data/document--------->archive
what is-------------------> what is possible

Augmenting the reality of the archive should move beyond technolgical seduction (enhanced spectacle) and towards enhanced accessiblity and enhanced personal meaning. I am interested in the intersection between the personal and the official record of history. For this project the question, "Where were you when?" would invite a user to choose an important date for them (i.e. wedding anniversary or assination attempt, etc.). They would then contribute an oral 'story' or account of the date. This would then connect them to the official or media represetation of the day as well as connect them to other oral histories. In this way history becomes a form of collective sharing, an encounter which enhances one's personal perspective with conflicting or additive examples, for a possibly deeper and more complex view of national identity/history.

1 comment:

  1. take a look at the oral history project of the experience music project in Seattle

    http://www.empsfm.org/programs/index.asp?categoryID=60

    this is only with "experts" or people from the music business and artists, but in the museum people can record (and watch) their own stories.

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