Check out the documentation of the 5 screen step into a Generation of (his)Story through 5 different portals. Part of the (his)Story: A Generation of Documentation.
http://vimeo.com/28286032
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
MMC Against the NPIC
One of the primary goals of the founding of the Midnight Media Coup is that I want to form the Coup as infrastructure for creating independent media within the goal of working within direct opposition to capitalism, including the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.
Capitalism cannot fix what capitalism has created. The greed that is created by a capitalist system is directly responsible for the inequities, which are necessary for the functioning of the system. Our desire to always be at the top, to be the exception; but, the rags to riches story is not sustainable.
Currently, BP is attempting to clean up the mess that their greed has created; the effects of the oil industry in that area are not new, and will probably be felt for decades if not centuries to come. At the same time, Oil Companies in Northeastern PA continue to rob the area of its natural resources while poisoning the area and the people who live within it.
We watch Verizon attempt to convince us that a tiered system of Internet access, that would deny the power of new media, of Internet and of voice to low-income people is a positive step in the free market place. Everyday companies attempt to purchase our identities, our bodies, our souls. The draw us in with fancy advertisements, and promises to make our lives better, easier, to bring us everything we want quickly without penalty. But time and time again we must remember we cannot buy happiness.
What we see everyday is a system that teaches us to equate citizenship, equality and worth with money. Yet, by the nature of classic economic scarcity, it is impossible for the majority of people to buy that citizenship.
The very nature of capitalism depends on concentrating power among a small group. It depends on scarcity. It depends on inequality.
The goal of liberal interpretations capitalism is equality, but what I seek is equity. There is no equity in the capitalist system.
“From their inception foundations focused on research and dissemination of information designed ostensibly to ameliorate social issues – in a manner, however, that did not challenge capitalism” (Smith 4)
The Non-Profit Industrial Complex is a product of a system of non-profits that are captive to the capitalist system they seek to cope with. Instead of working towards legitimate change these non-profits create band-aide solutions thus continuing to ensure that they have a solid base of need to serve. This is not always due to conscious effort, but rather manufactured ignorance to the complexity of capitalist systems as well as the underhanded controlling of funders and those at the top to ensure they stay at the top. The very nature of the free market blinds us to the dangers of oppressive systems.
The Non-Profit industrial complex is held captive to the grant funding systems that provide these NGOs with the money necessary to survive in a capitalist economy. These funders are connected to power, money and influence. In the book, Selling Out, Alexandra Chasin examines the relationship of capital to citizenship and specifically the evolution of identity based on capital within the Gay community.
“Capital does not stay inside the boundaries of identity-based communities. Neither does it stay inside of national boundaries. Like mercury to mercury, capital tends to go to capitalists, wherever they are, sloughing off the traces of any identity it might temporarily appeared to have bourne.” (Chasin 52)
As movements become co-opted, buying into capitalism and confusing greater capital with equality their messages and ability to control their message becomes co-opted by these forces. And we are stuck once again attempting to destroy the master’s house with his tools. Capitalism cannot fix what capitalism has wrought.
Capitalism cannot fix what capitalism has created. The greed that is created by a capitalist system is directly responsible for the inequities, which are necessary for the functioning of the system. Our desire to always be at the top, to be the exception; but, the rags to riches story is not sustainable.
Currently, BP is attempting to clean up the mess that their greed has created; the effects of the oil industry in that area are not new, and will probably be felt for decades if not centuries to come. At the same time, Oil Companies in Northeastern PA continue to rob the area of its natural resources while poisoning the area and the people who live within it.
We watch Verizon attempt to convince us that a tiered system of Internet access, that would deny the power of new media, of Internet and of voice to low-income people is a positive step in the free market place. Everyday companies attempt to purchase our identities, our bodies, our souls. The draw us in with fancy advertisements, and promises to make our lives better, easier, to bring us everything we want quickly without penalty. But time and time again we must remember we cannot buy happiness.
What we see everyday is a system that teaches us to equate citizenship, equality and worth with money. Yet, by the nature of classic economic scarcity, it is impossible for the majority of people to buy that citizenship.
The very nature of capitalism depends on concentrating power among a small group. It depends on scarcity. It depends on inequality.
The goal of liberal interpretations capitalism is equality, but what I seek is equity. There is no equity in the capitalist system.
“From their inception foundations focused on research and dissemination of information designed ostensibly to ameliorate social issues – in a manner, however, that did not challenge capitalism” (Smith 4)
The Non-Profit Industrial Complex is a product of a system of non-profits that are captive to the capitalist system they seek to cope with. Instead of working towards legitimate change these non-profits create band-aide solutions thus continuing to ensure that they have a solid base of need to serve. This is not always due to conscious effort, but rather manufactured ignorance to the complexity of capitalist systems as well as the underhanded controlling of funders and those at the top to ensure they stay at the top. The very nature of the free market blinds us to the dangers of oppressive systems.
The Non-Profit industrial complex is held captive to the grant funding systems that provide these NGOs with the money necessary to survive in a capitalist economy. These funders are connected to power, money and influence. In the book, Selling Out, Alexandra Chasin examines the relationship of capital to citizenship and specifically the evolution of identity based on capital within the Gay community.
“Capital does not stay inside the boundaries of identity-based communities. Neither does it stay inside of national boundaries. Like mercury to mercury, capital tends to go to capitalists, wherever they are, sloughing off the traces of any identity it might temporarily appeared to have bourne.” (Chasin 52)
As movements become co-opted, buying into capitalism and confusing greater capital with equality their messages and ability to control their message becomes co-opted by these forces. And we are stuck once again attempting to destroy the master’s house with his tools. Capitalism cannot fix what capitalism has wrought.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Grandma
a lot of this project still only exists in the process, in an attempt to bring some of those stories out this is the first in what will be many snippets of journal entries that have contributed to this process
From October of 2010 - 8 years later
Both of my grandmothers died in October of 2002. I was 13. How do I reconcile my relationship to my grandmothers? In the last 8 years so much of my relationship to them has been formed in fantasy. I was denied the opportunity to form a mature relationship with them and I was cut off on the brink of maturity. My grandmothers couldn't make it to my Bat Mitzvah, they were both too sick at the time, one with alzthiemers, the other, with lung cancer.
My fathers mother, my jewish grandmother, listened to the service through my Aunts cell phone. When I went to visit her afterward I barely recognized the old woman sitting in the bed. It was 5 months before her death. She died on Columbus Day, a monday. The funeral was on wednesday. Her house felt so empty when we entered on Tuesday to clean up and make calls.
Her collection of sad clowns seemed fitting for the occasion. This house no longer held the warmth of the woman who made apple cake and briscut. My memories of her are so fleeting, I wonder what she would think of me today. It makes me sad that there are parts of me that I never got to share with her. But she was a woman who shaped me. The stories I hear of her give me strength, hope and laughter. She says her whole life started when she left Scranton for Philadelphia. She came to nursing school in the midst of WWII for nurse training and subsequent army service. But the war ended before her training and so she never had to serve. In her stories about nursing school we are at the same stage in our lives, her and I, but the context is also so different.
From October of 2010 - 8 years later
Both of my grandmothers died in October of 2002. I was 13. How do I reconcile my relationship to my grandmothers? In the last 8 years so much of my relationship to them has been formed in fantasy. I was denied the opportunity to form a mature relationship with them and I was cut off on the brink of maturity. My grandmothers couldn't make it to my Bat Mitzvah, they were both too sick at the time, one with alzthiemers, the other, with lung cancer.
My fathers mother, my jewish grandmother, listened to the service through my Aunts cell phone. When I went to visit her afterward I barely recognized the old woman sitting in the bed. It was 5 months before her death. She died on Columbus Day, a monday. The funeral was on wednesday. Her house felt so empty when we entered on Tuesday to clean up and make calls.
Her collection of sad clowns seemed fitting for the occasion. This house no longer held the warmth of the woman who made apple cake and briscut. My memories of her are so fleeting, I wonder what she would think of me today. It makes me sad that there are parts of me that I never got to share with her. But she was a woman who shaped me. The stories I hear of her give me strength, hope and laughter. She says her whole life started when she left Scranton for Philadelphia. She came to nursing school in the midst of WWII for nurse training and subsequent army service. But the war ended before her training and so she never had to serve. In her stories about nursing school we are at the same stage in our lives, her and I, but the context is also so different.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
(his)story: A Generation of Documentation
The multi-media installation component of this project was installed at Hampshire College over April 7th & 8th.
(his)Story: A Generation of Documentation
My life has been intensely documented, from both the inside and outside.
I can trace my existence not only in my memories and family stories, but also in the videos and photographs that document each moment. I am seeking power from this documentation, the power of another perspective on my lived experience. The documentation of my life gives me an alternative telling to supplement my own story.
My generation is the generation that grew with the Internet. Entering a Post-Cold War word, our lives are perpetually shaped by the means thru which we communicate in a globalized, digitized world.
Digital space is so vast while also so limited. Digital space manipulates our physical borders, bringing us closer to those who are far away and farther from those who are closest. The space stretches to the edge of infinity but our use of it is constrained by our ability to navigate effectively. This new frontier is full of possibility but also limitations if we don’t learn to properly harness its power.
What of my history is left in the place where I grew up? My identity has been physically erased by the system it was forced into, references to my sexuality censored from high schools archives. This leaves a tainted legacy, an invisible history. Pouring into my families’ memories I wonder what is left out? What is kept? What is hidden? How do we decipher the secrets of the past, what do we leave for the future?
The pieces in this show represent the documentation of our stories, in forms we are all too familiar with and in ways that subtly expose our memories and associations while challenging us to form new ones. We choose to document our lives, through pictures, video, stories, social media and more. We choose to leave behind documentation of our stories, our struggles and our triumphs. We seek to find ourselves within the broader context of these narratives, to understand our place within the world, to understand ourselves, our identities.
(his)Story is an intervention into our notions of history. (his)Story disrupts our perception of historical narrative and embraces the possibility of multiple concurrent historical narratives.
(his)Story: A Generation of Documentation
My life has been intensely documented, from both the inside and outside.
I can trace my existence not only in my memories and family stories, but also in the videos and photographs that document each moment. I am seeking power from this documentation, the power of another perspective on my lived experience. The documentation of my life gives me an alternative telling to supplement my own story.
My generation is the generation that grew with the Internet. Entering a Post-Cold War word, our lives are perpetually shaped by the means thru which we communicate in a globalized, digitized world.
Digital space is so vast while also so limited. Digital space manipulates our physical borders, bringing us closer to those who are far away and farther from those who are closest. The space stretches to the edge of infinity but our use of it is constrained by our ability to navigate effectively. This new frontier is full of possibility but also limitations if we don’t learn to properly harness its power.
What of my history is left in the place where I grew up? My identity has been physically erased by the system it was forced into, references to my sexuality censored from high schools archives. This leaves a tainted legacy, an invisible history. Pouring into my families’ memories I wonder what is left out? What is kept? What is hidden? How do we decipher the secrets of the past, what do we leave for the future?
The pieces in this show represent the documentation of our stories, in forms we are all too familiar with and in ways that subtly expose our memories and associations while challenging us to form new ones. We choose to document our lives, through pictures, video, stories, social media and more. We choose to leave behind documentation of our stories, our struggles and our triumphs. We seek to find ourselves within the broader context of these narratives, to understand our place within the world, to understand ourselves, our identities.
(his)Story is an intervention into our notions of history. (his)Story disrupts our perception of historical narrative and embraces the possibility of multiple concurrent historical narratives.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
From History to Memory Work: its about collecting the fragments
“In acknowledging the performative nature or remembering, memory work takes on board remembering’s productivity and encourages the practitioner to use the pretexts of memory, the traces of the past that remain in the present as raw material in the production of new stories about the past. These stories may heal the wounds of the past. They may also transform the ways individuals and communities live in and relate to the present and the future.” (Family Secrets, Annette Kuhn, p158)
September 11th, 2001. It is a day that we all remember differently, a day that history has already started to write a narrative around; the Pearl Harbor or Kennedy assassination of my generation. I was 12 years old on September 11th, my 7th grade class was on a bus headed from outside Philly to Western CT for a overnight, Jewish camping program. We were watching “The Mask” on the TVs on the bus, and I had drifted into a sleep somewhere in northern Jersey. I remember waking up and commenting sleepily to my friend, seated next to me about how it was so strange that there were big factories in a city like that. It was the first time I ever remember seeing the New York Skyline.
Those of us who owned cell phones at the time, of which I was not one, had not been allowed to bring them on the trip. But some of the teachers had phones. Soon they began frantically calling people. Rumors spread quickly throughout the bus, planes had flown into the Twin Towers. Or something, we weren’t sure. A hijacking, maybe? No one knew if it was an accident or not. People started screaming, crying, taking pictures.
I remember somebody said “we are watching history right now”. I remember that moment so distinctly. This idea in my head, what we were watching was this really big moment. Something was happening.
The day continues to be a blur. We pulled over at a rest stop, turned around and when we got back to the school they were all being really nice to us and gave us bagels. A lot of people were still crying, I didn’t really understand, but I remember trying to cry along. I remember my mom had been really worried about me when I finally got home that afternoon. She said she wanted to drive up there and find me and bring me back. I didn’t really want to do anything that afternoon, I sat and played on the computer and watched TV. I wanted to watch the news but she wouldn’t let me. She said they were just going to play the same thing over and over again and I didn’t need to see that. So I watched Nickelodeon.
Since that one day a lot of things have been made of it. With new statements and connotations, different parts of this memory come up, different images from television and movies supplement the memories of the towers in my own head. I snapped these pictures on my disposable camera that day, you cant see anything as well as we actually could. But they capture that day for me. A few snapshots to throw into the national memory, different experiences, different places, it’s a day we all remember differently.
September 11th, 2001. It is a day that we all remember differently, a day that history has already started to write a narrative around; the Pearl Harbor or Kennedy assassination of my generation. I was 12 years old on September 11th, my 7th grade class was on a bus headed from outside Philly to Western CT for a overnight, Jewish camping program. We were watching “The Mask” on the TVs on the bus, and I had drifted into a sleep somewhere in northern Jersey. I remember waking up and commenting sleepily to my friend, seated next to me about how it was so strange that there were big factories in a city like that. It was the first time I ever remember seeing the New York Skyline.
Those of us who owned cell phones at the time, of which I was not one, had not been allowed to bring them on the trip. But some of the teachers had phones. Soon they began frantically calling people. Rumors spread quickly throughout the bus, planes had flown into the Twin Towers. Or something, we weren’t sure. A hijacking, maybe? No one knew if it was an accident or not. People started screaming, crying, taking pictures.
I remember somebody said “we are watching history right now”. I remember that moment so distinctly. This idea in my head, what we were watching was this really big moment. Something was happening.
The day continues to be a blur. We pulled over at a rest stop, turned around and when we got back to the school they were all being really nice to us and gave us bagels. A lot of people were still crying, I didn’t really understand, but I remember trying to cry along. I remember my mom had been really worried about me when I finally got home that afternoon. She said she wanted to drive up there and find me and bring me back. I didn’t really want to do anything that afternoon, I sat and played on the computer and watched TV. I wanted to watch the news but she wouldn’t let me. She said they were just going to play the same thing over and over again and I didn’t need to see that. So I watched Nickelodeon.
Since that one day a lot of things have been made of it. With new statements and connotations, different parts of this memory come up, different images from television and movies supplement the memories of the towers in my own head. I snapped these pictures on my disposable camera that day, you cant see anything as well as we actually could. But they capture that day for me. A few snapshots to throw into the national memory, different experiences, different places, it’s a day we all remember differently.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Why Mapping?
From Ashely Hunt’s “A World Map IN WHICH WE SEE” to classic mercator projections, maps serve as a visual representation of position, perception and power. Maps are used to guide and explain. When in the wrong hands they can be tools of propaganda and misrepresentation. They can also be powerful tools of social activism and organizing. We depend on geographic maps as representations of reality and yet the politics of power often skew what version of reality is displayed. We trust maps to guide us and because of this they hold a great ability to mold our perceptions. This mystical power has always drawn me in. As with other forms of visual representation maps can reach across borders of access while simultaneously creating and maintaining them.
Ashley Hunt - A World Map IN WHICH WE SEE-
http://www.correctionsproject.com/art/index.html
Mercator-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection
Ashley Hunt - A World Map IN WHICH WE SEE-
http://www.correctionsproject.com/art/index.html
Mercator-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories -- Breaking it Down
Re: Remembering, Retelling, Rethinking
This project is about examining the things that are often left out of vast histories intended to appeal to wide majorities. Exploring the detail and the scale of experience and identity through history brings us to question how we have and how we will think about and represent history.
Mapping: New ways to look at the information we are given; creating our own representations
Mapping, in all its forms, from geographic, to data, is a representation. This project explores the ways that different representations can effect our reactions, our understandings and our memories. Using mapping and other such visual tools allows us to shed new light on representations of history.
Our: Giving people the space and tools to tell their own stories
The primary goal of this project is to diversify the voices from which we hear history. Often history is portrayed as a single narrative, however this narrative does not account for the experiences of most people. This project is about telling the stories of real people and communities; our stories, our lives, our histories.
(his): taking the (his) out of history.
Using an anti-patriarchal model is crucial to this work that seeks to break the power system under which history, as we know it is skewed and tainted in its portrayal. The project seeks to shift the focus away from the male, resisting the mainstream narrative that is constantly shoved down our throats.
Stories: using stories to put together all the pieces of the puzzle.
The power of a communal history lies in the telling of stories, both individual tales and group narratives. Telling our stories together brings power to those stories and this project seeks to strengthen narratives of history by encouraging the archiving, exploration and use of these stories.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Timelines and Storytelling with Teen Leadership Seminar!
During the Teen Leadership Seminar at Mishkan Shalom Synagogue in Philadelphia last sunday we got to build a collaborative timeline using events from our lives, the news and the synagogues history then everyone picked out one event and shared their memories and thoughts with us:
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Updates!
After a long period of waiting for decisions on grants relentlessly. I have recieved $350 from the Social Venture Fund at Hampshire College to go towards the purchase of a Flip Camera and DvDs/DvD cases. Additionally, they are donating 40 blank notebooks for use in the programs.
This brings the fundraising total up to $1,000. It's nice to get the extra digit in there.
More updates to come soon!
This brings the fundraising total up to $1,000. It's nice to get the extra digit in there.
More updates to come soon!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories: Synopsis
On the edge of a digital revolution the ways that we get and receive information are constantly changing. But one thing remains constant, our history, or does it? How do we see ourselves? Our histories? Re-mapping Our (his)Stories is a project that changes our perceptions of history by using multi-media representations of history through physical installation and online archive to change the way that we look at history. Allowing ourselves to see the patterns and cycles in histories so that we can build together for a better future.
Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories is a collection of stories, a preservation of lives and a reconstruction of histories. Untold stories posses the power to analyze, restructure and overthrow the systems that hold us captive. Through work running youth programming, academic research and personal, artistic reflection I will be creating a multi-media installation as well as an online collaborative community archive. The two products are mirrors of themselves one occupying physical space and the other occupying digital space, both seeking to understand the relationship between time and space and asking the question, what happens when we attempt to map time.
Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories is a collection of stories, a preservation of lives and a reconstruction of histories. Untold stories posses the power to analyze, restructure and overthrow the systems that hold us captive. Through work running youth programming, academic research and personal, artistic reflection I will be creating a multi-media installation as well as an online collaborative community archive. The two products are mirrors of themselves one occupying physical space and the other occupying digital space, both seeking to understand the relationship between time and space and asking the question, what happens when we attempt to map time.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Feminist Media
Video Created during the Feminist Media Workshop as part of the Make/Shift RecLAmation Tour's stop in Amherst MA!
October 18th, 2010.
For more on Make/Shift RecLAmation - http://www.makeshiftreclamation.com/
The event was co-sponsored by the Feminist United Collective, Queer Community Alliance, Trans/Genderqueer Student Alliance and the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College.
Thoughts on Feminism - a work in process
When I was a child I had a Barbie that I played with topless. My mother and aunt jokingly named her Michigan Barbie. Years later I stumbled on pictures of topless women in the 80s outside, somewhere. When confronted my mother explained they that was the Michigan Womyns Festival. Years later I heard the hilariously different versions of the time that my mother and aunt “accidentally” carpooled to the festival together. This is the association I grew up with to the Michigan Womyns Festival, tangled into the other stories of the women in my family, my mom and my aunt, feminists. I felt it like a legacy I was receiving and at the same time confusion with my own gender pushes me away from these definitions and associations with feminism.
When I arrived in college I was told a different narrative of Michigan. A transphobic space of rejection, not solidarity, told I would find myself more at home at Camp Trans. Michigan Womyns Festival became synonymous in this academic setting with the problems of 2nd wave feminism, no longer a place for me in the world that pushed me towards the third wave or no wave. I learned of 2nd wave feminism, and more generally feminism as an old wave, the movement of an older generation.
It is impossible for me to separate my work as an activist video maker from my experience growing up female bodied, white, Jewish, child of feminists, in a feminist synagogue. But when it came to my own personal identification this was never a term that I chose to use for myself.
As I form and examine the methodology of my current project I have come to realize just how much the 2nd wave feminist movement influences the core of my work. The lens through which I learned and have found myself to study oral history is through a feminist lens, examining the ways in which the personal is political, a crucial value of 2nd wave feminism.
Throughout my time at Hampshire I have found my work revolving around questioning the patriarchy, capitalism, and the systems of oppression they perpetuate. My work as an activist media maker is always anti-patriarchy and when it comes down to it I find myself drawn to that term more than to the term feminist. And yet, I feel, understand and know the pull towards feminism within my work. My current project centers around the concept of (his)Story, taking the ‘his’ out of history.
On Monday October 18th I partnered with Food For Thought Books in Amherst, and the Center for Feminisms, Queer Community Alliance, Trans Student Alliance, Feminist United Collective and Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College to bring the Make/Shift Reclamation tour to Amherst for an afternoon workshop and evening performance. We spent the day in conversation with ourselves and each other dealing with the issues of contemporary feminism, what does that word mean and how does it influence our work? It was a good conversation, one that makes you think, that draws out the ideas that we have all been struggling with. The next day, as I was driving home after dropping the performers off at the train station to catch a train back to New York and continue with the tour I was texted by my 12 year old cousin, spurring an attempted conversation about what feminism is, opening up conversation on multiple levels in different spaces.
M- what show?
H- it was called make/shift reclamation
M- what it about?
H- feminism
M- it about friends?
H- what do you mean?
M- the show is about friends?
The moment she asked me if feminism was about friends (I believe she read it as friendinism) I realized the importance of my not brushing off this aspect of my life. Through the nature of my work I have often been forced to face the hipocracies within my life, if I advocate space for youth empowerment then who am I to shut my relatives, specifically, cousins, out of these conversations because they are not my intended audience. I want to teach them the values of the work that I do but this relationship is easily strained by family relationships. Knowing that I could not just dismiss this conversation I was then faced with the question, how do I explain feminism to this 12 year old?
to be continued…
When I arrived in college I was told a different narrative of Michigan. A transphobic space of rejection, not solidarity, told I would find myself more at home at Camp Trans. Michigan Womyns Festival became synonymous in this academic setting with the problems of 2nd wave feminism, no longer a place for me in the world that pushed me towards the third wave or no wave. I learned of 2nd wave feminism, and more generally feminism as an old wave, the movement of an older generation.
It is impossible for me to separate my work as an activist video maker from my experience growing up female bodied, white, Jewish, child of feminists, in a feminist synagogue. But when it came to my own personal identification this was never a term that I chose to use for myself.
As I form and examine the methodology of my current project I have come to realize just how much the 2nd wave feminist movement influences the core of my work. The lens through which I learned and have found myself to study oral history is through a feminist lens, examining the ways in which the personal is political, a crucial value of 2nd wave feminism.
Throughout my time at Hampshire I have found my work revolving around questioning the patriarchy, capitalism, and the systems of oppression they perpetuate. My work as an activist media maker is always anti-patriarchy and when it comes down to it I find myself drawn to that term more than to the term feminist. And yet, I feel, understand and know the pull towards feminism within my work. My current project centers around the concept of (his)Story, taking the ‘his’ out of history.
On Monday October 18th I partnered with Food For Thought Books in Amherst, and the Center for Feminisms, Queer Community Alliance, Trans Student Alliance, Feminist United Collective and Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College to bring the Make/Shift Reclamation tour to Amherst for an afternoon workshop and evening performance. We spent the day in conversation with ourselves and each other dealing with the issues of contemporary feminism, what does that word mean and how does it influence our work? It was a good conversation, one that makes you think, that draws out the ideas that we have all been struggling with. The next day, as I was driving home after dropping the performers off at the train station to catch a train back to New York and continue with the tour I was texted by my 12 year old cousin, spurring an attempted conversation about what feminism is, opening up conversation on multiple levels in different spaces.
M- what show?
H- it was called make/shift reclamation
M- what it about?
H- feminism
M- it about friends?
H- what do you mean?
M- the show is about friends?
The moment she asked me if feminism was about friends (I believe she read it as friendinism) I realized the importance of my not brushing off this aspect of my life. Through the nature of my work I have often been forced to face the hipocracies within my life, if I advocate space for youth empowerment then who am I to shut my relatives, specifically, cousins, out of these conversations because they are not my intended audience. I want to teach them the values of the work that I do but this relationship is easily strained by family relationships. Knowing that I could not just dismiss this conversation I was then faced with the question, how do I explain feminism to this 12 year old?
to be continued…
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Re-Mapping Data References
This is an online album of screen shots of other web-based tools for data-mapping and visualization, I would like to create something along the lines of these tools.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Fundraising Update
So far I have raised roughly $650 dollars to go towards the completion of this project!
This is great! I could not have done it without everyone who helped me along the way. Over the weekend my indiegogo fundraising campaign ended. It was no big deal, I barely noted the occasion. I realized a while ago that I was not going to meet my goal, but I am satisfied with the results of the campaign and the money I have right now.
The original project budget (the dream budget) is about $4,600, however, there will be ways for me to continue if this goal is not met. For one, I have started finding deals on items, such as the projector that was found by technical director, EJ, that only costs $100 instead of the originally projected $300. Additionally I expect that as time unfolds I will find other ways to trim the budget. My current barebones budget lies at $1100 and I believe that goal is easily do-able and I feel confident that I will not only meet it but exceed it.
I have also begun applying for grant funding from sources such as the Social Venture Fund at Hampshire College and Do Something, and organization that donates seed money to many youth produced projects regularly. In the near future I will continue to apply for grants as they come up.
ALSO RIGHT NOW the project is entered in the FACT Social Justice Competition:
http://www.netsquared.org/projects/re-mapping-our-hisstories
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE become a fan of the project and support this work! There are many benefits if my project does well in this contest such as consultations and funding for the project (that could potentially fund the project in full!)
Soon I will move the online fundraising component of my project to LongTail, a crowdfunding site promoting socially minded projects. While the website is still in it's beta form it will be going fully live soon and I am excited to be working with the founders of the site to host and promote the Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories project.
I want to thank everyone for helping/participating in this project so far! There is SO much more to come!
-Helyx
This is great! I could not have done it without everyone who helped me along the way. Over the weekend my indiegogo fundraising campaign ended. It was no big deal, I barely noted the occasion. I realized a while ago that I was not going to meet my goal, but I am satisfied with the results of the campaign and the money I have right now.
The original project budget (the dream budget) is about $4,600, however, there will be ways for me to continue if this goal is not met. For one, I have started finding deals on items, such as the projector that was found by technical director, EJ, that only costs $100 instead of the originally projected $300. Additionally I expect that as time unfolds I will find other ways to trim the budget. My current barebones budget lies at $1100 and I believe that goal is easily do-able and I feel confident that I will not only meet it but exceed it.
I have also begun applying for grant funding from sources such as the Social Venture Fund at Hampshire College and Do Something, and organization that donates seed money to many youth produced projects regularly. In the near future I will continue to apply for grants as they come up.
ALSO RIGHT NOW the project is entered in the FACT Social Justice Competition:
http://www.netsquared.org/projects/re-mapping-our-hisstories
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE become a fan of the project and support this work! There are many benefits if my project does well in this contest such as consultations and funding for the project (that could potentially fund the project in full!)
Soon I will move the online fundraising component of my project to LongTail, a crowdfunding site promoting socially minded projects. While the website is still in it's beta form it will be going fully live soon and I am excited to be working with the founders of the site to host and promote the Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories project.
I want to thank everyone for helping/participating in this project so far! There is SO much more to come!
-Helyx
Monday, October 4, 2010
First Day with Teen Leadership Seminar! Introduction to Community History - I Am From
On October 3rd I had the first session of Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories with the youth at the Teen Leadership Seminar at Mishkan Shalom Synagogue in Philadelphia! The session was great. Below is the product of the session, a collaborative 'I am From' Poem:
Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories: The First Weekend, Project into Practice
On October 2nd I held the Philadelphia premier screening of El Trompo, the documentary created through the Midnight Media Coup as part of The Trek Project. The screening was a success, the event served as a promotional event and fundraiser for the Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories Project. During the screening I raised $160 dollars for the project, bringing the grand total up to $650!
After the movie was finished everyone at the screening was given a chance to paint a collaborative world map on the screen where we had just finished watching the movie. Below are pictures of the event:
After the movie was finished everyone at the screening was given a chance to paint a collaborative world map on the screen where we had just finished watching the movie. Below are pictures of the event:
Monday, September 27, 2010
The Story Box
The storybox is the physical embodiment of the Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories archive. The storybox is being created inside the frame of an old television, with turning channel knobs and plastic wood paneling. They storybox is equipped with a touch screen, camera, microphone, speakers and a projector. Using the storybox people will be able to browse the archive, create/input stories and present stories to large groups.
I believe that the TV represents a form of classic American (in reference to mainstream culture in the US) imagery. The television is a centerpiece of “modern” family life. A central location for information, family gatherings, and entertainment; however, the TV only works one-way, we are told what to watch. There is no choice in the content that comes to us and we have very limited options in relation to input. Everyday the media brings us gradually more consolidated messages. These messages tell us everything from how to look to how to think especially in relation to how we see ourselves.
I believe that the TV represents a form of classic American (in reference to mainstream culture in the US) imagery. The television is a centerpiece of “modern” family life. A central location for information, family gatherings, and entertainment; however, the TV only works one-way, we are told what to watch. There is no choice in the content that comes to us and we have very limited options in relation to input. Everyday the media brings us gradually more consolidated messages. These messages tell us everything from how to look to how to think especially in relation to how we see ourselves.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Summary of the 4 Session Curriculum!
Introducing Community Histories:
Goals:
Establish and understand a sense of community.
Create an audio track
Understand the importance of history
Understand the importance of everyone’s voice
Highlights:
Creating a collaborative audio track!
What is your story?
Goals:
Understand that there are different portrayals of the same history/events
Create a community history timeline
Create some kind of visual media
Highlights:
Timeline of our own histories!
Making short video clips of our stories!
Creating a (his)Story
Goals:
Listen to someone’s history
Collaboratively create a media history.
Highlights:
Creating our own media (his)story based on an in-session interview with a community member!
Sharing (his)Story
Goals:
Reflect on the process of gathering and creating histories
Come up with a plan of action to display history work
Highlights:
Creating displays for our own (his)stories!
Goals:
Establish and understand a sense of community.
Create an audio track
Understand the importance of history
Understand the importance of everyone’s voice
Highlights:
Creating a collaborative audio track!
What is your story?
Goals:
Understand that there are different portrayals of the same history/events
Create a community history timeline
Create some kind of visual media
Highlights:
Timeline of our own histories!
Making short video clips of our stories!
Creating a (his)Story
Goals:
Listen to someone’s history
Collaboratively create a media history.
Highlights:
Creating our own media (his)story based on an in-session interview with a community member!
Sharing (his)Story
Goals:
Reflect on the process of gathering and creating histories
Come up with a plan of action to display history work
Highlights:
Creating displays for our own (his)stories!
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