My collection of items is not what I originally thought it would be. My goal with my collection was to try and capture the stories of the strangers in society, to prevent them from being lost. I thought it best to focus on marginalized groups, such as immigrants, homeless, disabled, and exiled, however, this proved to be more challenging than I anticipated. Over the course of the term instead of finding these stories, I encountered other stories such as more overarching trends in communities whether it was chalk art or Minecraft servers. Additionally, I never imagined I would interview so many people and collect their stories, however, it is their experiences that make up the largest portion of the collection. Even though most of these stories do not deal with the marginalization and strangeness that I was seeking, they still reveal a strangeness in the world we live in and their desire to share it. Each individual I interviewed, connected their experiences to a broader impact of the pandemic, however, their description of the trend was still unique to them. Lastly I have found several editorials which describe the strangers and how the pandemic has impacted them.
As these weeks have progressed and even more so this past week, I have felt that the direction of my project is natural and is the best way I can help capture the pandemic. During Wednesday’s class when Kathleen Peralta came in to speak about the importance of narrowing in a project rather than trying to capture everything. I found this message to be powerful and I realized I had been trying to capture many different experiences but instead I should have accepted my role as a historical interpreter and let myself capture the stories of a much smaller group. For my group especially it was more difficult for us to agree on a direction, because we each had our own goals in mind and a specific direction we wanted to take our project. Even though we tried to compromise and broaden our topic range, our goals are loosely grouped together, however, our items are more similar than I think any of us expected.
I am happy with the work I have achieved, especially with the stories I have recorded, which all provide some fascinating insights. For the next two weeks I hope to finalize my items and post all of the interviews as well as possibly conduct a few more, but those are up in the air. I am hoping to include a few more editorials, however, I want these to be focused on a particular group. Lastly, as a group I hope we will interview each other about this experience and if not I may include my a document of my own thoughts and experiences during a pandemic. Self reflection is needed alongside the compiling of other people’s experiences. I am happy with the direction the archive has taken and I can not wait to see how it is finalized over these next two weeks.
