[ Description | Gallery | Project Archived in the CNS ]
Collecting Stories of Two Streets in the Face of Social Development
09.2007
Participatory and Multimedia Installation
In September 2007, I created an installation in the form of a conference room under my alias The Counter Narrative Society to explore the local memory of the Inner Mission that has been facing intensive social and urban developments. The project invited local residents to participate in a series of creative conversations that facilitated the recollection of past, present and future memories of both Mission and Valencia Streets. In the process, Fernando Marti and Fiona Glass collaborated with me to coordinate three creative conversations during the month.
The first conversation took place at the opening reception. We sat around the conference room and participants shared
their stories. We also had a truncated map with instructions inviting the public to color code their impressions of both streets and their surrounding areas. The public was invited to make scrapbook pages during the second conversation. During the final conversation we walked along Mission and Valencia to find a list of features that we deemed important. We came back to talk and continued mapping and making scrapbook pages until late night.
The conference/office installation was part of HYPERSEA’s Hidden Histories exhibition and public art project.
Press: SF Weekly. Sep.12 2007 – Map Quest.