This is the interim report of my project. This is where I delved deep into what I had done in my project before and during the production. Along with massive research I uncovered from academic sources, practices and articles that are somewhat similar to the project. Some is displayed here on my portfolio.
The Tate Modern Exhibition in December taught me that there are many ways to showcase your work in front of an audience. Even though most of the art at the exhibition did not exactly relate to my project, it still gave me some inspiration on how I could craft some pieces of art or images to put on display for my exhibition.
I learnt plenty from the second Exhibition trip, which is the V&A Museum in West London. I took inspiration from images showcasing the lives of people who had to live in harsh conditions because of the war. I realised that I could mention the history of Merton by showcasing old images of the area, as the borough also faced hard conditions from the war, and make comparisons between what Merton looked like before compared to now from the images I’ve taken of the areas in the borough.
We had a sit-down with a historian at the museum, who covers the life of a famous French artist and how she showcased her work through words in different texts. Her work inspired me to use different texts for my project to show people’s memories through the areas they cherish and have the most history with. I figured using short quotes from the interviews would make the memories stand out, along with using unique fonts.
“Share your story” is a project based in New York which gives people the chance to share the nostalgia and memories they have from the city’s parks and historical sites. The project aims to bring people who want to reminisce about their memories of parks and historical sites together and create a greater bond with those memories by having them explained to a wider range of people who can relate to them. This project can evoke a range of memories from different types of people, as it applies to all ages. My project is similar to the blog website as it allows people to tell their stories about their most memorable area in Merton and why, through images of childhood memories and clips of what the area looks like.
Memories of Battersea – Battersea is an area in the borough of Wandsworth, which is not far from the borough that my project focuses on. In 2016, filmmakers came together to create a project giving attention to Battersea through the filming of the area and interviews with people who grew up in the area. Most of the interviewees are part of the older generation, meaning some mentioned their upbringing in Battersea during the harsh conditions in ww2, and other stories were people who worked in the area and how the buildings changed due to the rise of the population in London, bringing greater opportunities for councils. The project inspired me to do a similar technique of people’s upbringing in a borough, but rather for the younger generation. Fewer stories are being told from younger people about their thoughts on the area they grew up and I believe that it should come more to light to relate to other young people.
Here is one of the many academic sources I’ve looked at where the author dives deep into how individuals can get nostalgia in several different ways. Not just nostalgia from a normal sense of a memory, but also different local historic and cultural districts. People’s upbringing, families, as well as play a part in having nostalgia through the events they have gone through in their life, such as childhood stories, for example. Exactly like how my participants' stories about their upbringings in Merton have led them to have a personal bond through what was around them in their personal lives, as well as the places they have been to.
This is another academic source that I found, but it covers more of the origins of our memories. How personal memories are formed specifically through specific locations, and someone’s hometown would be a prime example of this. Along with the experiences people had to go through, such as going to school for an education. The academic article made me realise that people can have personal experiences of a hometown even through being in institutions they have no control over. This has inspired me to mention schools that are in Merton as part of memories for the borough.
Since the start of the university year, I have looked at several blogs and social media posts containing the memories people have of areas in Merton. The blogs mainly consisted of people from the older generation who grew up in Mitcham or Wimbledon, giving their stories about life in the area to discuss with other people from similar backgrounds. The blogs made me think about how I should display people’s memories of the borough through a younger generation of people, as it’s difficult to find out their stories online or in person.
The Merton Memories Photographic Archive is a great guide to understand how I should film and take pictures of certain areas, streets of Merton, along with screen-grabbing images from the past to compare them to the present day. The images are hard to find on the normal web as Merton isn’t as popular as the other boroughs, possibly because the districts used to be a part of Surrey before merging to become a London Borough. To have the old images in my project and compare them to some of the areas is a sign that nothing much has changed in the borough throughout the years, physically, but the memories between the older and younger generations are most likely to be similar, but vastly different.
I have researched many articles, clips of places in Merton that I think the participants would mention in their stories, so that I could film them. I expect my participants' answers to be if they mention one of the parks, a football pitch or a school. I have even considered some of the pictures I’ve taken myself already when I’m out with my friends. As a recent memory of being Merton can also take into account the borough's bond to show how much my participants and I love our hometown, as we still go there to meet each other, even if some of us have moved out of the area.