Sites of Remembrance

tl;dr: Explore and document interactions at a site for remembrance. Document with photo and video. Describe the use of the space, interaction with objects, occupant flows, etc. Report observations. Time Limit: 2 hours

Brief and Goals

To help, kickstart this investigation, we’ll develop a shared understanding of current sites and spaces for collective remembrance, celebration or memorial.

First start by choosing a space that you’re interested in. It could be a cementaries, a named park bench, a statue, war monuments, a museum like the Warhol or a roadside remembrance.

Visit this site and:

• document your personal experience of the space
• briefly observe how other people interact and flow within the space
• document the space itself by:
  • Photograph the landscape of the space, both from a broad view and up-close
  • Sketch a layout / floor plan of how the space is organized.
  • Cataloging / Describing the objects found within the site
  • Map their locations and placements
  • Observe who, when and how they are being interacted with, for example, by using behavior mapping

Reflect on any insights and considerations uncovered. Use your observations to speculate on opprtunities for digital content to enhance the space. Write up and report your findings and speculations.

Consideration You may choose any site of memorial as you see fit. It could be a cemetary, as much as it could be the Warhol or the love locks by Schenley Park Bridge. Choose an interesting location and one that makes sense for your group’s proposal.

Constraint This is to be completed individually but should be informative to your groups proposal.

Constraint The site for remembrance cannot be on the CMU campus - go further afield!

Note This is a warmup exercise and you should spend around 2 hours on this exercise.

Learning Objectives

As part of this exercise you will be asked to:

• Develop your awareness of how architectural and physical place plays a role in collective remembrance and the remembrance of things past;
• Explore the kinds of experiences that you might construct in a future space by understanding current activities and practices;
• Examine the spaces, rituals and practices that might inspire new digital interactions to support memorials and monuments.

Deliverables

You are asked to deliver three things for this warm up exercise:

1. Site: Document your experience at a sight for memorial using photos, videos and other formal methods as outlined abovle.
2. Narrative: A short description of the manner in which you approached the project, the process you followed, the strategies you used to catalog and investigate the site.
3. Reflection: A reflection on outcome and how this might inform your investigation this module (speculate on opprtunities for digital content to enhance the space or interactions observed).

The narrative and reflection should be approx 200 words (max.)

Share your outcomes as a post on the #projects channel of on Slack.