Update on Project Activities
During Monday’s class, we met with the Tech Museum for the first time. We introduced ourselves to Danny and Michelle, and learnt about their roles - Michelle is project lead for the exhibition and Danny is in charge of realising the ideas of the exhibition. When going around the circle and outlining why we wanted to be involved with this particular project, we realised that one area of overlap was that we wanted to share stories from the community. We talked about the idea of climate change being the concern of more privileged people, and low income people and people of colour not having a voice in the conversation around climate change, as we spoke about in class. We all emphasised how much we want to use this project to elevate the stories of people affected by climate change who may not otherwise be represented in the fight against it. We discussed this more among ourselves and wanted to think more about how we can uplift these voices, and engage with communities that aren’t our own in a way that isn’t voyeuristic. We spoke a lot about what makes an effective story - neither Danny nor Michelle are storytellers, or have any experience in storytelling or podcasting, so we discussed briefly how they were envisioning the stories. We talked about where to draw inspiration from, and shared our favourite podcasts such as Planet Money, This American Life, and Snap Judgement. We are going to meet Danny and Michelle next Friday at the Tech Museum itself to get a feel for the space and see how the exhibition fits in. What We Observed and Learned Our project entails collecting audio stories from members of different communities about their personal experiences with climate change impacts and resilience. In 2020, the Tech will open a new exhibit that features these voices. Visitors will maneuver a puck around a map, prompting the audio recordings as they hover over the respective communities of the individuals we interviewed. We learned that the idea for such a project stems from research about climate change awareness as well as the efficacy of sound for communicating information. While the majority of people in the U.S. agree that climate change is happening and that it will affect other Americans, many do not think it will affect them personally. The goal of the exhibit is to convey through storytelling, which studies show to be a powerful tool for conveying important messages, that climate change is already affecting the lives of local residents. As such, we discussed with the group what we each think makes a good story. Some members shared that ambient sound, emotion, the personality of the interviewee, and the moderate use of expert voices make for effective storytelling, which we will keep in mind in the process of collecting and editing stories. Critical Analysis / Moving Forward Our readings over the past week have helped us reflect on our project and think critically about serving the community through it. Melissa Checker’s essay “Wiped Out by the ‘Greenwave’” made us consider how we approach the communities we are not a part of. We would like to avoid being perceived like the GreenX:Change project in Harlem, and must make sure that those we talk to are fully on board and maintain power and autonomy over their stories. We are not the ones telling stories, rather we are the facilitators, giving our interviewees a platform to tell their stories. We also are thinking very critically about the type of sustainability ( or sustainabilities) we will be addressing in our project. Mariam Greenberg’s “What on Earth Is Sustainability” identifies multiple modes of sustainability. Our project is concerned with climate change, and thus most most immediately associated with eco-oriented sustainability. However considering the rather white and eurocentric history of eco-oriented sustainability narratives, we would like to engage other modes of sustainability, with a specific emphasis on justice and equity. Will this be possible in the scope of our partnership with the Tech Museum? How can we pursue more intersectional narratives without diluting the message our partners are pursuing? These are important questions that we must answer. While going forward with our project, we will face numerous challenges, and planning for them is very important. We feel that our biggest obstacle will be creating meaningful and genuine connections with various communities in San Jose. Forging strong connections and building trust between the interviewer and interviewee is essential for capturing and telling compelling and equitable stories, so this will be a major focus for our project. For some individuals living in the silicon valley/ bay area, especially working class communities of color, “tech” has become a bad word. Many people are being displaced and their neighborhoods are being gentrified due to the tech boom, so having the word “tech” in the name of our project will be a challenge when reaching out and talking with folks. One way we can address this is by being very clear, transparent, and communicative in regards to our project’s goals. Emphasizing our interest in equity and highlighting that we want to give their voices a larger stage and reach may help make people more comfortable. Additionally, we anticipate that finding and reaching out to potential interviewees will be a challenge. Our topic of climate change impacts and resilience is very broad. Where do we start? Who do we talk to? How do we find individuals with compelling stories and how do we contact them? In discussing this, we felt reaching out to community organizations and nonprofits would be a great start, especially in trying to get voices from marginalized communities. From our past experiences, we have found that community organizations and nonprofits are more than happy to tell their stories and engage with well meaning projects. We are very excited to carry our project forward and begin engaging with the diverse communities of San Jose. Comments are closed.
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