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On the community memoir/public art project

So on Saturday, Patty and I did the first of two introductory presentations for the community memoir/public art project for Carroll County, Illinois. We're holding a second one on Monday evening, and the plan is to get as many people from the county as possible to see what the project is about, and then sign up for a writing workshop starting next week. 

The project is called 'Illuminating the Past, Lighting the Present'. The title originates in the pieces I was doing last year based on damaged photos printed on luminaries. For the Carroll County Historical Society, we are asking participants to bring along some photos showing themselves and at least one other family member. Through the writing workshops, Patty will get the participants to generate short moments of memoir - what they call 'remembered instances' at Columbia College. I will then print 'damaged photo' versions of the pictures, together with the text, similar to the following:

A collage of photos + text will then be printed onto light panels, hopefully creating an effect like a giant luminary. This piece will be installed outside the Owen Philips Miles museum in Mount Carroll, which is a beautiful 1873 italianate building that is the home of the Carroll County Historical Society. It will be unveiled in October, and there will be a reading from the participants' memoir material at the museum. I will also create a handmade project book to archive the project. There is also a Facebook Fan Page for the project, which is shown in the right hand column of this blog.

Now that the project has kicked off in earnest, I will be posting regularly as we go through each stage of our timeline.

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