DM ‘memory cards’ are being exchanged nationally. The cards prompt and assemble a conversation about the memory of lost lives and changed skyline during the events of September 11, 2001. With each exchange of the card, a moment of remembrance is initiated and prompts a dispersed, collective conversation about the memory of loved ones lost or affected by the events of 9/11.
Each card reveals through delicate voids in the paper an ephemeral image visible when the card is held to the light or casts a shadow. At that moment the memorial is created.
Dispersed Memorial has created an online database using the Google Panoramio interface to collect these cards and other stages of the project still to come. The memorial cards are geo-tagged and assembled to create a network of memories that record the stories of victims’ lives while allowing their loved ones to connect to people with similar experiences. In the next stage of the process, people will be asked to submit and geo-tag photos of themselves holding up an image of the Twin Towers as a way to restore the shape of the New York City skyline. This will also involve the collection of dedications to each victim.
In the culminating stages of the project, Dispersed Memorial will translate those photographs into glass plates scattered throughout the city. Each glass outline of the Twin Towers will correspond to the memory of the city’s skyline in varying locations. At night, the markers will light up one by one as an echo to the candles that were lit for the lives of victims in the days following 9-11, and will illuminate the inscriptions of stories, letters, poems and names that honor each victim. The memorial allows each contributor to choose the location of the glass plates where they wish to honor victims.
There is something symbolic about holding the card up and revealing a constellation of pixels of light that spell the name of the project. Each person finds his or her way to read it and reveal what it says. Some people bring up how they lost someone or how their friend didn’t got to work that day.
By collecting and installing the stories of the lives of 9-11 victims, Dispersed Memorial explores concepts of dispersed memory as a continual presence in a city and how that memory can connect people. The cards so precisely capture the spirit of the project — a twinning virtual and physical dispersed memorial that one collectively and individually stumbles across while moving through daily life — to stop, reflect and honor.
To see the website and/or to participate, go to dispersed-memorial.net
read Asheville Citizen Times article
2011 dispersed and manifested throughout various cities, i.e., Asheville, Boston, Black Mountain, Charleston, Greenville, Kansas, Lubbock, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Texas, Tucson, and Washington.
2011 exhibited at the 5 Walnut Gallery in Asheville, N.C.
2011 featured in the Asheville Citizen Times, Art & Design, Archinect and Arch Daily
Collaborators: Lauren Mitchell, Doug Hecker, Daniel Hutcherson
Ambassadors: Wanda dye – Dallas, Texas / Dustin White – Texas / Catalina Gomez- Washington / Thea Lobo – Boston, Tucson, New York/ Lance Lobo – Miami / Sarah Farwell – New York / Theresa Roach – Kansas / German Osorio – Tucson / Jonathan Jimenez – Kissimmee / Erik Stange – Amsterdam /Tien Eek Ng – Melburne, Australia / Wanda Dye – Dallas / Jule Tsai – San Francisco / Alan Yarborough – Clemson / Erin Cotter – Candler, NC / Kathy Stumpf – Asheville / Amy Mosquera – all over / Mary Koppenheffer / Michael Silverman / Charles deVries / Gretchen Bailey – Tacoma, Washington / Halimeda Knight, Portland – Oregon / Virginia Black – Ann Arbor, Michigan / Sean McDonald – Venice, California / Fred Bryant – Bay View, Ohio / Shai Yesh – Carbondale, Illinois
“memory cards’ participants: Thea Lobo / unnamed woman travelling to NYC / Kaye Richardson / Pat Bjorhovde / Andres Felipe Avila / Jason Sandford / Parrish Benight / Christopher Whyrick / Corey Call / Robert Atkins / Lauren Mitchell / Mark Rosenstein / Martha Skinner / Macky Bah / Graham Hackett / Brooke Priddy / Ryan Conrad / Lance Lobo / Gabriel Shaffer / Juan Camilo Reyes / Santos GlocalSoul / Tyler Housholder / Magick Sean / Tara Meadows / Jess McCuan / Sarah Nie / Erica Bell / Jennifer Pickering / Sarah Southerland / Amy L. Neill / Timothy Jedele / Moto Lapin / G. Craig Hobbs / Jennifer MacDonald / Vanessa Bell / Leslie Klingner / Randy Shull / Cleaster Cotton / Molly Kummerle / Tammy Horn / Lynne Harty / Doug Hecker / Craig McAnsh / Nicole McConville / Sophia A. / Jennifer Emerzian Snapp / Brian Miele / Marc Leverant / Kenny Snapp / Christina Breuer / Edward Perry / Mathieu Maisonneuve / Amélie Malissard / Derek Zachary Brown / Catalina Gomez / Anne Whitmire / Kathleen McMillian / Susan Hutcherson / Tim Hutcherson / Shannon Pruitt / Samuel Pruitt / Adam Hutcherson / Stephen Risse / Sharon Leppard / Michael Tilton / Anonymous stranger in the airplane / waitress / Matt McKillip / Anne Arntson / Lois Randal / Carmen Navarro
Exhibit Assistance: Vanessa Bell / SisterJ SpiritVoice / Jennifer MacDonald / Lynne Harty
Other Thanks: Tracey Schmidt Photography, Henco Reprographics, 5 Walnut Wine Bar