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This week we considered how to use a documentary to tell a story, as a potential technique for our project. I'm not sure how it might fit in yet but it is a useful experience and our group considered the role sound plays in a city.
You never really notice how important sound is until you start to look for it. It was incredible to me how much it was needed to simply navigate the city, then we visited the Museum of London, and its comparative silence was deafening.
Our group's trip to the Museum of London was intended to serve as inspiration, and it worked. I am not very familiar with the history so it was all new for me and I found it fascinating. Especially within the context of Rosner's work.
Downstairs, you can see "London over time" and the city's evolution is mapped in photos, objects, and videos. There is a continuous thread amongst the exhibits that tracks who is in power, and who is oppressed, at different points in time not just in the city but in society as a whole. Further, it was evident (particularly in the women's vote exhibit) how cities are the stomping grounds of change. With so many people concentrated in a single space, collective action seems more feasible.
Considering I've just finally figured out how to breakdown a city into "components," seeing how everything is tied together was very useful. Going back to systems thinking, you can't affect one component in a city without affecting all the others. Like dominoes, women fighting for voting rights lead to major changes in all aspects of city life, if only when you consider who was allowed to take part in the decision-making processes.
Our group continued to brainstorm ideas from our research regarding what spoke to us. I am still uncertain of where the most opportunity for impact exists, but that will be my next step.