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Digital Project Proposal History of Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park _________________________________________________ |
Audience, Scope, and Content Arrangement
The proposed web site on the history of the park would be an attempt to deal with the complex history of the park. The genre of the web site would be a web essay/exhibition, with an integrated archive. The digital project has four main aims: First, to present and arrange materials on the history of the park which are either already available online, or which have been collected by the "Friends of Meridian Hill Park" for their park archive. Second, the site aims to analyze and reflect about the history of the park and its connections to the city. Third, it aims to encourage discussion and debate on the history of the park. And fourth, it aims to encourage the collection of histories of the park, especially oral histories, and facilitate further historical research.
The space that would be provided by the site would not try to imitate the public space of the park (1), but create a different space, which might be in some respects less restricted than the public space of the park.
The main audience of the site would be people associated with the "Friends of Meridian Hill Park" and people living in the neighborhood. Also, the web site would be geared at people interested in Washington, DC history and, generally, in local and urban history, independent from where they live. The audience would be rather diverse, therefore, reflecting the diversity of the community visiting the park. The issue of community -- virtual community vs. real community - would be the crucial issue of the site - how can it build on the existing community of people interested in the park? How could the virtual community be extended beyond that community and ties maintained, so that it becomes a "real community."? (2). Since the issue of community is so crucial, the web site will only work - and be used - if it is developed in close collaboration with a diverse group of people interested in the park history.
At the center of the web site would be an interactive map of the park, where people could take virtual tours into history. The idea is to recreate the spatial experience of people moving across the park. People should be able to go over the map, click on specific places, such as "The Mall", and find further information on the history of the mall. This information would not necessarily be arranged chronologically, but could be arranged according to subjects, f.e.: "Concerts." The emphasis would be less on architectural history than on the social history of various places in the park, on how people used specific places and remember them. This could be, f. e. the memory of Dolores Tucker on people sleeping in the park at night in the summer, in the days before air conditioning. An essential part of these virtual trips into the history of specific places would be photographs. The idea with this exhibit is to combine little bits of information, which would be more associative than systematical. This information could be trivia as well as pieces of more "serious" scholarly history. The content of these tours would be frequently changed and/or altered.More systematic information on the history would be available through links from the home page (on a navigation bar on the left side of the web site). First, there will be a timeline on the history of the park. This timeline will be linked to passages in the site, as well as to other sites "outside" the site, f.e. sites on the "Enfant Plan of Washington, DC", sites on the "City Beautiful Movement" and sites on the history of the "white flight" in the 1950s. This timeline will also link to documents in the archive from the site, which will display materials such as maps of various phases of the construction.
In addition, the site will provide the opportunity to post essays, which would deal with the complex historical issues related to the park - such as the conflict between the federal government and the city over home rule and voting representation in congress - and how this struggle relates to the history of the park. Another important issue would be the history of segregation and racism in Washington, DC and the way it is reflected in the park history. The idea behind these essays, which would be presented rather traditionally as straight text with few links is to contextualize the information of the site. They will be traditional rather than genuinely digital essays because I thought - from looking at other sites, such as the "Citysites", that too much interactivity might be confusing for the visitor, who is already going through a virtual tour and an in-depth timeline.
In addition, there will be an archive as part of the site, arranged according to topics and material - an archive of the oral histories, documents and maps, press clippings and photos which have been collected by the 'Friends of Meridian Hill", and, in addition, with the material which is already available online.As an important part of the site, there will be a guest book and a survey, where people can add comments on and memories of the park. These comments, if appropriate, would eventually be included in the virtual tour of the park.
In addition, the site will contain information on navigation and a sitemap.
One of the features of the site will be the possibility to change between the history of the park at daytime and the history of the park during the night. These two web sites are structured as parallels. The virtual tours will be different during the night and during the day -- at night, there will be, for example, information on the night time concerts in the park and on the lighting system which was installed there at night in the 1930s and the controversies surrounding it. The day site would give memories of day time memories. Whereas the virtual tour will change between day and night, the timeline, essays and archive would stay the same. This alternation would make it possible to highlight certain features of the park, which were specifically designed for the night, f. e. the lightning arrangements at the cascades. Also, the night tour would enable it to deal with issues dealing with the perception of the park at night - the issue whether the park was dangerous a night, which has been raised before, and the issue of police patrols at night - and their perception.
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