site(media)inc.

Launch Website

The memory factory is an online narrative documentary of Caribou Harbour, Pictou, Nova Scotia as told through the artifacts, memories and stories contributed by the community itself. The memory factory is a series of distinct chapters, released episodically, that together tell the many stories of a place. The memory factory is a creative place where the community materials are shared with artists and filmmakers, who in turn, produce an imaginative work for the web using photography, text, audio, and video. This participatory process builds compelling content with the support of professional artists and storytellers. It’s an interaction that underscores that the deepest collaborations are between people in the real world.

The memory factory is designed to narrate the story of Caribou Harbour for up to 24 initial episodes. Community contributions are collected regularly through live events (in the spirit of Antique Road Show) and the digital images are stored in a database that sorts content by type, theme and contributor and meta-tagging.

During the development stage, the artists/filmmaker collaborators will create several “beta stories” from selected objects from this archive to give an idea of the process.

In each webisode, the object becomes a point of departure for storytelling, imagination, speculation and transformation. Each resulting new media artwork is featured on the front page of the memory factory, as a distinct narrative, to be clicked through. With time, this collection of chapters builds along with an ever-expanding database of community contributions and a growing audience.

Once fully live, the site will feature regular episodes each organized around a distinct object.  Cumulatively, the episodes tell the resonant stories of change, adaptation and resilience.  These creative works offer a focused experience. They are where the ordinary becomes extraordinary; enduring gifts that may linger and last.

The project culminates with an experimental documentary installation created from these component parts. This becomes part of the collection of the Northumberland Fisheries Museum in Pictou and a film for gallery and festival distribution.

The collection process has begun. Among the objects already collected are a photographic archive documenting a demolished lobster factory, an envelope from 1878, a collection of teacups, Victorian needlepoint samplers, documentation of harbour buoys, and many stories that do not yet have objects.

The memory factory brings artists together with the Northumberland Fisheries Museum in Pictou, Nova Scotia and the people of Caribou Harbour past and present, to tell the stories of this special place.

We are asking anyone in the community – and beyond – to share with their stories and objects of interest that relate to Caribou Harbour. By objects we mean artifacts, antiques, memorabilia, photos, film, or even a just a stone, a pair of scissors, a letter, a quilt – anything goes! Any object, large or small, that holds a special story, memory or tale of Caribou Harbour.

It resembles Antique Road Show, except those who contribute are the experts, telling us what is important about their object and how it relates to Caribou Harbour. The memory factory is a dwelling space where a virtual landscape yields its stories. It strives for variety offering real characters, humor, knowledge and aesthetic excellence.

The audience is local and global. In Nova Scotia, the memory factory will extend its audience by linking to radio programs on local station CKEC and the CBC’s Maritime Noon that have already expressed an interest in following the project over time. Our partnership with the Northumberland Fisheries Museum remains fundamental to audience building in Nova Scotia.

We see the site as a place to build relationships with others involved in community storytelling internationally such as Daily Yonder and Feral Arts thus linking the Pictou community to a larger discourse on rural living.

A worldwide academic community involved in landscape research, folklore, material culture and regional economies will be targeted through viral campaigns using list serves such “landscape research” based in the UK. We will also be collaborating with an architectural student at University of Waterloo who intends to make land use issues in the harbour his graduate thesis.

We also see the on-line museum community as an avenue to expand awareness for our site.  While our initial objective is to build a realistic and robust design for this site we also envision the project evolving with audience interest and participation. We anticipate potential locative media applications and partnerships with entities such as Google Earth or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Services.

Project status

Research has commenced and several shooting days have been undertaken in the process of gathering oral histories. Site Media Inc. has an established relationship with the Northumberland Fisheries Museum who will administer the gathering of materials from the local community. An archive of photographs is developing including aerial and archival photographs as well as personal collections.  Newspaper and radio interviews about the project have lead to many contacts with individuals who wish to contribute their stories.  We have also contacted academics interested in the potential of this project.

Work will continue in the summer of 2008 and the goal is to have the project implemented by 2010.

Project Financing

Initial research and creation has been supported by SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) and through York University.

Financing is sought to accomplish the design, programming and implementation of the website. A budget of $75,000 has been projected for this and a production period of eight months.