The identity in Newcastle Flickr Photostream
Here you’ll find a recording of 700 photos about identity in The North East of England that I took, uploaded, tagged, commented on, and categorised between 2010-2012.
The photostream shows how the categorisation of photos became an integral aspect of my project; selecting and ordering the photos so they made some kind of social scientific sense, placing them within a wider context. Creating a digital archive which aimed to capture some of the moments and signifiers of ‘identity’ in the North East during this time, now provides an interesting social history of that time. How many of these moments / sites are still there? If they’ve gone, what’s replaced them? (why do you think that is?)
Culture Shock was a digital storytelling project that started in 2005, and recorded over 550 different stories from people across The North East of England.
Read more about the origins and legacy of the project here: About The Culture Shock Project
The project was a joint partnership between many different museum and heritage organisation in the North East, but it is extensively housed and maintained by The Tyne and Wear Museum Trust. What you’ll find if you look at this project is a fantastic, extensive digital archive of memories, voices, experiences, cultural moments, celebrations etc. from the region.
I took part in this project in 2010, and created this video about the arrival of my son, and as a way of thinking about my own arrival and place in Newcastle:
Cultural Shock: Geordie’s Arrival Day Video
You can create a similar digital story using this software:
Lightworks Free film editing Software
or even with PowerPoint on Word using the voice over facility.
‘Prezzi’ Presentation on Urban Art in The North East
Between 2010 -2012 I conducted an ethnographic study of ‘Identity in The North East’, photographing anything I deemed interesting as a comment on ‘identity’. Urban Art in the North East became an incidental but main feature of the project, as my interests grew, I started to see how urban art itself fell into different categories, and with that, held different cultural values and said different things. I’m interested in the link between urban art and place, so what art might say about an area and why.
Have a look at this Prezzi Presentation, as see what you think:
‘Prezzi’ Presentation on Urban Art
Do you agree with my classifications of urban art? What have I left out? Can you add to the collection?
Further Reading:
If you’re interested in conducting a project like this, here’s some further reading:
Metro-Roland, M, Tourists, Signs and the City: The Semiotics of culture in an urban landscape, Ashgate Publishing, London: 2012
Tourists, signs and the city : the semiotics of culture in an urban landscape