The Virtual Past

Yes, this is the same proposal as on Linda’s blog….

Priya Chhaya & Linda Neylon

History in the Digital Age

Final Project Description

Our intention in this final project is to develop a collection site for American University which displays text and images relating to student life and the history of the university. The primary audience is the AU community—which includes students former, current, or perspective, faculty and staff while secondary audiences depending on the collections developed can include researchers on local history and university campus life. To some extent the intent of the site is to provide a place of reflection and to get primary source information about the role of American University in local and student life.

Organizationally, the site will be modeled after the North Carolina State College of Engineering Collecting site [http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/news/memories/index.html] with two separate sections to view and share memories. The view memory section will be divided up based on years, while the share memories will include an e-mail address/web space where text and/or image files can be sent. We shall use a combination of Dreamweaver and Photoshop to build this website using principles described in the Digital History text to make sure that it is both visually appealing and easy to navigate. In terms of design, the intention is to have a core main page which is simple, and has a sample of the collection within while the subsidiary sections provide other examples as well as easy to follow instructions for submissions. In addition, we are thinking about attaching a survey for visitors to tell us why they visited the site including citation information to encourage researchers to use to cite for academic information. Images of AU’s history will also be integrated in order to aid in survey collections as a memory prompt for visitors to the site.

The way this site will impact our personal and professional goals is two fold. On one hand it is a practice in Public History—impacting and serving a unique audience in a particular way. On the other hand it allows for the development of a local history archive, especially many of the American University students went to work and participated in a variety of events in and around the city. At present, there isn’t a distinct argument regarding the site, but perhaps we can say that through the resource we hope to collect we will show the importance and variety of ways in which AU impacted individuals, the city and maybe even the nation.

Here’s a link to my practice webpage: The London Eye.

Alright,

I had trouble getting to a lab (travel issues, meetings etc all conspired to get in my way). Instead what i’m going to put up are some images from my trip to London as well as one image that I manipulated for an old website that I had….

This first image is of the London Underground tube alert map not long after the second set of bombings this past summer. When I initially brought it on my computer the image was a little blurry, so using Photoshop at a friends place I sharpened it a little. The image file is actually quite large, so in posting it, I also cut the size down from roughly 1000×1500 to 486×648.

This second image is one that I thought was cool, because of the meaning behind the image. Its from a Fourth of July night cruise I took with my flatmates on the Thames. The interesting about it was that we were on a boat flying a flag from Austrailia.

Finally, this is an image that I was messing with from one of my first websites. Obviously the basis was the London Underground Tube map–but in place of the central blue bar, I had the blade of a red lightsaber…. This image however was constructed in Microsoft Paint, so isn’t quite as clear as I would like it to be.