The digital artwork above incorporates a real life sculpture of Kiki and Mary Margaret's hands in front of a laser cut outline of a mountain range with a moon and sun on either side of its peaks.
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In this image, our hands appear to rise out of the red earth, creating a natural bridge in a gesture of friendship. Water flows from the point at which the fingers touch and a verdant, blossoming environment grows around this seemingly massive rock formation reminding us that the beauty of life can be found as much in our friendships as it can in our gardens. Digitally enhanced, the laser cut background for the sculpture illuminates this exuberant landscape like a neon sign, referencing both major cities across the globe and the technological world through which we are all connecting.
Our names are Mary Margaret and Kiki. Mary Margaret was born in New Orleans and grew up in Kentucky and Tennessee. Kiki was born and raised in Shenzhen, China. We met this semester at Teacher's College, Columbia University and we created this project for Prof. Richard Jochum's New Media, New Forms class to give other people a chance to "meet".
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The prompt for this project was simply to use digital arts to impact at least 25 people. We were left with deciding through what means and to what ends we wanted to impact others.
Meeting each other for the first time in this class, Kiki and MM were struck by the miracle of meeting another person from a completely different background and set of memories than one's self. We want to show others that through meeting and sharing stories with other people we get to explore our world and its meanings more deeply.
Perhaps you were born, raised, and continue to live in the same place. Or perhaps you have lived in many parts of the world and do not feel like you are "from" a specific area. Regardless, this is an opportunity for us all to appreciate our different backgrounds and celebrate the beauty of our connection through an interactive VR storytelling map.
Please enjoy exploring the world through the eyes of the many lovely people who have contributed! (All contributions were made via this Google Form)
Collective Memory Map
Hello and welcome to our collective memory map that spans across the globe
A Little about the Creators
We are two graduate students studying at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Contributors
Our deepest love and gratitude for our friends who contribute to this map
Ama Momah
Austin Koenig
Brendan
Cathy Satyal
Christine Obiamalu
Davidson Boswell
Dhyana
Emmanuel
Gabriella DiMeglio
Holly Gibbens
Jackie
Jee Eun (Esther) Jang
Jesse Ezra Shircliff
​Jessica Casale
Joe Hille
Kaleigh Johnson
Kendal O'Leary
Kendario Lapierre
Laurel Downie
Linda Brown
Lyn
Madison Marr
Maggie Macgregor
Margerat Chu
Nate
Paolo Sun
Talullah Ruff
Yajuan WU
Rebecca Wang