Progress: April 21, 2010

As part of the Metropolis Blue Student Literary Programme, I gave a presentation on literary blogs for l'antenne Communication-Jeunesse de l'école Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry at the municipal library in Saint-Léonard. Over the course of our exploration, we talked about what sets a blog apart from a simple webpage. I emphasized the viral nature of the blog with its multitude of outward associative links. Also noted the facility in which you can classify, archive and navigate content using either intuitive key-words (tags) or the chronological ordering more akin to the journal format.

I briefly presented my Tongue Rug project and talked about how the blog/rug and posts/tongues act as a sort of memory device, a virtual archive. We discussed how the database capacities of blogging programs and other social media makes the Web the ideal tool for archiving. The City of Montreal has recently posted their archives on YouTube for instance (Les archives de Montréal plongent dans le web 2.0, Métro, April 6).

 

In this clip produced for the City of Montreal by Associated Screen News, we see a rather optimistic glimpse of the "modern city" in the late fifties: boxy cars in the streets, fruit and vegetables stands buzzing with people at the Marché Bonsecours and playgrounds teaming with energetic children on jungle bars. Woman in flouncy skirts and tramways in the streets. A window on another era.

 

CBC Digital Archives has had its own YouTube Channel since 2007. This CBC-TV clip about the ski-doo and its inventor, J. Armand Bombardier, brought back fond memories of winters at the cottage. My dad and my uncles would attach the toboggan to the back of the ski-doo, and on a few occasions, the old Ford. My cousins and I would pile on, holding on for dear life while they made sloppy donuts on the frozen expanses of Lac Panache.

 

Traditional museum displays take on another form via the web through interactive interfaces: Héritage Montréal's project — Memorable Montreal : Montréal en quartiers — features an interactive map of the Island with five off-circuits that are narrated with movie clips using archival photographs and videos: Little Italy, the Square Mile, Côte-des-Neiges, Dominion Square, La Fontaine Park and the Lachine Canal. Of particular interest to me was the section on all the bridges that span the St-Laurent, detailing the history, construction and protection actions of each structure. This site opened my eyes to the complexity of the structures that I have crossed many times on my bike: crossing the windy stretch of the Pont Champlain estacade or the Concordia Bridge, or cycling the vertiginous heights of the Jacques-Cartier will now be a richer experience knowing their varied histories.

The public can also participate in developing archival collections. La Société du Vieux-Port de Montréal is asking the general public for assistance in providing either old photographs or personal testimonials about everyday life in the Old Port of Montreal between the time period of 1930–1976 (Vieux-Port: À la recherche de son passé, Métro, April 21). On the Quais du Vieux-Port de Montréal website, you can learn more about the golden age of the Montreal port (1896–1930) by way of an interactive map with archival photos of Grain Elevator no 5, The Tugboat Daniel McAllister, the Refrigerated Warehouse and Hangar 16 among other historical points of interest.

In the past you had to book a visit in person to a library to conduct research. Though a visit is still an option, you can now access information in your own home as a free online resource. Just looking at the Bibliothèque et archives national du Québec and Library and Archives Canada web portals, it is apparent that never before has there been so much archival material at our disposal. These archives are an invaluable tool to understanding Montreal, a city in constant flux.

I wonder if this will result in renewed interest in local history and our shared heritage, especially if they are used as pedagogical tools with young people? The blog format itself has the potential to create unique collaborative projects, bringing individual and collective stories to the forefront.

An example of a successful collaborative site is Shorpy.com — the "100-year-old photo blog"— renowned for its archive made up of thousands of high-definition images spanning the 1850s to 1950s. The site's curious name is explained: Shorpy Higginbotham was a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Just browsing through the archive and reading the various comments from all over the world was a fascinating history course. I couldn't resist buying a reproduction of a photo of a Motor car, Canadian Government Colonization Co., Circa 1905. I particularly liked that the Shorpy archive can grow in an undetermined, open manner as members can share their own vintage photographs. It is an ongoing discussion and exchange on history, place and belonging.