http://blog.sfmoma.org/2009/07/what-we-leave-behind-new-narratives-in-a-queer-archive/ ....................................................................."That bottle keeps its blink on its side red from horizon." Clark Coolidge...................................... Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:51:13 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blog.sfmoma.org/2009/07/what-we-leave-behind-new-narratives-in-a-queer-archive/comment-page-1/#comment-15586 suzanne snyder-carroll Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:53:06 +0000 http://blog.sfmoma.org/?p=3532#comment-15586 Adrienne, I'm fascinated by the archival project and impressed, extremely impressed with your analysis and insights. Just wanted to let you know that I use to do something sort of like this when I was teaching high school creative writing. I'd stash a myriad of unrelated objects that I'd find around my house into a, yes, cardboard box and hall it into the classroom and put it on a table in the front of the room. One by one the students would take an object from the box, inspect it, show it to the class, and line it up on the table. When everything was out of the box, the students would have to create a character and plot about someone who would've owned all of these things. I must've done this activity fifteen to twenty times over the years with different groups of students and what blew my mind when I was reading your blog was that the cast of characters and the conflicts they faced, as imagined by the teen writers, were astoundingly varied and rich, - each one so very different from any of the others - yet all of the objects in the box were really mine, my archive. So what they created was in some essential way about me. It was a visualization of who I was based on concrete examples of what I owned and valued and loved. I wish now I would've kept those pieces of writing. They might've served as inspiration as I reinvent myself again and again, as life moves on, and before someone else has to load the last of my junk into a cardboard box. Also, I wish I could visit the exhibition and see you. Keep up the good work! Adrienne, I’m fascinated by the archival project and impressed, extremely impressed with your analysis and insights. Just wanted to let you know that I use to do something sort of like this when I was teaching high school creative writing. I’d stash a myriad of unrelated objects that I’d find around my house into a, yes, cardboard box and hall it into the classroom and put it on a table in the front of the room. One by one the students would take an object from the box, inspect it, show it to the class, and line it up on the table. When everything was out of the box, the students would have to create a character and plot about someone who would’ve owned all of these things. I must’ve done this activity fifteen to twenty times over the years with different groups of students and what blew my mind when I was reading your blog was that the cast of characters and the conflicts they faced, as imagined by the teen writers, were astoundingly varied and rich, – each one so very different from any of the others – yet all of the objects in the box were really mine, my archive. So what they created was in some essential way about me. It was a visualization of who I was based on concrete examples of what I owned and valued and loved. I wish now I would’ve kept those pieces of writing. They might’ve served as inspiration as I reinvent myself again and again, as life moves on, and before someone else has to load the last of my junk into a cardboard box. Also, I wish I could visit the exhibition and see you. Keep up the good work!

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