I just finished teaching a course as an Artist in Residence at the University of Dayton that offered an interdisciplinary approach to uncovering the history of  the UD Student Neighborhood, an area that was developed to be NCR worker housing in the early 1900’s.  The course was titled the Archaeology of a Neighborhood, and was designed to integrate arts into a S.E.E. program (Sustainability, Energy, and Environment) offering.      For the environmental component of the course, we looked at the environmental infrastructure of the area, and at UD’s connection and responsibilities to regional and global communities.

I am a documentary photographer, and have been learning how to create projects that have an audio component.    What I offered in the course was a look at the particular history of the neighborhood, and technical skills to create documentary images, research existing archives, record interviews with former residents using student laptops and reasonable quality microphones, edit audio in Audacity, and construct five to eight minute stories using Sound Slides.   Students came from a diverse range of academic backgrounds, including engineering, sociology, visual arts, and biology.  Most students in the class had a surprisingly easy facility in learning editing programs and constructing compelling projects.   In the process of designing and participating in this course, I learned about Dayton’s early history of innovation and invention, the very rich archives that exist at the U of Dayton and Dayton History, Inc. that includes the NCR archives, and got to hear the stories of multiple generations of people who lived in a particular place.

These tools are powerful.  Every community has a history to uncover, ideas to research, and stories to tell.  I am looking for creative ideas about discovering networks, access to funding, and collaborators, to continue this work in other places.