Abby Marie Chryst
Creative Project Proposal
MFA . graphic design
Resurfacing Derelict Histories Through Juxtapositions of the Past and Present
“I look at Haile Plantation and think how strange it is that people don’t know that they’re living on top of an old slave cemetery.”
Considerations - Ethnography
For the past one and a half years, I have lived near Haile Plantation (HP), and have been a docent at the remaining historic Haile Plantation Homestead (HPH). All that remains of the original plantation structures, including two barns, a smokehouse, a kitchen, a caretaker’s home, and eighteen slave cabins is the homestead of Thomas and Serena Haile, the once plantation owners.
- Thick Description - Physicality of place - visual / spatial - Being in and walking through a space - noise - sounds - absence of sound / noise - Connection - Interaction within and with a space - Multisensory experiences - time based (2,3,4 dimensional) - Travel - all-inclusive hotels - all-inclusive communities - small rural towns - unfamiliarity - Spectacle - Traveler - work and research driven - Tourist - relaxation / vacation driven - Scale
Key Concepts - Borders - Social / collective memories - Identity - History - Evolution / transformation of place - Site context: - periphery - center - interior - exterior - absence - presence
Thomas and Serena, moved from Camden, South Carolina to Gainesville in 1854 and the homestead was built entirely by enslaved laborers and finished by 1856. The architectural remnants are a mixture of Greek Revival, Georgian, and Cracker style architecture. The plantation’s main purpose was to produce Sea Island cotton, which was one of the nicest and most expensive varieties of cotton at this time. Thomas and three of his brothers all owned plantations in Gainesville in close proximity to each other. In total, they had acquired almost 400 slaves, and 66 were living on Thomas and Serena’s property within 18 slave dwellings (cabins) according to the 1860 census. Serena Haile has written in her diary about the informal slave cemetery in “the field,” which was to the north of the plantation homestead, where the existing Haile Plantation sub-division (HPS) now stands. The much newer HPS was developed in the late 1970’s and construction began in the early 1980’s. The idea was to create a “new urbanist” ideal of community, where neighborhoods would interconnect and in the center would be a town village. Here, inhabitants could buy groceries, go to church, eat dinner, and take walks, all with being inside of a “compound” of sorts. I find this intriguing, since most American neighborhoods developed this way, and since the advent of suburban sprawl, neighborhoods have negated such aspects. Wikipedia defines new urbanism as: “ New Urbanism is an urban design movement that arose in the United States in the early 1980s. Its goal is to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning, from urban retrofits to suburban infill. New urbanist neighborhoods are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs, and to be walkable. New Urbanism can include (neo) traditional neighborhood design, transitoriented development, and New Pedestrian ism. New Urbanism is the re-invention of the old urbanism, commonly seen before the advent of the automobile age. ” -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_urbanism
Another example of new urbanism may be found in Celebration, Florida, which was developed by Disney. While HPS may offer a wider arrangement of housing options, it is clearly a manufactured place. HPS is constructed along a different set of principles than the early 20th century, but tries to emulate this sort of quaintness, known at the time in America, mixed with southern eloquence. This, along with keeping certain “others” out, is quite possibly the only thing that the HPS has in common with the HPH, except for the cost of living, which is quite high, around $150,000 to $250,000 middle of the line American pricing standards. The HPS also includes a country club, as well as homeowners fees. On saturdays, they host a “Farmer’s Market,” which is supposed to be reminiscent of farmer’s road side stands. At the HPS, farmers from all over, especially Ocala, and High Springs come into town and set up market in the middle of the village center, and people who live inside come out and buy plants, jewelry, pottery, etc. It seems as if once you enter you never need to leave, everything you want and need is supposedly at your fingertips. It sounds like something straight out of Stepford. During the time that I have been investigating HP, I have become increasingly interested in exploring connections between the HPH and the HPS. During this time, I have observed the following: 1. People who live inside of HPS do not know much about the history of the land, and likewise seem apathetic to learning about this history. 2. The HPH is hidden from visible viewing, and the only original structure remaining is the plantation home, which can be seen physically; but there are remnants of sub structures in backyards and on property now inside of the HPS. 3. The identity of the HPS (including signage and language use, etc.) points to an idyllic place, with no reference to slavery or other conflicts. This deep seeded history has seemed to be negated, or erased from the site. This place (HPS) is a psuedo place, whose only real connection to the original HPH is the name “Haile Plantation.” The street signage does not even correlate except for one reference made to one of the Haile’s son’s names, Evans.
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Abby Marie Chryst Creative Project Proposal
MFA . graphic design
This region (Gainesville and Alachua County), was at the southernmost portion of the Antebellum United States during The War Between the States, (1861-1865). Haile Plantation is one of a handful of the surviving Antebellum homes in North Florida.
While this is apparent in HPS, this erasure or burying of the past seems to be a common theme in this region.
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Question Using HP as a point of departure I will explore the identity of place specifically the point or process of erasure between the historical past and present.
Methods To do this, I will take an ethnographic approach utilizing thick descriptions to explore my question. This will consist of interviews, both verbal, oral and written; conducted with inhabitants of HPS, visitors to the HPH, HPH docents, Karen Kirkman, the president of the Historic Haile Homestead (HHH), Melanie Barr, a historic preservationist in Gainesville, The Pleasant Street Historic Society, Mrs. Peggy Haile Thomas, who is a Haile descendant and lives in Lakeland, (I am hoping to do an oral history interview with her, Karen introduced me to her), students who go to UF, people who live in surrounding neighborhoods by HP, and people who live in minority commuities in Gainesville, the Chestnut’s funeral Home, (the descendants of a former enslaved laborer, Johnson Chestnut, own this), and possibly descendants from other once enslaved laborers who live in Gainesville / Alachua County. “ From one point of view, that of the textbook, doing ethnography is establishing rapport, selecting informants, transcribing texts, taking genealogies, mapping fields, keep ing a diary and so on. But it is not these things, techniques and received procedures, that define the enterprise. What defines it is the kind of intellectual effort it is: an elaborate venture in “thick description.” “ The aim is to draw large conclusions from small, but very densely textured facts; to support broad assertions about the role of culture in the construction of collective life by engaging them exactly with complex specifics.” “Analysis, then, is sorting out the structures of signification.”
- Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures
I am proposing and will accomplish the following within the scope of my research:
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- Ethnographic viewpoints - Researching layers Books: - Records - Found documentation Documentation: - Artifacts - Photographs - Written Report(s) - Antecedents - Other Research (books, dialogues, conversations) IRB.ufl.edu (documentation) Blog to hold documentation and receive feedback
Sub Problems / Questions Sub topics, questions, and problems I will investigate: - How do people perceive Haile Plantation as a place? - What is a border? (In the context of the HPS) - What defines this border? - What defines this place? - What does it mean and to whom? - Where and when do juxtapositions overlap similarities within the two forms of the HPH and the HPS?
What the Project is / Delimitations This project is a visual, verbal, and spatial investigation of space and the meaning of place. I will explore how these topics can be investigated to create rich and diverse interpretations of research findings for the formal project. I will investigate personal experiences, perceptions, and collective histories through thick descriptions, collected interviews, questions, video, sound, photography, and time based media. “ Ethnogrpahy is a research strategy, created by anthropolo gists, that focuses on the link between human behaviors and culture.” “ Ethnographic researchers, try to focus their efforts on understanding the internal, or emic, perspective of the community, using etic (defining cultural phenomena from the perspective of the individual who is not a participant of the community under study) perspectives only to augment the data gathered by the emic study. “
Research Methods: - Gathering oral, written, and video documentation / interviews
Design thinking: ways to communicate this information
For the past year-and-a-half of my graduate studies, I have also been working with Mayan artisans in Mexico. During Spring 08-09, I have conducted ethnographic research in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Many of the same issues surrounding Haile Plantation have occured here, but in a very
Thick descriptions: - Telling the story of the place - Telling the history and meaning of the place
- Jenn and Ken visocky O’Grady, A Designer’s research Manual
Antecedents / Precedents:
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Abby Marie Chryst Creative Project Proposal
MFA . graphic design
different context in the Yucatan. I can extrapolate from this ethnographic research, as well as from other references, a thick description of place which I can use to investigate such questions as listed above. This and other topics such as border issues, context surrounding identity, meaning of place, and how a place can be moved, transformed, and built on top of. I will also be looking at how connotations surrounding a place create unwritten boundaries both mental and physical. I would like to incorporate research about borders into my investigations, because I feel that they have an important impact on the idea of “place,” and I feel that we, as humans, usually enter into places and spaces that we are either familiar with or that we feel comfortable in. Within this sub topic I will investigate the question of what creates these personal boundaries. Other antecedents to my research would be that of Karen Kirkman, and Melanie Barr from the HPH. Karen Kirkman is the president of the HPH as mentioned previously, and she has been transcribing Serena Haile’s personal diary, as well as the “Talking Walls” within the physical place of HPH. (There is text written all over the walls of the original HPH). She will be publishing these as well as Serena Haile’s personal finishing school diary. She has been working in an ethnographic manner, conducting oral history research as well as collecting other written documentation from either the enslaved peoples’ descendants and or Haile family descendants. The American Slave Narratives, are a collection of oral histories from between 1936 and 1938 that documents former slaves’ histories. Also along these lines is The American Memory Project which the Library of congress has headed off. This project is an ongoing collection of histories of Americans that covers any topic imaginable, from government and politics to civil rights, women’s history as well as advertising, wars, etc. - http://infotree.library.ohiou.edu/bysubject/humanities/history/oral-history/
Importance of Study This project is important for the simple fact that we as a society should know and be able to understand what happened in our country and around the world, and should therefore not be ignorant and apathetic to the social responsibility of being well educated and learning from our past. As a society and a world, whether these collective memories, issues, and places be happy, sad, horrific, or terrifying; we owe it to ourselves to understand what happened and to learn about ourselves and each other for the good of our collective futures. Without this knowledge, the general knowledge of who we are and what we constitute is lost, and this is why my project and research are important to study learn, and develop from. My project is also important in the design realm, because in many design fields, ethnographic research is not conducted and in fact is not even thought about. Ethnographic research within Graphic Design is a relatively new concept. Many times, this kind of design process comes in to play as a seperate entity, if at all, rather than engaging the history of a site, a place,
or a people, and this meaning from previous histories is then forgotten, not cared about, and especially not known about. This also creates a large void in the design process, as well as creating disparity between what existed previously and what is now “replacing” rather than adding to the previous forms, designs, spaces, and places. This new design then has no context because it did not draw from any previous context. This lack creates a break in the dialogue and communication between the two. My goal as a professional designer, both of physical objects, space, place, and surface is to merge different types of design, and to uncover these derelict histories. If this does not occur, our history as a people and a society will be lost because there will be no remnants. And if remnants still exist, what will there story be if no one cares, and especially if no one knows? This kind of ethnographic, design research and documentation of both physical, written, and visual processes will make sure that these histories are never completely forgotten.
Evaluation This project will be evaluated on the following criteria:
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Visual dynamics of the expression of place and space. Connections between the visual, oral, and written (connections between the different design mediums). The overall experience of the viewer, (possibly having an opportunity to give the viewer a chance to write about their experiences and document the space (the research, the visuals, the orals, and the works).
Assumptions 1. First and foremost, I am assuming that I will find open minded individuals who will answer my questions, and be willing to either talk about their experiences, or give me information that is “usable” and insightful for my research. 2. I’m not sure what kinds of repsonses I will receive, but I am assuming I will engage a wide range of audiences, and hopefully a wide range of repsonses. 3. I’m assuming I will meet certain people who will want no part in my research and not want to participate. 4. I’m assuming that I will not be able to gain many responses from descendants of slaves, becasue they will be reluctant to talk with me. 5. I am assuming that I will not always receive the full truth, and that certain parts may be negated, or left out purposely, so as to bury the past. 6. I am assuming that I will succeed in resurfacing an old and derelict history.
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Abby Marie Chryst Creative Project Proposal
MFA . graphic design
7. I assume that through my connections with Karen Kirkman, I will be able to gain the trust of individuals who already know and trust her. 8. I am assuming that there will still be people who are apa thetic to the rich history and that they will not want to learn about this area’s historic past, and will continue to bury these histories.
Methodology / Timeline 4.29.2009
(Definition) Initial project proposal turned in to committee.
5.1 – 8.15
Project research, development of questions for interviews, and IRB approval paperwork, (research interviews begin in August).
8.15 – 9.30 10.1 – 11.1
11.2 – 12.4
Collection of research by interviews, books, oral histories, photographs, video. Committee meeting sometime in here. Another committee meeting within this timeframe for review, researching supporting case studies / antecedents, continued collecting, and beginning to combine mediums. (Design) Last committee meeting before end of semester, plan for continued project and make sure direction is clear, continued combining of mediums, and working with all collected data to form a coherent for mulation for final project. (Refinement).
12.5 – 1.5
Winter break: PRODUCTION
12.6 – 1.15
Meeting with committee to discuss progress, formulating all research into a coherent written document.
1.16 – 2.16
Meeting with committee, discuss relationship between written documentation and setup of visual and physical project.
2.17 – 3. 15
Committee meeting to discuss revisions, and final work, any final production issues need to be resolved.
3.16 – 4.1
Final revisions of paper (due to committee chair on 4.1.2010). MFA Project in Lieu of Thesis exhibition.
4.2 – End
Paper submission to the graduate school.
5.1 – 5.3
COMMENCEMENT!!!
Bibliography / Initial Source List Anzaldua, Gloria. (1999). Borderlands: La Frontera The New Mestiza. San Francisco : Spinsters/Aunt Lute, (c1987). Bachelard, Gaston. (1969). The Poetics of Space. Boston: Beacon Press. Boorstin, Daniel J. (1961). The Image: A Guide to Pseudo- Events in America. New York: Atheneum. Brevard, Caroline Mays. (1924) A History of Florida From The Treaty of 1763 To Our Times. Deland, FL: The Florida State Historical Society. Burns, Carol J. and Andrea Kahn. (2005). Site Matters: Design Concepts, Histories, and Strategies. New York: Routledge. Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw. (1995). Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Floyd, Julia. (1973). Slavery and Plantation Growth in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1860. Gainesville: Univer sity of Florida Press. Geertz, Clifford. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic books, Inc., Publishers. Laurel, Brenda. (2003). Design Research: Methods and Perspectives. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Lippard, Lucy R. (1997) The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered society. New York: New Press. Montezemolo, Fiamma, Rene Peralta, and Heriberto Yepez. (2005). Here is Tijuana! London: Black Dog Publishing. Visocky O’Grady, Jenn and Ken. (2008). The Information Design Handbook. Cincinnati, Ohio: F+W Publications, Inc. Wynne, Lewis N. , and John T. Parks. (2004). Florida’s Antebellum Homes. Arcadia Publishing. http://www.aclib.us/research/local-history (Alachua County Library Heritage Collection) great online source for images, etc.
Other Sources and Places for Research I Have Collected Are
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Card index of Obituaries Geneological records from different countries/states, @ the Univ. of FL Online - UF collection: - P.K. Young (you can take photos and notes here libsite
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Abby Marie Chryst Creative Project Proposal
MFA . graphic design
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Savage and Haile Cotton Ledgers Matheson Library: - They also have rare Alachua County History here. UF Library queried online Ancestry.com (but it is a pay site) Familysearch.org, run by Latter day Saints, they have marriage and census: data, births and deaths, etc. - Alachua County Clerk of Court - Ancient Records - Census Data - Deeds - County Commission - Wills Platmaps (old) Alachua County Library: - Family Heritage Collection (photographs) State of Florida Archives: - Florida Photographic Heritage Collection - (from all over the state, can query this) Downtown Library in Gainesville: - Microfilm (can print these for free) Rare Books of alachua County Karen Kirkman: President of the HHH (Historic Haile Homestead) Melanie Barr: Historic Preservation Consultant.
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