9/11 Anniversary Exhibit: Part 6
After Hurricane Irene passes (so far, i’m not impressed, but I’m sure that’ll change tomorrow morning), I’ll be heading into my final full week of preparation for the Times’ 9/11 Remembered exhibit.
I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get the word out to our own newsroom in time for them to promote us, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. I got word this week that VII Photo Agency will be promoting the event, since a couple of their photographers are featured.
Last week I chose 20 of the photos from the exhibit to be featured in a Facebook gallery, which our social marketing team is managing. This week we hope to get approval from the photographers to use them.
I tested audio in our lobby for both the video that will be playing in the main corridor and the ambient sounds of the Freedom Tower workers that will play near the atrium alongside Damon Winters’ photographs. Other videos will have headphones attached to the monitors.
I want visitors to the exhibit to experience (or remember) the thoughts, feelings and sentiments that were so widespread across New York and the world. For instance, I remember on September 11, 2001, everyone was talking about how blue the sky was and how perfect the weather was that day. That week there was a feeling that our innocence was lost in the attacks. There was a feeling that we were all in this together. There were feelings of hopelessness mixed with a desire to “do something, anything.” I asked the newsroom to collect some quotes that capture these feelings from articles that will appear in the 9/11 Special Section. The newsroom delivered amazing quotes. I’m mixing these quotes with the printed photos and digital slideshows. These quotes, mixed with the visuals, will help transport people back to 2001, I think, by triggering our visual memories and our emotional memories.
The Times has been asking readers to submit artifacts from 9/11 that they have held on to. The Times is accepting photographs of the artifacts and, in some cases, readers are dropping off these artifacts for The Times to photograph. Last week the events team and I chose eight or nine of these artifacts to appear in a few display cases along the corridor.
I started art directing animation of the seven video slideshows that will appear in the exhibit. The video slideshows will appear on 50” and 52” LCD screens, hung both vertically and horizontally.
On Thursday I’ll be supervising the mounting of photographs on the 4’x8’ black gator boards. I’m really looking forward to that. That’s when all of my planning, my scale diagrams and time and effort start becoming reality.
