'05 in Shreveport

This installation, "'05 in Shreveport," was featured in the University of Arizona student gallery as part of my Art Research Methods course.

The American South has a historical landscape of anti-Black racism juxtaposed against a strong Black cultural identity. As a millennial from Dallas, Texas, I have shared cultural experiences with other Black Southerners, as well as memories of life in the region as a child in
the 2000s.

The installation, centered around sound, utilizes five senses.

Sound
I interviewed multiple Black millennial Southerners about life as a child in the 2000s and created sound clips based on the memories we discussed. I used Ableton Live to construct the remembered soundscapes using bricolage, field recordings, and an original reenactment. I burned the recordings to CDs, the standard format of listening of the Y2K era.

Sight
The installation was constructed to resemble a Southern grandmother’s table. I set the materials on a white lace tablecloth, a typical decoration used by many women of that generation. The CDs were placed in boxes on green carpet (another popular decoration). I spray-painted the inside of the ordinary-looking boxes with a brilliant gold to visually represent two perspectives–that of the racist and the racialized.
A common response to racism in the South has always been personal pride. Carrying ourselves with confidence so that stereotypes and myths about Black people were not easily internalized is a method of combating discrimination. The gold paint also worked as a representation of what it might feel like to judge someone based on their outward appearance and find yourself sorely mistaken.

Taste & Smell
A near-unanimous memory in the interviews was the taste and smell of grandmother’s mints. I located the brand popular in the 2000s and placed them in a crystal bowl for participants to eat.

Touch
The installation included a CD player with headphones to play the CDs on and an mp3 player with files of local songs. The tactile
feeling of loading the player and holding the CD protectively invoked a forgotten memory of listening culture that harkened back to the 2000s in ways few senses can. Many participants joked that they either forgot or easily remembered the technique.