Archive photo tagging and collage

Today's session focussed on tagging archive photos sourced from The Argus Archive, via The Keep, Brighton and Hove Royal Pavilion and Museums, QueenSpark Books, Brighton and Hove Photographic Collection (http://www.photosbrightonandhove.org.uk/) as well as beginning to research video material from Screen Archive South East.

In previous sessions we have been using Google sheets to create a shared document that provides all the data for the app. The app developers will use this to link photos, keywords, locations etc to the edited oral histories. Paul Farrington will also be using it to edit the sound files from the pupils selections - they have noted down the time-codes and provided a key "quote' that the will be used in the app. 

GIDDY GOOGLE SHEET DOCUMENT

For the final exhibition and website I'll be editing together a series of films linked to out themes combining different oral histories and archive film footage. The group will help make decisions about what oral histories to include and what video material to use. Today the group rotated around a series of tasks:

1. Looking at video footage from Screen Archive Southeast's material and making links between this material and our themes: Love and Romance, Friendship, Music and Dancing, Fashion and Identity, Pastimes. 

2.Collating the audio clips into groups related to the different themes.

3. Tagging the photos using the tag words already identified:

 LOVE                    WAR             MUSIC

LOSS            DANCING                IDENTITY

FASHION                 SUBCULTURES

MONEY                    CRIME                      MISCHIEF

BEACH                                 CINEMA       WORK

CHILDHOOD                       VENUES

PASTIMES               FRIENDSHIP

HOME

4. Making collages linked to the above tags using the archive photographs from The Brighton Museum, Argus Archive, and Queenspark Book community photo archive. We looked at the artist John Stezaker's work for inspiration, here are some examples of the pupils fantastic collages: 

Memory day at Larchwood Care Home

Today was the final memory day and took place at Larchwood Care home, Coldean, Brighton. We had a smaller group of students today as we knew it was likely we might only have a few participants and our approach might need more sensitivity as potentially we were meeting the eldest of our older participants. 

We met with the resident student occupational therapists whose role it was to visit the residents of the care home and invite them to participate. They were also able inform us about anything we might need to know about the participants and in some cases they would support the students in the interviews if they thought it was necessary.

Over the day we heard many lovely memories including stories about Brighton's first ever youth club, what went on in the love seats of the Regent Cinema, learning to dance at The Court school of dancing and tales of borrowing £5 to get married.  

Courtesy of Eileen Odom

Giddy Memory Day at Longhill School

Today we had our penultimate memory day at Longhill school. We had residents of Brighton, former students of Longhill as well as some Longhill staff members coming to share their memories.

More portraits of more fabulous Giddy characters to add to our collection

We heard stories of finding jiving at the Regent ballroom and one man recognised himself in a photo someone had brought to a previous memory day, that he's seen on Facebook. 

He told us how he met his future wive there and told us about the etiquette of dance halls in the 50's and what it felt like to approach someone to ask them to dance hoping you wouldn't be rejected!

We heard from a staff member who found first love at aged 13 in Preston Park only to have the romance disallowed by her parents. Over forty years later they were reunited when he emailed her out of the blue, they are still together!