6-8 May 2005, MIT4 Media in Transition: The Work of Stories, Boston
"Home is where my mother waits every evening for everybody to come back before locking the door and I know it doesn't matter how late I might be, I will never be locked out because home is about having this certainty." (Aida Berxholi , Moscow)
The trAce Online Writing Centre has been on the web since 1995 and in that time has hosted a compelling series of international writing projects featuring narrative snapshots of everyday life. The Noon Quilt (website 1998, book 1999) is a patchwork of noontime impressions from contributors in many countries. Lost (1999) by New York-based net artist Alan Sondheim, is a simply-made but intense collection of 'splits, disappearance, loss and trembling'. Home (2000) is visually very basic and seldom promoted but has nevertheless been quietly collecting memories and imaginings of home for four years. Migrating Memories (2001), for the Culture 2000 Programme of the European Union, gathered and translated personal narratives from asylum seekers and refugees now living in Sweden, Finland and Great Britain. In 2004 The British Council commissioned a Dawn Quilt for South Asia, connecting writers in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, and 2005 will see a Quilt for Central and Eastern Europe embracing Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary, Romania, and Russia. This presentation will analyse the universality of these voices from everywhere and examine the stories contributors tell about themselves and their everyday lives.
