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| Jin's Prospectus
Dreaming of Islands.
Miriam Kahn observes that postcard images of Tahiti are strictly controlled, so that they present the "correct" picture of life in paradise. I'd like to folow up on her work and look at present postcard images prepared for tourists. How will those commercial images compare with mine? They'll be more professional and "better," of couse, but will they be about different aspects of island life?
Background. The history of the South Pacific islands
as Eden, as restoration, as paradise, is a long one, beginning with
the first travelers to the area. Bougainville called Tahiti, La Nouvelle
Cythere, the new Cythera, birthplace of Venus. Wallis tried to keep
the “discovery” a secret, then Bougainville’s crew
started talking, and later, the crew of Bounty passed the word around
about Tahitian women. Resources. In addition to the reading that I continue
to do, I’ve got the materials I need for documentation. I’ll
photograph, try to do some sketching that is meaningful to me, and record
my inquiries and experiences. I will have a digital and 35mm camera,
and Sally will have the equipment we need for our collaborative project.
Following Kahn's lead, I'll collect postcard images of Huahine, Tahiti
and Raiatea to use in my reflections--ways in which they confirm or
contradict my own experience. What I’ll need on the island is
time and quiet and the will to work on this every day. The study. I expect to write every day, and continue
reading. I expect to document visually every day. When I return, I will
look at the materials I’ve created and think about what it all
means to my travel, to my island study—in other words, in the
big scheme of things. I want to tie my own study into the work of those
who have gone before—to somehow connect my work to theirs. Working
with Sally onour mutual documentation of the island will help me see
my own responses more clearly. Timeline. On Huahine, my daily workwill be reading
and documenting. On Tahiti-Iti and Raiatea, I'll be reflecting onthe
Huahine time and making comparisons. On return to Olympia, I’ll
first take a week read over my writing, and pore over my visual documentation;
the next week will be spent thinking, with a little writing/note taking;
the final two weeks I’ll write and organize the presentation.
Taking the time to think will be the hard part. Form. Good question. Maybe something like Lawrence Sutin’s A Postcard Memoir (2000) that uses postcard images as a prompt for his memories? He says: "It came about that certain memories of mine began to seep into certain postcards, there to remain like bugs in amber. Other postcards challenged me to come out after them and fight like a writer, which I did, realizing, accidentally again, that they were egging me on through the stations of my life." (3)
Partial Reading list DeBotton, Alain. The Art of Travel Khan, Miriam. "Tahiti Intertwined: Ancestral Land, Tourist Postcard,
and Nuclear Test Site." American Anthropologist. 102 no1. 7-26
(March, 2000) |
