This course explores the ways in which objects and material culture embody personal narrative. Moving back and forth from ephemeral traces of events and experiences to the culturally invested luxury goods that create legacy to the objects that facilitate daily life, this class will use, as its primary references, examples that draw from queer and African American cultures to underscore the potential of objects to tell the stories that not only reflect majority traditions and experiences but those of the disenfranchised, the details of whose lives are often obscured. In addition to readings that will provide background for class discussion, student will be asked to play the roles of detectives, archeologists, and curators at various sites around New York City. Each student will also be asked to create an annotated material record that reveals the public and private lives of one individual. That record may consist of texts, objects or any variety of media chosen or designed by the student. This blogs serves as an archive for the work done in the context of this course and related materials that become relevant to this exploration.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

http://www.thebody.com/content/75170/in-south-florida-aids-museum-looks-backward-and-fo.html

The World AIDs Museum and Educational Center will have its grad opening in Florida on December 2nd which is the day after world AIDs day. The museum is the first museum dedicated to AIDs. Which raises a lot of questions in my mind. Why did it take so long for one of the most deadly diseases to be recognized in this way? Which lead me to think, what makes AIDs deserving of a museum when other diseases like cancer would almost feel strange in that setting. The answer was instant. AIDs was as much a social epidemic as it was a medical one. Homosexuality could no longer be ignored and suddenly people were being humanized through their own suffering. AIDs as a disease brought more attention and compassion than a lifetime of hate. Which makes this museum as much a museum about gay experience and culture as it does medicine and disease.

Posted by Briana Lynch
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