After reading much of the literature on digital ethnography and Assmann, Aleida’s literature on memory and cultural awareness, I became interested in how family history and heritage can be documented and preserved using digital means.
I find that many psychological or social problems arising from the family of origin of many young people in modern society may be alleviated by the collective memory of the clan. This subconscious mind, which relies on collective memory, can provide many positive influences. Therefore, the use of digital means to preserve and record clan history and cultural heritage can provide the younger generation with spiritual support from the clan.
I returned to my hometown in early April to conduct fieldwork and found that the oral histories of the elders were relatively well preserved and documented, but that little of the historic buildings and other heritage had been preserved. At the same time, it was combined with suggestions from family members that it was difficult for younger generations or family members in the field to access family history information. I decided to digitise the family history and create a meta-universe space program so that family members could view the information and add to it anytime, anywhere.
The strengths of this project are: 1. I have a foundation in visual arts and experience in constructing and restoring buildings, family crests, and other historical legacies of the family; 2. Family documents are well preserved, so it is easy to view and access the information at any time; 3. Elder members of the family have narratives of different periods of history, which facilitates the construction of a narrative logic; and 4. My hometown has a supportive stance towards the preservation of cultural heritage in digital form, with colleges and institutions that are a wealth of experience and talent.
The disadvantages are: 1. there is no physical cultural heritage, all need to be constructed through text or oral narratives, which is difficult; 2. the younger generation has almost no family identity, and it is difficult to find young narrative perspectives; 3. programming is a field I am not good at, and I need to find other people to work on it; and 4. the distribution of family members is more dispersed, and it is not possible to get a large amount of information in a short period of time.
In this regard, my research plan is as follows: to spend about 4-8 weeks collecting and organising documentary and oral information on the family and creating a database of this information in preparation for the later stages of the digital clan tree and the restoration of the clan’s heritage.
In the part of the family tree, I decided to proceed with the methodology of data visualisation in digital humanities to visually express the intricate character relationships of the clan in lines.
For the visual restoration, my first step of intervention was: to organise a mapping light event to restore the process of building and destroying the family clan temple at the site of the clan temple, welcoming every family member to participate as much as possible, and bringing everyone together to experience the process at the same time, so that they would develop a unified family identity. Step 2: Gather the feelings of all those present and ask them to share family narratives that they find interesting. Both processes are expected to take 4-8 weeks and will be realised in late June. Step 3: Reach out to local colleges and universities to include my clan history as part of their Huxiang Culture Meta-Cosmos system through a collaborative effort, which will save a lot of programming steps.
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