Preparing to pass this project on to the City. — Meeting with Mayor Elicker To realise this project, it is key to have support from the Mayor’s office. And so, we met with Mayor Elicker to discuss our work so far last Thursday. We presented our findings from the conversations we had with residents of New Haven, and emphasized that all preliminary ideas were…

Longevity. — Preparing our Presentation Materials This week we are preparing for a discussion with the Mayor about the memorial project. For this to become a reality, it is essential to have his support and feedback. …

Reflections on diversity and our path forward. — Last Wednesday, we met with several New Haven community leaders and City of New Haven officials to present our ideas about possible memorials. We identified the 4 key possible directions (discussed in Week 6) of what a memorial for COVID-19 might look like. …

Framing our designs. — This week our team prepared for the meeting we are hosting on Wednesday, July 15 with city officials and community leaders. We have been finalizing materials for our preliminary design ideas and strategizing how to communicate these ideas in a manner that will set the stage for discussion and collaboration…

A pivot towards design. — After over a month of focusing on outreach, we have turned our attention towards design in advance of our next client meeting. We’re hopeful that in presenting concrete design solutions, we are able to gather substantive feedback from the city, community leaders, and residents on which ideas work and which…

Midpoint Updates — Meeting with the City On Wednesday, we had our midpoint client check-in with the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs. The meeting provided us with feedback and momentum to continue pushing this project forward. In the meeting, we presented [slides here] a summary of our work so far. We delineated how we went from our…

How do we redefine our role? How does this recontextualize “memorial”? — We were originally tasked to use design to memorialize those lost to the pandemic and our collective memory of this crisis. …

Defining “Memorial” and What It Means for the City of New Haven. — A question that has guided our design and research process is ‘how do we define a memorial, especially one that is at a cross-section of ongoing issues?’ One of our mentors told us this week to embrace the approach of “curating, not designing.” …

How can we design a memorial that reflects on injustice? — A project co-sponsored by the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media and Atelier Cho Thompson. Hello, we are a team of Yale College and Graduate students working in partnership with the City of New Haven. Our project began as a digital and physical memorial for the city’s experience with…