Today I did another interview with a lady I met at a talk. I was invited to her house, which is always lovely to be invited in to someones home.
I was feeling a bit down in the dumps about my research today and feeling overwhelmed with all the tasks I need to do, but when we started talking before the interview I remembered why I enjoy doing it. People just open up and love telling stories about their lives, even to relative strangers. We talked about how it’s important to record these memories no matter how big or small or even if they are just recollections that someone has even if they are not entirely correct…it’s what they have been told and it’s their memory and to lose them would be really sad.
I overstayed my time there, but I was made to feel so welcome and shown more objects and memories and invited back to talk to her husband in a months time.
I realised as much as my research is to make objects from people’s memories, it also seems to be about making new relationships as well. I feel as though I left there happy and excited to go back and talk some more. We found common ground and I felt as though I walked in a researcher and out as more of a friend. I like the idea that my research is also building new relationships too.
It has made me feel like this afternoon I can go and get on with some of the other bits I need to. A bit more empowered and confident in my idea. A bit more that actually what I am creating is a bank of original memories that may well have been lost unless they had been captured.
A Matter of Artefact 