The sound and video installation located in the stairwell shaft of the Eldridge Street Synagogue has been completed. The installation was open from May 2000 through December 2003 and was seen by more than 30,000 visitors to the synagogue in that time.

The first phase of development for the story sharing web project has received support from the Covenant Foundation from January 2003 to June 2004. Individually, Hana Iverson received a grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for the 2002/2003 cycle.

What was successfully accomplished with this funding:

• A story gathering prototype including an early version of the image annotation application , installed at the Eldridge Street Project, open for limited user testing.
  
  
• Prototypes
  
  • View from the Balcony Map Slider
    Click here to view the Map Slider
    (This presentation is optimixed for PC's only)
    
    
  • Three events/projects:
    • Jan. 2003 - April 2003
      Manhattan Academy of Technology
      MAT is a middle school located in the heart of Chinatown and a few blocks away from the Eldridge Street Synagogue. Hana Iverson was selected as their artist-in-the-school through a New York Foundation for the Arts program. She worked with Greg Elin to develop digital albums as part of their oral history curriculum.
      Project Photos 1
      Project Photos 2
      
      
    • May 11, 2003
      Streets of Gold, Women of Iron
      The Eldridge Street Synagogue
      Stories from all generations and ethnicities, celebrating immigrant women - all over America and specifically the Lower East Side. Participants were assisted with loading and annotating their photos into an on-site computer station.
      Project Photos 1
      Project Photos 2
      
      
    • October 26, 2003
      Poetry Slam
      The Eldridge Street Project
      Poems on the theme of "Photographs and Memories." Writers 65 and older submitted photographs and writing that were loaded into image-annotation software and displayed as a background during the "slam".
      Project Photos 1
      Project Photos 2
      
      
  • Information Architecture: A year long round table discussion and wireframe development with members ot the VFB team.

  Next Phase:
  

  • Design of identity and overall structure of the site: Graphic design and data base design are a correlated process that inform each other. An original database will result that reflects the nature of fragment in memory.
  • Information Architecture: The scope of the programming requirements for full functionality will be mapped out.
  • Interaction design: translate the "look and feel" into all the functional aspects of the site.
  • Three story gathering events planned for 2005: Stories will be loaded into the site and a functional shell will be launched.