Downtown Border People
“Downtown Border People” was a project initiated for a class at University of Windsor called Border Culture, taught by Dr. Lee Rodney. The assignment was loosely based around examining the effect the border has had on the region. We were tasked to work collaboratively and work on a specific region in Windsor-Essex, examining a specific ramification of the border.
I worked with Natalie Gaudet and Amelia Herceg, both Visual Art students at the University of Windsor. We chose to focus on the downtown regions of each city with an anthropological focus. Downtown Border People is loosely based on Humans of New York, a photo-blog focusing on the personal stories of the diverse residents and visitors of New York City. Our concept was simple: to interview people on both sides of the border in a randomized pattern and ask questions specific to living in a border city.
Our questions were crafted carefully. We only asked questions that would lend themselves to answers that would provide insight into the true nature of living on the border. We focused on the personal connections and stories of border-dwellers, asking questions about their history with the “other” side, among others. The questions were worded to sound ambiguous so as to avoid swaying the data to one side. We avoided asking “do you feel “Americanized” to Canadians, instead asking “Do you feel affected by living on the border?” After conducting nearly 30 interviews (15 on each side) with people in similar roles (bankers on each side, law enforcement on each side, etc) we extrapolated “data” based on what our Downtown Border People said.
Although Border Culture is classified as an Art History class, this project gave us the opportunity to apply our knowledge of the history of the region into a creative arts project. Creating the book turned into an exercise in design, photography, and information selection due to the need to curate to meet the requirements of the project. It was an exciting project to produce with my colleagues, and an excellent design challenge (my biggest project yet). There is a great deal more information in the book (linked above) on the origins, purpose, and findings of the project.