Gulnoza | First entry

My head is a mess.

Ok, when I was thinking about my application and research topic I was kind of clear about what interests me. At the time the central idea was preserving objects of tangible and intangible culture through visual media, and it still is. However, developing a concept by using your impressions and perceptions is one thing, but when you are exposed to various research sources that are meant to help you shape up your ideas is completely different. Like, for instance, Joseph took us to the places of memory across Deak Ferenc and Astoria, among which we saw an impressive statue to Gabor Sztehlo and a somewhat comic statue to a newsboy. 

And then we'd been introduced to another form of imprinting people's names into memory - an inconspicuous gilded strip with the names of war heroes and victims affiliated with ELTE. 


Quite recently in Dushanbe they erected a statue to the old man with his she-bear Masha who have become in a way a symbol of my capital - almost every resident knows and remembers this pair walking along streets of Dushanbe, and even riding on the public transport. The vision was amazing. Another statue was erected in the second biggest city of Tajikistan - Khujand (my home province), to the pair of sweethearts from the cult Tajik romantic musical comedy of mid-20th century "I've met a girl". I actually have a special bond to that movie as my late father and his classmates from the medical university were among the extras in some of the scenes. So, do these examples count as part of Tajik cultural heritage? These research sources made me think of who and in what form could be immortalized in Tajikistan. And here came along the course on crowdsourcing. The examples Volodimir shared with us, like the New York Public Library or Plaques, have prompted an idea of a project with the use of this tool to engage with the public who could be an invaluable source of ideas. 
Nevertheless, before coming to that point of elaborating the concept, there's so much more to see, perceive, feel, interpret, etc. In this regard, I expect to derive some useful tips and images from the European Heritage Days, on 16-17 September, for which I've signed up to volunteer the first day. Can't wait to see what's in store.