Mass Observation Communities Online

Recording your lives today (Aug 2010)

By John Walker

So what are you doing over August bank holiday weekend (27th to 29th August)? Are you having a BBQ, visiting family, working or on holiday? Capture your weekend in 6 photos or a 5 minute film. This will help us to see how Deaf people live in 2010, in Sussex.

All you need to do is takes some photos over the weekend and pick 6 photos that you would like to share, and upload them by using the submission form. Click here to submit.

You will need:

1. A digital camera
2. A Deaf person to take the photos (you!)
3. A computer to upload your images from the camera to the upload page (submit)
4. A bit of time

The photos or film you have uploaded will be archived forever in the Mass Observation archive at University of Sussex. The MOA has been holding archives since 1939, recording the lives of ordinary people.

What is missing is the lives of Deaf people, as their language is left unrecorded. This project will help us to include Deaf people's lives in the archive. In future generations, Deaf people, researchers and other people will want to look at your films and photos and remember how you lived. Some records have already become films, documentaries, or a TV series; our lives will be remembered, a long time after we have gone.

So, capture your lives over August bank holiday weekend and archive them forever.

If you are a hearing person who would like the same opportunities, please go to the MOCO project website and MOA website; you can already archive at any time.