Overview
Project status: In progress
This project draws on archival sources and oral histories to create a nuanced and layered account of the Gasworks site history and that of the surrounding suburbs, Newstead and Teneriffe.
- Research leader
- Organisational unit
- Lead unit Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation Other units
- Research area
- Digital media, communication and culture
- Keywords
- urban informatics
Professor Helen KlaebeDetails
Personal oral testimonies can enrich an area's history by providing lived detail of day-to-day life.
An understanding of the personal meanings associated with a suburb can serve to 'reactivate' a seemingly empty site such as the Gasworks, transforming space into place. Oral histories enrich historical accounts through emotional and sensory details, personalising public narratives.
The project operates within a framework that acknowledges that there is no master historical narrative, only stories and ambiguities. Oral histories are not treated simply as a repository of facts or errors in facts, but rather as a complex fusing of past and present, interpretation and imagination. Gathering oral histories fosters the inclusion of a diversity of perspectives, opening a space in which silenced or marginalised voices can be heard.
The project also supports creative engagement with oral sources; the oral histories gathered will inform a number of works of historical fiction, bringing a depth and authenticity to imagined accounts of the urban space.
