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1918: A Remembrance

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1918: A Show of Remembrance


We’re in the process of creating “1918”, a two night, immersive video installation at El Presidio State Historic Park in downtown Santa Barbara for Veterans Day.  On both nights, November 10 and 11, the exhibit will run from sunset till 11pm.  

We’re doing this is because November 11, 2018, is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One and Veterans Day. The intention is to remind us of what war means, and that, no matter how long and hideous they may be, they DO eventually come an end; basically there’s always a path to peace.

We’ll be  making a number of movies using the original footage and imagery from that era and projecting them on to the walls and ground of El Presidio in what could best be described as an immersive, visual history lesson.  

On the Chapel walls we’ll be telling the story of America’s involvement in the First World War. The majority of the clips come from US Signal Corps who were assigned the task of documenting it. 

On the walls to the sides of the chapel we’ll be showing a variety of other movies:

One will be a montage of the patriot posters from the time, urging the people of America to rally behind the cause. In nature they can be very propagandistic and, at times, extremely odd. 



The USA is a country full of different peoples and opinions, and it was no different 100 years ago. To highlight how Americans thought about the war and their involvement in it, we’ll be showing cartoons from WW1 era newspapers.




In another movie we’ll be making use of the 3D technology of the time, the stereograph; basically two slightly offset photographs set side by side. By using a special viewer, the image became 3D. Instead of the viewer, we’re transforming the imagery into anaglyphs and using red/blue glasses to create the same effect. 




We all know that World War One was dreadful and deeply affected the soldiers on the front lines. We can get a sense of what they went through from the art that some of the survivors created. It can be pretty intense, and, of course, we’ll be highlighting this artwork in another movie.




Like everywhere else, Santa Barbara County suffered the repercussions of the war. In total, we lost roughly 88 people to it. At Ellings park in Santa Barbara their names are inscribed in stone. For our part, we’ve been doing research on them and will be honoring their memory in the final movie on the outside walls. 




For 100 years the deep, blood red of the poppy has been a symbol of those who fought as they were often the first flowers to grow on the devastated battlefields of Western Europe. We’ll be creating an abstract video field of poppies on the ground in front of El Presidio that will represent the roughly 22,500 veterans currently living in Santa Barbara County.



Obviously it takes a lot of work to put all this together and we’re asking for your help to make it as good as it can possibly be.  We need to rent equipment, print and distribute flyers, buy anaglyph glasses for the 3D projection and much more.We’d also like to be able to pay people to help with the setup and breakdown. One of us (Jonathan)  needs to take time off work, to continue editing and testing all the movies. All told the budget comes to a minimum of about $7000. If we’re able to raise more than needed, all the extra funding will go to charities that benefit veterans. 

So come on board and help us make this timely installation the best it can possibly be.  Mark November 10 and/or 11 in your calendar and come on down to experience it. All the movies will be short loops so you can see it at your own pace.
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $50 
    • 5 yrs
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Fundraising team: 1918 GFM Team (2)

Jonathan Smith
Organizer
Raised $1,040 from 14 donations
Santa Barbara, CA
Kym Cochran
Team member
This team raised $845 from 8 other donations.

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