SNA PROJECT: AGORA
2016

​For this iteration of the Social Neighborhood Art (SNA) Project, we worked with Cal State Fullerton students – as part of the course "Culture and Education" taught by Professor Karen Stocker – to conduct research and design an artistic intervention at the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet in Spring 2016. The project activated a stall inside of the market as a classroom, in order to consider the possibility of adapting such markets to function as popular educational centers within the region.

As part of the project, students participated in an "Aural Research" workshop facilitated by LA-based artist and organizer Jimena Sarno, as well as in a workshop on collective-making strategies facilitated by Collective Magpie (San Diego/Tijuana) inside of their inflatable classroom/lab.

The project concluded with an artistic intervention designed by students entitled "Memory Exchange", an interactive installation reflecting on the role public markets play in forming and preserving personal and collective memories in/for communities living + working in Southern California. The installation asked publics at the Swap Meet to engage in a process of exchange using memories and stories as currency, and produced documents that recorded and wove together personal experiences into communal forms.

In one part of the installation, participants were asked to write down a memory they have of the Swap Meet on a piece of tarp, a material characteristic of the market’s infrastructure. The small piece of tarp they inscribed with their memory was then integrated into a collective tent that grew as people add to it. In exchange, participants were able to select their pick from items that are characteristic of the Swap Meet (toys, candy, etc.), displayed in the stall. 

To create a link between the collective/communal space of the market and the sites that people identify as/with home, participants were invited to stand in front of a map of the world, select a point that represented home for them, and have their picture taken. After receiving a print, they were invited to write a memory or story in relation to the point they selected, reflecting on what home means for them. These were collected into a collective “family/neighborhood” album of sorts.
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In exchange for sharing their memory and stories, participants received a print of their photograph to take home with them.
For more information and documentation of the project, visit:
snaproject.tumblr.com