| Summary: | In order to explore the dynamic between history and place, I consider four
methodological issues within the historical space of Sumas Lake, B.C., a large lake that
was drained in the 1920’s. The first “Opening” reflects on the connection between
historical and technological frontiers, while critiquing my creation of the attached
HyperCard stack “Disappearing A Lake: A Meditation on Method and Mosquitos.” The
stack documents the creative process of history-making, allowing the “reader” to review
and record comments, to see examples of cartography and photography, to hear oral
interviews and to read selections of narrative tradition either inside or outside the logic
and context of an essay format.
The written document flows from the stack. “Listening For Pleasure” discusses
the process of oral history as it relates to the negotiated and contested space of the Sumas
Lake commons. Diving into archives from Victoria to Ottawa, “Margins and Mosquitos”
recycles written records to explore federal, provincial and local involvements with a flood
lake. “Memory Device” moves into the archive of land and waterscapes, looking for
connections between place and history, mindful of both Native oral tradition and written
historical accounts of the lake.
Interactive history is located not only in the interface between people and
computers, but also in the process of making oral history and in the creative
transformation of archival documents. Most importantly, interactive history is alive in
the links people forge between stories and the actual places around them.
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