An interactive project designed to capture the life, challenges, and enduring musical legacy of Mississippi John Hurt.
[ Producer ]
Other Team Members (CMU ETC):
Ezra Hill - Programming
Shuozhi (Sean) Shen - Designer, Artist
Pulei (Play) Wang - Artist, Videographer, Editor
Rei Yamada - Artist, Producer
Project Advisors:
Charles Johnson
Ralph Vittucio
Project Overview
This is an interactive project designed to capture the life, challenges, and enduring musical legacy of Mississippi John Hurt. This educational experience aims to shed light on the authentic narratives, the exploitation of his artistic contributions, and the enduring hardships faced by generations of African Americans in the Avalon, Mississippi region during his time. Our project will comprise an on-site installation, complemented by portable and educational components, offering a comprehensive exploration of this remarkable history.
For more project details, please visit our website.
Mississippi John Hurt Foundation and Museum.
The Mississippi John Hurt Foundation was founded in 1997 by John Hurt's granddaughter, Mary Frances Hurt, and is mainly supported by generous donations as well as proceeds from the annual Mississippi John Hurt Music Festival and the operation of the Mississippi John Hurt Museum.
For more information, please visit the Foundation's Website.
Installation
We hope to capture the texture of the old times when blues music flourished. How would the teens listen to stories in the 1960s? They would gather around a radio, tune the frequency carefully and be surprised when they hit the right channel telling their favorite stories.
To bring this experience back, we decided to modify an old radio as our installation, using the frequency tuning as our main interaction with nowadays digital content.The frequency turning bar bar would be the timeline of John Hurt's life stories and his main music piece.
Radio and Design
Using a nearly 70-year-old Radio as the interactive interface, and the TV as a window to the past, we teleport guests’ attention to the 1920s and 1960s, so they can take a look at Daddy John’s life, and learn about a piece of the history of African Americans living in the Mississippi Region.
Working with Clients.
We did a lot of research and worked very closely with our clients to make sure we obtained and conveyed the true stories with historical materials. In the early stage of the development, we traveled to Avalon, Mississippi to meet with our client, Mary Frances Hurt, the granddaughter of Mississippi John Hurt to establish the goal and objectives of the installation, visited the museum space to get a detailed logistic of the environment, to make sure we deliver a long-lasting, educational experience.
Onsite Installing.
We transported the complete package of equipment and hardware to Avalon for the installation of the piece. Additionally, we meticulously crafted an extensive instructional manual specifically tailored for the clients, encompassing detailed procedures for daily operations and comprehensive guidance on how to handle emergency fixes efficiently.
