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COMPLEXITY Christopher Lawton’s interactive project brings new voices to Georgia history by Mary Jessica Hammes (ABJ ’99)
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echnology can sometimes erase a sense of place and community—think of young faces glued to phone and tablet screens, relegating the outside world to a mere distraction. With so many diversions available on demand, it can be tough to engage people in their immediate surroundings, much less an exploration of the past. But with the Georgia Virtual History Project, Christopher Lawton (PhD ’11) wants to use the tools of today to bridge the gap between then and now. “My hope is that technology can reinstate that [sense of place],” he says.
The Georgia Virtual History Project (GVHP) takes history beyond the classroom and into the community by using new and interactive technologies to record the history of the state. GVHP collects information including archival documents and oral histories and creates minidocumentaries and other presentations, piecing together a larger, more varied picture of historical events told by many voices and accessible via website and mobile app. It’s a “curated experience of stories,” says Lawton, that when linked together, “is a fundamental remapping of the story of Georgia.”
DOROTHY KOZLOWSKI
This photo, taken at the Shields-Ethridge Heritage Farm, is part of a mini documentary created for GVHP. The image was taken in 1946 when the descendants of Joseph Shields and the slaves he owned gathered together for a Christmas celebration. The toddler at center right is Shields’ sixth great-granddaughter, and the documentary includes a similar photo taken at a reunion of the same group in 2013.
FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF SUSAN CHAISSON AND THE SHIELDS-ETHRIDGE HERITAGE FARM
DECEMBER 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE
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