I spent most of this week focused on my own project. At the end of week 4 I was feeling really stuck with my work so I went back to reading a lot. I didn’t feel like I had any structure to work off of and my content felt increasingly boring. However, when I read the Vagina Monologues early this week I discovered a form that felt right for my material. I then spent the rest of the week building off of this.

I created a possible outline for a series of pieces that will focus on what it means to be in an “in between” space, or as we called it on our trip, “in the holler”. This theme felt like it gave space both to share what I learned about Harlan as a place but also about myself and our national environment by being there.

However, it wasn’t until Friday that I built a solid idea of how I could execute this. I met with Allison  who was helpful with figuring out what do with the pieces of the trip that were “missing” from the video. She introduced me to the idea of memo writing in research. This sort of free writing can become a place to record memories, musings or ideas that may not directly relate to the actual project. While my project is not a research paper I particularly liked the idea of incorporating a collection of such memories in my work as a way to represent and explore what is not already part of the piece.

In addition to figuring out how to address the the material I don’t have I had felt like my piece was lacking conflict. When I met with Joan we discussed ideas of external conflict such as the media and powerful politicians. Chris helped me focus this and keep this work personal. We discussed conversations we had on the trip about internal conflicts we had about going to Harlan and engaging in their community. And, as he was on the trip talking about Harlan with Chris was also a chance for me to clarify and sometimes redirect ideas themes that I know will be central to my piece.

My next step is to write and begin filling in the outline I created and adjusting where I need to.