About The Shared Narratives Project
The Shared Narratives project is a group of websites developed around the idea of collective documentary storytelling about common yet evocative themes. The Shared Narratives sites utilize several emerging web techniques such as the use of blogging systems, photo, audio and video sharing, folksonomies (also known as collective tagging), geocoding (location based tagging), and user generated content. Visitors are welcome to share their own stories or simply comment on stories that resonate with them. Look at sharednarratives.net as a portal into these websites and their stories. Here you can see the latest stories and search across all sites.
The Saddest Thing I Own
With over 300 submitted stories The Saddest Thing I Own is a repository of life’s saddest objects and the stories which connect them to our lives and compel us to hold onto them. This website serves as a place for people to share a photo of and tell the story of the object they hold onto that makes them most sad. The act of openly revealing to the world what makes people saddest provides a catharsis and often becomes, through feedback from others in the form of comments, a kind of group therapy session.
The Saddest Thing I Own was launched in May of 2006. It was a collaboration between Matthew Belanger, Marianne R. Petit, and A. Elizabeth Mikesell. It was inspired by a conversation we had about what our own saddest possessions.
Submissions to The Saddest Thing I Own span the entire range of possibilities from a dogs wheelchair to the ashes of a firstborn child.
The Saddest Thing I Own was a 2005 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It is supported by the Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recognition of the valuable contributions of artists to society.
Visit The Saddest Thing I Own
My Embarrassing Moments
My Embarrassing Moments began after fans of The Saddest Thing I Own repeatedly asked for a more light hearted website to help balance things out. After some resistance, I didn’t just want to just create “The Happiest Thing I Own”, I finally decided to create a website for people to share photos and stories of their embarrassing moments. Embarrassment is a feeling that is simultaneously funny and revealing of one’s vulnerabilities. I knew I had an endless trove of embarrassing photos and stories from my own childhood and figured others must have the same.
My Embarrassing Moments was created by artist Matthew Belanger as a follow up to The Saddest Thing I Own. Shared embarrassments include a story of a drunken night out with a rat and a photo from when my mother used to make us all dress the same.
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Time Indefinite
We all experience the occasional moment in life that has a clarity unlike the rest of our days. What strikes us most in that moment is how the rest of the world seems unchanged. To our disbelief the world just keeps going as it always has ignorant of the monumental experience we are having. Time Indefinite a place to recount our significant moments and chart them on a timeline next to the life changing moments of others.
Time Indefinite was created by Matthew Belanger and launched in May of 2007. Archived moments include the death of a president and a first date.
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Disappearing Places
Everybody has a place in this world that they feel connected to. These places often remind us of life’s special moments and the people we shared them with. However, these places rarely stay the same, and sometimes they are wiped from the Earth completely as something new replaces them. Often we don’t realize just how much these places meant to us until they are gone completely. Disappearing Places provides a platform for people to mark their important place on a collective map, and to tell others why that place should be remembered.
Disappearing Places was created by Matthew Belanger and launched in May 2007. Archived places include an amusement park that no longer exists and a favorite taco stand.