Kodak Moments, Flashbulb Memories - California State University

11

The Drama Review 47 1 (T177) Spring 2003 Copyright q 2003

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

Kodak MomentsFlashbulb Memories

Re ections on 911

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

At a banquet given by a nobleman of Thessaly named Scopas the poetSimonides of Ceos chanted a lyric poem in honour of his host but includinga passage in praise of Castor and Pollux Scopas meanly told the poet thathe would only pay him half the sum agreed upon for the panegyric and thathe must obtain the rest from the twin gods to whom he had devoted half thepoem A little later a message was brought in to Simonides that two youngmen were waiting outside who wished to see him He rose from the banquetand went out but could nd no one During his absence the roof of thebanqueting hall fell in crushing Scopas and all the guests to death beneaththe ruins the corpses were so mangled that the relatives who came to takethem away for burial were unable to identify them But Simonidesremembered the places at which they had been sitting at the table and wastherefore able to indicate to the relatives which were their dead [] Thisexperience suggested to the poet the principles of the art of memory of whichhe is said to be the inventor Noting that it was through his memory of theplaces at which the guests had been sitting that he had been able to identifythe bodies he realized that orderly arrangement is essential for good memory

mdashCicero (in Yates 19961ndash2)1

The catastrophe has transformed life in New York City City of cials speak ofrings Extending out from Ground Zero are the ever larger rings that de ne physi-cal and emotional proximity to the disaster Grassroots responses to the traumahave been spontaneous improvised and ubiquitous Every surface of the citymdashsidewalks lampposts fences telephone booths barricades garbage dumpstersand wallsmdashwas blanketed with candles owers ags and missing personsrsquo post-ers These postersmdashwedding or graduation photographs from a family album ac-companied by intimate details of identifying marks on the bodymdashhung insuspension between a call for information and a death notice They quickly be-came the focal point of shrines memorializing the missing and presumed de-

12 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

ceased The shrines appeared in parks subway stations rehouses police stationshospitals and on stoops Large crowds gathered spontaneously for vigils We callthe event and its aftermath 911 Not only is 911 a way of saying September 11American-style with the month rst but alsomdashironicallymdash911 is our emer-gency phone number2

The city post-911 is more like what I remember from the 1970s when it wasfacing bankruptcy than the years right before 911 when it was awash withmoney Af uent New York of the last decade was under the tight control of theGiuliani administration which clamped down on street vendors street perfor-mance community gardens and casitas and reworks Arrests for minor ldquoqualityof liferdquo crimes were common It is not surprising then that the Department ofParks and Recreation halted the creation of memorials in parks three weeks afterthe disaster and despite continuing protests They have been collecting memorialsand saving them in a warehouse Susan Sipos who takes care of Jefferson MarketGarden is composting the owers from shrines at re stations in the neighbor-hood (Magro 2001) This compost will nurture new plants dedicated to the mem-ory of the many remen who perished while trying to rescue those caught infalling buildings

The attack on the World Trade Center is said to be the most photographed di-saster in history This is a city designed to look at itself from spectacular vantagepoints whether from the tops of Manhattanrsquos signature skyscrapers high-riseapartments and tenements from the streets along suspension bridges on boatsalong the rivers surrounding the island or from Queens Brooklyn and New Jer-sey The attack produced a spectacle that was photographed incessantly and seeninstantaneously across the globe Within a short time Mayor Rudolf W Giulianiissued an executive order banning amateur photographs of the World Trade Cen-ter ruins because as his of ce explained the site was a crime scene not a touristattraction Flyers were posted in the area ldquoWARNING NO cameras or videoequipment permitted VIOLATORS will be prosecuted and equipment seizedrdquoThis ban indexes the quarantine that has separated the disaster scene from the restof the city We knew it was there but we could not visit the site We were told togo back to work go shopping go to Broadway shows and eat in restaurantsmdashspending money was a civic dutymdashas if the rest of the city was now back to nor-mal The disaster even issued its own currency in the form of Revenge PromissoryNotes in only one denomination $2001 (Ross 2001) Was this a valiant effort torebound or part of a larger problem ldquoA shattered nation longs to care about stu-pid bullshit againrdquo was the subject of a satirical article that appeared in the Oniona humor newspaper in their 3 October 2001 issue

To have been so close to the disaster and yet so insulated from it means that wetoo knew it from photographs rather than from direct experience of the ruin Welook and do not see the towers But neither can we see where they should havebeen The gash on the ground is a negative space a giant footprint in the tangledconfusion of a disoriented Lower ManhattanOnce the smoke cleared the woundin the sky left no visible trace There is simply nothing there The skyline has be-come doubly historical It is at once the skyline before there was a World TradeCenter and the skyline after its disappearance Nothing in the sky indicates thatthe towers ever existed

Television producers rushed to digitally remove the Twin Towers from seg-ments shot before 911 to be aired later They feared that viewers would be trau-matized and distracted by the sight of the towers The United States Postal Servicemodi ed the skyline that was to appear on its 2002 ldquoGreetings from New Yorkrdquostamp But what will happen to the many images of Manhattanrsquos iconic skylineon business cards trucks maps stores tourist guides postcards and souvenirs

Kodak Moments 13

The intact skyline is everywhere except where it should be It is inescapable andirreplaceable Even an advertising postcard for Chinatownmdashwith its bowl carry-ing an icon of the World Trade Centermdashis a chilling reminder of how much wetook for granted What were once souvenirs or logos or useful maps have becomemementos They have acquired a strange aura a penumbra of sadnessThey seemto defy the loss

Kodak Moments

When President Bush told Tony Blair in November 2001 that the war in Af-ghanistan was ldquonot one of these Kodak momentsrdquo he meant that there were nopictures or more precisely that there was nothing photogenic about this war (inBumiller 2001B3) While trivializing the role of images in this battle he implic-itly acknowledged their importance Amid all the uncertainties one thing becameclear We lost the image war A humorous image of Osama bin Laden holding anOscar for best director for the lm Apocalypse in New York has been circulating onthe Internet Neither pastoral photographs of Afghans in desolate landscapes norpatriotic images of ags at home were any match for the spectacle of airplanesramming into the towers the buildings exploding in a gigantic reball peopleleaping to their deaths (these images have been off-limits except on web sites thatcross the normative threshold of what can be shown) a lingering plume of smokethe cascading collapse of the towers and heroic efforts to retrieve bodies from the

1 Humor was slow to ap-pear after 911 but the On-ion was one of the rst topublish satire related to thedisaster ldquoA Shattered Na-tion Longs to Care aboutStupid Bullshit Againrdquo(httpwwwtheonioncomonion3735a_shattered_nationhtml)

2 We lost the image warOsama wins an Oscar forldquoBest Director for Apoca-lypse in New Yorkrdquo Con-tributed by Manolo Munizto the Spanish humorwebsite httpwwwtonteriascom (httptonteriasiespanaestonteriasespecialtorresgemelasoscarBinLadenjpg)


rubble There is no match for the sight of self-destruction our very own planeswere turned into missiles aimed straight at us and should one of our planes behijacked in the future our military is now authorized to shoot it down rather thanallow it to hit its target With no ldquovaluable targetsrdquo in Afghanistan for Americanbombs to hit and a tight lid on information from the front the Kodak momentsof this war were restricted to what New York Times page-one picture editor PhilipGefter characterized as Biblical images of Afghans in barren desert and mountainlandscapes (2001) More like the snapshots a tourist might bring home from a va-cation than news photographs from a war zone these images made it even moredif cult to understand why we were bombing such a desolate place

By implication the attack on the World Trade Center was the ultimate Kodakmoment The term evokes amateur snapshots candid images of everyday life orspecial events not spectacular pictures of Ground Zero or the theatre of war takenby professional photographers with exclusive access to the action ldquoKodak mo-mentrdquo suggests the Brownie camera of years gone by or the instamatic or dispos-able camera of today That said was the attack on the World Trade Center nomore than a Kodak moment for the thousands of amateur photographers whoshot the disaster and its aftermath The nervousness about photography as an eth-ically suspect practice was expressed not only in of cial signs prohibitingunautho-rized photography of Ground Zero but also by protestors who admonished eageramateurs with posters of their own

All Of You Taking Photos

I wonder if you really see what is here or if yoursquore so concerned with get-ting that perfect shot that yoursquove forgotten this is a tragedy site not a touristattraction As I continually had to move ldquoout of someonersquos wayrdquo as theycarefully tried to frame this place [of ] mourning I kept wondering whatmakes us think we can capture the pain the loss the pride amp the confu-sionmdashthis complexitymdashinto a 42 5 glossy

I k my citymdashFiregirl NYC 09-17-01

3 Americamera at GroundZero (3 November 2001)(Photo q Martha Cooper)

Kodak Moments 15

The motives of professional photographers were not questioned After all tak-ing pictures is their job Hopefully their photographs would convey the full scopeof the devastation and rally support for rebuilding New York The motives of am-ateurs however were suspect Were they voyeurs gawking at the spectacle Werethey displaying a ghoulish fascination with the macabre Were they deriving per-verse pleasure from the tragedy Such attitudes would of course be undigni eddisrespectful and unseemly Or even worse were all of us ful lling a script bydoing precisely what was intended by the attackers Namely we were spellboundby the catastrophic spectacle not just at the moment of impact but thanks to allthe photographs and videotapes we made forever after Reruns according to thescript will deepen the psychic damage that terror is about

Photography materialized the morally ambiguous activity of watching As Su-san Sontag has noted in On Photography ldquoThe camera makes everyone a tourist inother peoplersquos reality and eventually in onersquos ownrdquo ([1974] 197757) More thanone commentator has noted that the events of 911 had the singular effect of mak-ing all of us tourists in our own lives by making it impossible to take things forgranted The disaster profoundly disrupted even the most banal routines of dailylife We read new subway maps as if we are strangers to the city Paranoia has be-come the order of the day We nd the disaster hidden and anticipated in ordinarywords and numbers and everyday things The world is a coded message The new20-dollar bill when folded becomes an origami alert With the rst fold ldquoYoursquollimmediately see the Pentagon ablazerdquo With the next fold ldquoThe Twin Towersof the World Trade Center are hit and smokingrdquo Keep folding and the note willspell Osama (Linky and Dinky 2002) ldquoCoincidence or conspiracyrdquo Glenn Beckasks ldquoWas the entire game plan for September 11th printed on our moneyrdquo(Glennbeckcom 2002) We think like touristsmdashor more accurately terroristsmdashin order to anticipate and protect ourselves from danger It is our consciousnessthat was the target of the attack It has become an indelible part of us Withinweeks there were tattoos showing a plane crashing into one of the towers

Indeed our world has become a museum of itself In October 2001 the NewYork Times ran a series of articles described as ldquoreporting on workaday objects thatresonate in unusual ways in the aftermath of Sept 11rdquomdashfor example an ordinarypair of handcuffs that became a digging tool (Dwyer 2002B1) Even the mostcommonplace objectsmdasha childrsquos fork vegetable peeler matches nail polish re-movermdashhave become potential weapons and are con scated from passengers go-ing through security But then in light of 911 nothing is ordinary Even ironywhich had been displaced by hyperbolic displays of patriotism found a way to ap-pear in unlikely places Random juxtapositionsmdashandtheir unintended ironiesmdashappeared on phone boothsalong Canal Street

A yellow police tape and missing person notice wasaf xed to an advertisement for Continental Airlineswhose motto is ldquodependable service time after timerdquo

A posted public service announcement asks ldquoWhatrsquoswrong with this picturerdquo The picture which shows acar parked illegally in a spot reserved for the disabledwas partially covered by a missing person poster

Police tape and a notice telling emergency workerswhere to nd food and water were stuck to an adver-tisement for Verizon that reads ldquoYour grip tightensteeth grind you knew you should have gone the otherway Call before you gordquo

4 It is our consciousnessthat was the target of theattack Contributed byBetzabe Jara Carreto to theSpanish humor websitehttpwwwtonteriascom (httptonteriasiespanaestonteriasespecialtorresgemelasavion_cabezajpg)


Flashbulb Memories

Ground Zero has become hallowed ground as well as an attractionbut for mostof us it was off limits until there was nothing left to see but a gaping hole Thebereaved were brought to the sight to mourn VIPs were taken on guided toursby foot and helicopter for maximum impact and hopefully nancial support Andthose of us deprived of our Kodak moments have our ashbulb memories Flash-bulb memories according to psychologists Roger Brown and James Kulick havethe vividness and detail of a ash photograph (197773ndash99) They occur when thetriggering event combines elements of surprise emotional intensity and conse-quentiality It is not necessary to have been present at the bombing of PearlHarbor the assassination of John F Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr the Chal-lenger disaster or the events of 911 What we remember so vividly if not accu-rately over time are the circumstances in which we rst learned of the tragedyWhat we value is the powerful sense of having been present for a momentous his-torical event One New Zealander reported that when he heard the news at 530am on Wednesday 12 September (New Zealand is 17 hours ahead of NewYork) he thought it was a hoax ldquoWhat is this Is it Orson Wellesrsquos War of theWorldsrdquo Another told me that she remembered precisely the moment that sheheard the news She was in a cafe and what she recalls most clearly is the collectivefeeling of profound emptiness

While all three attacks on 911 are prime candidates for ashbulb memory thesheer spectacle of the World Trade Center collapse (and magnitude of the casual-ties) overshadows the attack on the Pentagon and the plane that crashed into a eld in Pennsylvania

Iconographic Unconscious

Many witnesses to the collapse of the towers reported a sense of unreality Theyfelt like they were watching a movie they had seen before Indeed one of themore surreal attractions in Manhattan in the Empire State Building is the NewYork Skyride whose motto is ldquoFeel the Sightsrdquo Created long before 911 this ight simulator attraction which cost millions of dollars is too expensive tochange or discontinue and so it continues This ride is an enactment of the poten-tial for 911 as a series of near misses You are in a plane piloted by aliens Theplane is out of control It almost crashes into everything Was this a rehearsal forwhat came to pass

Once the towers fell not only were plans to use images of the imminent oractual explosion of the World Trade Towers considered bad timing but also wereviewed as the iconographic unconscious in full play The cover for the Couprsquos PartyMusic a hip-hop CD showed two musicians one holding a guitar tuner that lookslike a detonator and the other conducting with two batons in front of the explod-ing twin towers The photograph for the CD cover was taken on 15 May 2001 TheCD was to be released in November 2001 Right after 911 they pulled this imagewhich was intended as ldquoa metaphor for destroying capitalismrdquo (MC Boots Rileyquoted in Goedde 2001) and later replaced it with one of a cocktail glass lled withkerosene and set on re to suggest a Molotov cocktail ( Juon 2002) One of thesongs is entitled ldquo5 Million Ways to Kill a CEOrdquo which seemed to anticipatethe accounting scandals that sent stocks tumbling several months later A nation-wide advertising campaign for Marchon Eyewear which was launched on 23 Au-gust 2001 highlighted the exibility of frames made from Flexon by showing theEmpire State Building bending out of the way to avoid being hit by a plane Ac-companying the image are the words ldquoIf only all metal were FLEXONrdquo Thecompany pulled the ad within an hour of the attacks (Zehren 2001) During

Kodak Moments 17

World War II on 28 July 1945 an American bomber accidentally crashed into theEmpire State Building (New York Times 19451ff ) and an army airplane into theManhattan Company Building at 40 Wall Street on 20 May 1946 (Long 19461ff )These events continue to haunt New Yorkers New images of King Kong whodefended the Empire State Building in 1933 and the World Trade Center in 1976started circulating after the attacks as did accounts of the earlier crashes

Two days after 911 ight simulation enthusiasts wondered ldquoWhat if it turnsout that the terrorists also honed their skills using Microsoft Flight Simulator []We know that one of the thrills of the simulated Manhattan skyline is threadingthrough the twin towersrdquo (Wice 2001) A ight simulator computer program wasamong the incriminating items found in the possession of Zacarias Moussaouithought to be the 20th hijacker when he was arrested and just days before the2002 anniversary of 911 the New York Times reported that ldquoA magazine on y-ing and a ight simulator computer game were among the items found at a sus-pected Al Qaeda base in Kabulrdquo (Filkins 20023)

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 an $8000 civilian ight simulator program thatruns on a PC features extremely realistic 3-D scenery and various Boeing jetsShortly after the attack Microsoft decided to delay release of the 2002 version andto edit the game introduction in which two people using the software say ldquoJohnyou just about crashed into the Empire State Building Hey that would be coolrdquo(CNN 2001) ldquoOut of respect for the victims our customers partners and em-ployeesrdquo Microsoft also created a ight simulator patch ldquothat will remove theWorld Trade Center towers from Flight Simulator 2000rdquo (Microsoft 2001) This

5 ldquoWhat if it turns outthat the terrorists also honedtheir skills using MicrosoftFlight Simulator [] Weknow that one of the thrillsof the simulated Manhattanskyline is threading throughthe twin towersrdquo A screen-shot of Microsoft FlightSimulator 2000 from ldquoDidTerrorists Train with Com-mon PC Flight Simula-torrdquo by Nathanial Wicein On Magazine 13 Sep-tember 2001 (httpwwwonmagazinecomon-magreviewsarticle0998517483500htmlscreenshot by GeoffKeighley)


program is also marketed to actual pilots who want to increase their pro ciencywhile other programs which are based on actual military training exercises ldquoa fewdisguised as gamesrdquo go ldquoright to the bleeding edge of a security breachrdquo (Ad-vanced Simulation Systems 2002) On the Saturday following the attacks manyplanes were still on the ground but ldquoin a show of solidarity more than 2000 ight-sim enthusiasts spent the day online ying through a virtual US airspaceon the Netrdquo (Snider 2001)

If the New York Skyride is a preplay of near misses and Microsoft Flight Simulatora practice ight New York Defender (Albino Blacksheep 2002) a game on the In-ternet that was up and running by March 2002 if not earlier is a replay with thepossibility of averting the disaster if your aim is good enough The rst plane ap-proaches the tower and your task is to shoot it down You miss The building goesup in ames as you try to shoot down the second plane You miss again Bothtowers collapse Keep trying until disaster is nally averted

Other games let you ght the war in Afghanistan While counterterrorism haslong been popular with computer gamers there was a short lull right after 911followed by a resurgence of games whose theme is the war in Afghanistan EthanMcKinnon and Drew Baye of Orlando Florida re ecting on the range of responsesto 911 from patriotic displays and charitable work to dark humor ldquodecided to ex-press their anger by developing a game based on the popular rst-person team-oriented genre in which the search for and death of Osama bin Laden would be thecentral themerdquo After gaming companies refused to consider the idea in part be-cause they did not wish ldquoto be seen as cashing in on the September 11 tragedyrdquoMcKinnon and Baye founded their own company Dead Tree Entertainmentandcreated Operation Catrsquos Lair The Hunt for Osama bin Laden as part of the War onTerrorism Series This game allows ldquothe gamer full immersion into a realistic en-vironment of dangerous missionsrdquo (McKinnon and Baye 2002)

As a reviewer of another game Operation Just Reward concluded ldquoKillingOsama bin Laden even [if ] it is in the virtual gaming world is a great feelingrdquo(Pie4Foo 2002) An example of ldquotactical gamingrdquo Operation Just Reward whichwas created by Akira carried the following message on its opening page ldquoInmemory of those killed in acts of terrorismrdquo the warning that ldquoThis mod maycontain material deemed offensive to some people such as sympathisers of terroristgroups peace lobbyists and certain organisations Others may nd it insensitive Ifso please do not play this modrdquo and the disclaimer that

Although this mod is a [sic] based on real life eventsmdashmany details remainspeculative and ctional Please do not consider the events in this game asbearing any truth You agree to play this mod at YOUR OWN RISK Theauthors do not take responsibility for any behaviour or events stemmingfrom the gameplay contained within this mod (Akira_AU 2001)

Such games are a consumer version of the computer simulations of war that areused to train the military Indeed the Pentagon avoids the news media whosecritical reporting it cannot control and collaborates with Hollywood on ldquomili-tainmentrdquo For example it is advising on the television series JAG ( Judge Advo-cate Generalrsquos corps) which will feature ctional military tribunalsmdashin lieu ofnews broadcasts of the actual ones which are to be held in secret As Robert Lich-ter has remarked ldquoNews used to be the rst draft of history [] Now itrsquos the rstdraft of a screenplay News and entertainment have merged already The questionnow is whose version gets to the public rstrdquo (in Seelye 2002A12)

The sky was the ultimate big screen Life seemed to overtake ction and imitateart For some it was the smell of smoke that broke the cinematic spell For others

Kodak Moments 19

discovering the concrete consequences of the attack made the reality of the catas-trophe sink in Those consequences were conveyed not only through the mediabut with even greater immediacy by the many shrines and memorials that blan-keted the city At the center of those shrines were Kodak moments in the lives ofthe missing and presumed dead In the absence of a body a photograph becamethe only tangible address to which mourners could bring their prayers Indeed asit became increasingly clear that photographs were virtually useless for identifyingmissing personsmdashonly DNA evidence from body fragments would domdashphoto-graphs became ldquopaper monuments in the stone cemetery of the cityrdquo (Kuzub2001) Surrounded by owers and candles teddy bears and items of clothing theybecame votive objects But unlike a tombstone that marks a singular grave thesepaper monuments photocopied on standard 85 2 11ndashinch sheets multiplied thespectral presence of the missing They were now literally in more than one placeat a time but nowhere to be found They were announced but not laid to restFamilies of the con rmed or presumed dead were given a handful of dust fromthe site Reverend James P Moroney advised bishops ldquothat if dust from the sitewas reasonably believed to contain human remainsmdashof anyonemdashit could be bur-ied by a grieving family in place of a bodyrdquo (Wakin 2001B9)

A Democracy of Photographs

Thanks to ldquoone of the most powerful selling ideas of all timerdquo according toKodak in 1999 more than ldquo77 billion pictures are shot [] every year worldwiderdquo

6 Flag seller Wall StreetThe disaster was quicklyfollowed by political andcommercial exploitation ofan initial surge of spontane-ous patriotism The agalso became protective color-ation for those who felt vul-nerable in an increasinglyxenophobic atmosphere (27September 2001) (Photo byBarbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett)


(Keegan 199912) Not surprising then that so many people should have taken somany photographs of the events of 911 and their aftermath Thanks to digitalcameras there is virtually no time lag between the event and seeing the imageThe image is literally part of the event More than one person has put the towersback into the skyline by holding a photograph of the towers up to the skyline inthe precise location where that photograph had been takenmdashand then proceed-ing to take a photograph of that gesturemdashwhether from a tenement rooftop orthe Brooklyn side of the East River The same effect has also been achieved digi-tally

Recognizing that photography is one of the most powerful responses to the at-tack Here Is New York Images from the Frontline of History A Democracy of Photo-graphs opened within weeks of 9113 A vacant Soho shop front on Prince Streetpreviously occupied by Agnes B the expensive French fashion designer wasquickly converted into a temporary hub for the accumulation and sale of photo-graphs Looking more like the Soho of the pioneering 1970s than the Soho of theaf uent rsquo90s the small brightly lit white space of Here Is New York in Manhattanwas covered with photographs Identi ed only by a tiny number the images thatare part of this traveling exhibit are clipped to wires strung along the walls andacross the space like laundry on a line or wet negatives and prints in a darkroomThere are no frames no labels no names and no uniformed guards Accordingto its creators this show ldquois tailored to the nature of the event and to the responseit has elicitedrdquo notably a plethora of photographs by professionals and amateursThis project aims ldquoto develop a new way of looking at and thinking about historyas well as a way of making sense of all of the images which continue to haunt usrdquoIn this spirit

[E]veryone who has taken pictures related to the tragedy is invited to bringor ftp their images to the gallery where they will be digitally scanned ar-chivally [sic] printed and displayed on the walls alongside the work of topphotojournalists and other photographers [] All prints will be sold for thesame nominal and xed price irrespective of their provenance (Here IsNew York 2001)

Net proceeds go to the Childrenrsquos Aid SocietyThe overwhelming response to the installation has prompted the organizers to

expand the exhibition into an adjoining storefront The exhibition which was in-tended to last no more than two months was extended to Christmas and theneventually until September 2002 when it moved to Washington DC So muchinterest was generated that the exhibition is now traveling around the world and abook has been published (Here Is New York 2002a) A second location with abroader mandate History Unframed opened brie y in April 2002 on 1105 SixthAvenue at 42nd Street near the International Center for Photography whichawarded Here Is New York the 2002 Cornell Capa Award for distinguished achieve-ment in photography All those who submitted photographsmdashamateurs and pro-fessionals alikemdashhave been invited to be interviewed on video about the imagesthey contributed the nal interviews were incorporated into the exhibition itselfat 116 Prince Street After the opening of History Unframed contributors to thatexhibit were also invited to be part of a group portrait

Here Is New York takes its name from EB Whitersquos famous essay written in aManhattan hotel room during a hot summer in 1948 and speci cally from an om-inous passage that anticipated the disaster

The city for the rst time in its long history is destructible A single ightof planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fan-

Kodak Moments 21

tasy burn the towers crumble the bridges turn the underground passagesinto lethal chambers cremate the millions The intimation of mortality ispart of New York in the sound of jets overhead in the black headline of thelatest edition (194950ndash51)

Indeed during World War II there were two incidents of American warplanesaccidentally crashing into Manhattan skyscrapers as discussed above This worst-case scenario was Hitlerrsquos best-case scenario as recalled by Albert Speer in his se-cret diaries published just one year prior to Whitersquos book Speer reports

[He] never saw him [Hitler] so worked up as toward the end of the warwhen in a kind of delirium he pictured for himself and for us the destruc-tion of New York in a hurricane of re He described the skyscrapers beingturned into gigantic burning torches collapsing upon one another theglow of the exploding city illuminating the dark sky ([1948] 197687)

Here Is New York was staffed by volunteers from the cityrsquos most distinguishedphotographers curators and editors to amateur photographers Professionals se-lected the images from the submissions and they and others logged and scannedthe images printed them out on demand and assisted with sales As the projectexpanded much of the printing was done elsewhere

During the rst few months after 911 the Prince Street room was more like alaboratory a lightroom for digital images rather than a darkroom for analog lmVisitors lled the space and spilled out onto the street At its peak the space ac-commodated more than 3000 visitors a day and many of them lined up along thesidewalk for hours waiting to enter Some 300000 people saw the exhibition overthe 12 months that it occupied the Prince Street venue

With a collection of 7000 photographs which is still growing and 15 millionvisitors to the exhibition worldwide thus far ldquoHere Is New York is without ques-tion the largest archive of its kind in history and may well become the mostlooked-at exhibition of our timerdquo (Here Is New York 2002b) The sale of images

7 Responding to a sensethat 911 was the mostphotographed disaster inhistory the project Here IsNew York Images fromthe Frontline of HistoryA Democracy of Photo-graphs invited everyone tosubmit photographs Theimages by professionals andamateurs alike were in-stalled in a vacant Sohostorefront without frames orattribution and sold for$2500 each the money go-ing to the Childrenrsquos AidSociety The exhibition wasintended not only to docu-ment but also to memorial-ize the event (24 October2001) (Photo by BarbaraKirshenblatt-Gimblett)


8 Memorial wall by gra ttiartist Chico on Avenue Aat 14th Street lower Man-hattan Chico a celebratedgraf ti artist who lives onthe Lower East Side im-mediately painted this me-morial wall to honor thevictims of the attackNeighbors spontaneouslybrought candles owerspictures toys and religiousicons to the wall and gath-ered there to pay their re-spects to the dead (14September 2001) (Photo byBarbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett)

has already generated more than $600000 for the Childrenrsquos Aid Society Theweb site in the form of an electronic archive lists all the places to which the ex-hibition will travel and collects commentaries on the photographs from anyonevisiting the site4 The web site which is a digital archive has already logged morethan one million hits A video and oral history component of the exhibition en-titled Here Is New York Voices of 911 opened at the Staten Island Historical Soci-ety in September 2002 All visitors whether or not they contributed photographsto the exhibition were invited to record their stories in any language in a privatevideo booth within the exhibition itself The invitationhas been issued in EnglishSpanish and Arabic

Public and continuous showings of this exhibition marked the rst anniversaryof the disaster Between 8 and 12 September 2002 images of the attacks in NewYork Pennsylvania and Washington DC were projected continuously on largevideo walls 13 2 18 feet in size on the Ellipse near the White House and in-stalled in the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC Versions of the exhibitionwill travel to several other cities in the United States Europe and Japan Consis-tent with the original conception of the project as a ldquodemocracy of photographsrdquothe images will appear unframed and without commentary or provenance in or-der ldquoto commemorate and memorialize these tragic events showing what hap-pened from as many different angles as possible as an aid both to healing and tograsping the human dimension of what took placerdquo in the words of Michael Shu-lan (Here Is New York 2002c)

Within about a week of the attacks outdoor shrines were discouraged if notprohibited and photographs and exhibitions of them became shrines in their ownright Shrines at Union Square were removed on 19 September because of a rainforecast according to Jane Rudolph spokesperson for New York Cityrsquos Depart-

Kodak Moments 23

9 Union Square whichstarts at 14th Street theline that demarcated the fro-zen zone became the focalpoint for spontaneous gath-erings vigils and memorials(14 September 2001)(Photo by BarbaraKirshenblatt-Gimblett)

ment of Parks and Recreation She explained that the memorials that could besalvaged were being saved until such time as museums and other institutions de-termined what should be done with them (in Jensen 2001) Shrines candles andmissing posters that appeared after 19 September were also removed after a shorttime due in part to safety issues (candle wax is slippery accumulation of debris)and plans to clean and renovate the area By June 2002 the Department of Trans-portation had posted notices at Ground Zero stating that memorabilia would beremoved daily

The many photographs that feature shrines were ultimately all that was left ofthe memorials ( Jensen 2001) At Union Square people posted photographs of theshrines that were once there with messages protesting their removal No longerwere the parks the cityrsquos ldquogreen cathedralrdquo in Parks Commissioner Henry Sternrsquoswords Makeshift public mourning had been supplanted by plans for a permanentmemorial (Magro 2001) Projects such as Here Is New York retain the spontaneousmakeshift and intensely personal quality of the many shrines that once coveredthe city Like the photo exhibit the memorial installations are dense ephemeraland assembled from inexpensive materials They are inclusive and raw They areself-organizing Above all by encouraging creativity without artistic ambitionthey help to close the gap between art and life

No wonder then that such exhibitions have become a place to mourn Someviewers attend to the many photographs taken by thousands of eyewitnesses in or-der to pay respect to victims and rescuers Others look at the pictures to impressupon themselves the magnitude of the disaster even as its meaning remains elu-sive Exit Art which de nes itself as a ldquonon-pro t interdisciplinary laboratory forcontemporary culturerdquo approached these issues by putting out a call for responsesto 911 (Exit Art 2001) The only requirement was that all submissions be on an85 2 11ndashinch piece of paper Contributors submitted writings drawings pho-tographs and collages The curators decided to accept everything There was tobe no selection Responses came from professional artists ordinary people andeven homeless individuals with no return address The result some 3500 submis-


sions was inclusive with no hierarchy and the contributions represented a widerange of perspectives Entries were mounted on simple magnetic strips hung fromthe ceiling row upon row in modular symmetry

While Exit Artrsquos Reactions and Here Is New York are not the only projects solic-iting photographs and other materials they are among the earliest and most effec-tive They are remarkable for many reasons not least of which has been theiropenness to material from all sources and the steps they have taken to encouragethe fullest possible participation Equivocating between affecting presence anddocumentation the kaleidoscopic panorama of images in such installations is atonce a patchwork of fragmentary glimpses an incomplete puzzle of loose piecesand a stuttering utterance Such installationsoffer a capacious space for response

Museums Respond

Art and historical collections in the World Trade Center itself were destroyedLost is the archive of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey which doc-umented the history of the cityrsquos infrastructure including the subway systemroads bridges and transportation networks Lost are the records of the 30-yearhistory of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Lost are materials excavatedfrom the 18th-century African Burial Ground and some 850000 19th-centuryobjects excavated in the Five Points area together with the documentation andrecords associated with them Lost are the art collections and records of some 500organizations rms and agencies that were located in the World Trade CenterNearby landmark buildings among the oldest in continuous use in Manhattanand their contents were also destroyed Lost are the archives of the Helen KellerInternational Foundation and ancient relics in the Church of St Nicholas (Har-graves 2002) Miraculously in the months that followed the attack some materialswere recovered from the debris including about 100000 negatives from the PortAuthority archive and some materials from the African Burial Ground

Museums below 14th Street found themselves in the frozen zone which thawedin stages over the course of several weeks Many of them assisted with the reliefeffort including the National Museum of the American Indian the Lower EastSide Tenement Museum and the Museum of Jewish Heritage whose groundswere a staging area for the relief effort5 Once they reopened attendance wasdown Many staff members were laid off and hours were reduced Some museumsoffered free admission and special programs on designated days Art museumsfunctioned as serene spaces of beauty where visitors could experience a momentof peace and hope in the face of trauma Within three weeks some of the muse-ums nearest to Ground Zero had reopened which was an achievement in itselfBut 911 now provided an inexorablemdashand uncontrollablemdashcontext for every-thing they and other museums in the city had been planning before 911

The Museum of the City of New York delayed the opening of its exhibitionon Arab Americans by six months and closed it on 11 September 2002 An onlinegallery featuring images brought by people to the museum after the exhibitionopened on 7 March 2002 includes a photograph of a memorial to Arab Ameri-cans who died in the World Trade Center attack (see Museum of the City of NewYork 2002) The Queens Museum of Art home of the Panorama of the City of NewYork the largest architectural scale model in the world focused a spotlight on thesection of the model where the World Trade Center is located and tied a redwhite and blue ribbon around the miniature towers

New York City museums feel a special responsibility to deal with the disasterand its aftermath now and for the future Besides delaying or revising exhibitionssome like the New-York Historical Society also created new ones such as Miss-ing Streetscape of a City in Mourning which featured actual memorials as well as

Kodak Moments 25

10 Panorama of the Cityof New York updated to1993 Queens Museum ofArt After 911 the twintowers still standing weretied with a mourning ribbonand spotlighted This pano-rama the largest architec-tural scale model in theworld was originally com-missioned by Robert Mosesfor the 1964 New YorkWorldrsquos Fair (13 October2001) (Photo by BarbaraKirshenblatt-Gimblett)

documentation of the many shrines that had sprung up all over the city The ex-hibition based on the work of Martha Cooper who has been photographingver-nacular New York for some 30 years was organized by City Lore New YorkCenter for Urban Folk Culture at the New-York Historical Society Missing be-came a memorial in its own right as did the exhibition in an adjoining galleryon the history of the World Trade Center created by the Skyscraper Museum be-fore 911

The National Museum of the American Indian opened Booming Out MohawkIronworkers Build New York on 26 April 2002 The exhibition of 67 photographshonors Mohawk ldquoskywalkersrdquo for their legendary skill in working on high steel6

The show focuses on two Mohawk communities the Akwesasne whose reserva-tions are in upstate New York Ontario and Quebec and the Kahnawake whosereservation is in Quebec Six generations of Mohawk ironworkers have helped tocreate Manhattanrsquos skyline including the World Trade Center and the EmpireState Building According to Doug Cuthand who belongs to the Little Pine FirstNation in Saskatchewan ldquoThere were about 100 Mohawk steel workers from thefamous Iron Workers Local 440 from Akwesasne at work in New York and NewJersey at the time of the attackrdquo The wing of the rst plane barely missed thecrane of one crew that was ldquoworking 50 oors up about 10 blocks from the WorldTrade Centre []rdquo After 911 Cuthand wrote in his web site

Local 440 is now recruiting to send a team of 30 workers with special train-ing in hazardous materials to join the search in New York and relieve thestressed workers Some of the workers who were in New York at the timehave already joined the dangerous search for survivors (Cuthand nd)7

Using their construction knowledge and skills they helped ldquoto dismantle what theirelders had helped to buildrdquo an experience captured on a radio documentary thataired on National Public Radio on 1 July 2002 (York Nelson and Silva 2002)Right after the attack Mohawk steelworkers also went to the National Museum


of the American Indian which is just blocks from the World Trade Center to talkwith the staff and offer assistance

Three weeks after 911 the web site of the Museum of Jewish Heritage A Liv-ing Memorial to the Holocaust which is located on the edge of Battery Park an-nounced ldquoThe museum is openrdquo Not when the museum is open but that it isopen I visited this museum in November 2001 to see Scream the Truth at the WorldEmanuel Ringelblum and the Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto This material isoverwhelming under the best of circumstances In the wake of 911 it takes onadded signi cance Oyneg shabes as the Hidden Archive was called dramatizes theimportance of documenting the moment as it is being lived and with the knowl-edge that the present is already historic Ringelblum and his team were deter-mined that the record of what they experienced would survive even if they didnot While the two situations are by no means comparable they both reveal therole of historyrsquos ordinary actors in creating the historical record even as they areliving it From that historical record we get the mundane everyday aspects of ex-traordinary times We learn not only what happened but also how it was experi-enced and understood Among the most touching artifacts in the Ringelblumexhibition are a humble and ephemeral theatre ticket a ration card for potatoesinstructions in Yiddish for how to prepare frozen potatoes and a label listing thetenants in a shared apartment with the number of rings for eachmdashring once forLurie twice for Rotsztajn and so on This one small artifact encapsulated the se-vere overcrowding in the ghetto where an average of nine people lived in a singleroom So too do the many artifacts associated with the disaster of 911 Newsweekphotographer Bill Biggart died while photographing the attack Although all hisclothing belongings three cameras and seven rolls of exposed lm were foundthe most vivid indication ldquothat hersquod been at the scene of one of the worldrsquos greatcon agrations was a burned edge on his press cardrdquo (Adler 2001)

Collecting the Present

As the quarantined area of Ground Zero got smaller the event got bigger Theepicenter may have been off limits but the event wasmdashand still ismdasheverywhereIt is ambient The disaster suffuses the life space Smoke and dust carried by thewind coated the surfaces of the city New York wore the disaster like a garmentWe breathed that dust and inhaled particles of the dead that oated in the air ForW Richard West Jr director of the National Museum of the American Indianwhose staff of 50 evacuated their of ces as the Towers were collapsing ldquoEssen-tially there was a mass human cremation and that is part of the two inches of dustthatrsquos on the ground and every surfacerdquo (in Harjo 2001)

Documentation has the task of going everywhere to capture everythingmdashanimpossible task Given the sheer volume of images and words the ldquomaprdquo (in thiscase documentation) threatens to become the territory Digital photographsviewable on the spot occupy the same moment and place as the event they rec-ord They become part of the event in the very moment of their creation Thesheer volume of testimony and images in the months that followed make thedocumentation seem as if it were coterminous with the disaster Documentationanticipates a future looking back It attempts to secure an ephemeral experienceof a durable site for future recall

Not only photography but also archiving is being undertaken by amateurs andprofessionals alike Within six months of the attack eBay the worldrsquos largest on-line auction was posting a 911 multimedia archive on CD-ROM that includesemergency radio calls for help Declaring that ldquolsquoYou cannot understand the mag-nitude of the destruction unless you see it at ground zerorsquo thatrsquos what everyonewho has seen it has saidrdquo the auction encourages potential buyers to identify with

Kodak Moments 27

survivors witnesses and rescue workers as well as with the victims The CD-ROM archive is billed as follows ldquoThis archive will give you the experience ofhaving been at ground zero Itrsquos an experience you will not forgetrdquo (eBay 2002)The experience in question is that of the archive itself This CD-ROM is but oneof hundreds of objects associated with 911 events that continue to be auctionedon eBay As the anniversary of 911 approached critic Richard Goldstein was notalone in feeling that ldquoMourning in America never ends until the last commemo-rative coin is sold Closure is another word for nothing left to showrdquo (Goldstein2002)

The present is generally the preserve of the anthropologist the ethnographerIt has been said that for the present to become history 50 years must pass But his-toryrsquos famous actors not least of which are our own American presidents work inthe present to control their historical legacy 911 has created the powerful sense thatone is a witness to onersquos own experience and obligated to record it in some wayThis takes historically speci c forms tailored to the events themselves whetherOyneg shabes Ringelblumrsquos project or the Here Is New York installation Bothwere born of the responsibility for ensuring that a historical experience will beremembered Both raise the question of what should be collected and preservedFrom a museological perspective 911 is everywhere How do you collect a pres-ent that is already historical

Within a matter of days individuals and groups created web sites to rememberthe victims record survivorsrsquo stories determine whether legends and rumors aretrue or false offer messages of consolation make proposals for memorials or re-building at the site of the disaster gather images and invite artists to respondcreatively Recognizing the power of the Internet to document this historic mo-ment the Library of Congress in collaboration with the Internet Archive andwebArchivistorg began collectingweb sites within hours of the attack and launchedhttpseptember11archiveorg a site that now contains 5 terabytes of dataand is still growing

Not only images documents web sites and artifacts but also sound is beingcollected audio les some of them radio broadcasts are online A day after theattack the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress immediately or-ganized a project to interview people about their reaction to the trauma as closeto the events as possible They were inspired by the interviews that Alan Lomaxconducted in 1941 just after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Some folkloristsfelt unprepared to interview people about traumatic events so close to their oc-currence The material they gathered now forms the basis for Looking Back 911Across America which is described as ldquoan acoustic exhibit presenting Americanvoices in the aftermath of attackrdquo Based on 300 hours of recordings this 37-minute audio exhibit is not only available online but also was distributed on CD-ROM to public radio stations and to groups who were encouraged to play theCD-ROM in a quiet space as a way to remember and re ect on the events of911 The program was played in the Orientation Theatre of the Jefferson Build-ing at the Library of Congress 11ndash14 September 2002 for the anniversary of 911(Duke University 2002)

Columbia Universityrsquos Oral History Research Of ce is conducting interviewsacross the country for Narrative Networks The World Trade Center Tragedy at threepoints in time immediately in the wake of the disaster six months later and twoyears after This project is informed by two ideas Stories are a way to make senseof our experiences and responses to the catastrophe are extraordinarily diverseThe initiative for oral histories is also coming from groups with particular interestsor professions for example the Bellevue Alumnae Center for Nursing History isinterviewing nurses who were involved in responding to 911

The Uniformed Fire ghters Union however resisted the efforts of department


of cials to create an oral history of the experience of re ghters at the disaster sitebecause they suspected that the interviews were a pretext for a criminal investi-gation Fire department of cials wanted to identify precisely where each man haddied not only to better understand why so many re ghters perished but so thatmourning families could know what happened to their loved ones The inter-views which were to be conducted close to the time of the event while memo-ries were fresh included such straightforward and open-ended questions asldquoWhere were you that morningrdquo and ldquoWhat did you seerdquo (Baker 2001B10)Although such questions are routine in disciplinary investigations and certainlynot unusual in oral history interviews the union did not trust the interviewersWhile safety interviews are standard procedure the union objected to the use ofldquoshoe iesrdquo slang for interviewers from the Bureau of Investigation and Trials andvideo cameras The union instructed remen to refuse to be interviewed exceptby quali ed re chiefs and without video cameras (see Uniformed Fire ghtersAs-sociation 2001a) The union was also concerned that such interviews could beharmful given the mental state of traumatized re ghters and their overlookedneed for crisis counseling In addition the union objected to the use of Safety Op-erating Battalion chiefs as interviewers because the re department closed theirone Safety Operating Battalion in order to free the chiefs to conduct interviewsthat were strictly historical and not safety or fatal re-related interviews (see Uni-formed Fire ghters Association 2001b) In the context of internal and externalinvestigations into what went wrong with the emergency response ldquothe Fire De-partment and the cityrsquos Law Department have taken the position that oral historyinterviews of re ghters about the events of Sept 11 are secret documents thatcan never be disclosed to the publicrdquo (Dwyer and Flynn 20021) The line be-tween oral history interview and inquiry has been blurred Nonetheless many re ghters have agreed to be interviewed some interviews have been releasedand Firehouse Magazine has run stories of re ghters who worked at Ground Zero

Fire ghters generally avoid the limelight and some did not want to be cele-brated as heroes particularly when so many of their brothers perished while theysurvived If anything the adulation made the grief harder to bear (Luo 2002)Moreover internal investigations and aggressive reporting by the New York Timesreveal that many re ghters died needlessly They would have escaped if not forfailures of communication command and control which raise issues of account-ability Not only did their radio system fail to work properly but also it was notlinked to the police radio system which warned police of cers to evacuate Mostof them escaped Some re ghters wrote their social security numbers on theirforearms with marker a poignant sign of what they anticipated as they entered theburning towers With as many as 20 services a day the Uniformed Fire ghtersAssociation stressed the importance of participation given that ldquowe have multipleservices every day that make large showings virtually impossiblerdquo (2001c)

The Sonic Memorial Project established by the producers of the NPR series Lostand Found Sound started collecting audio artifacts right after the attacks with thegoal of preserving ldquosound that captures the life and spirit of the World Trade Cen-terrsquos three-decade history as well as sound related to the events of September 112001rdquo Keenly aware of the fragile and ephemeral nature of these ldquoaccidental doc-umentariesrdquo which tend to be erased or lost they continue to solicit ldquovoicemailmessages dictation tapes corporate videos tourist videos oral histories recordedbusiness transactions recordings of concerts and events in the Plaza and videoe-mails sent from the WTC Observation Deckrdquo (Corporation for Public Broad-casting 2002) Verizon the New York area local phone company suspended itspolicy of automatically deleting old voice mail greetings and messages so thatthose recorded on the morning of 911 could be saved to cassette They were notonly of evidentiary value but also were treasured mementos for the bereaved fam-

Kodak Moments 29

11 Writing in dust on a re truck near Ground Zero(13 September 2001)(Photo q Martha Cooper)

ilies (George 2001) The cockpit recordings from the doomed planes are also sonicartifacts even if they cannot be made public Some of the families of those whoperished in the plane that crashed into a eld in Philadelphia were brought to-gether in a closed room to listen to the cockpit recording with the understandingthat they would not reveal its contents

The Sonic Memorial Project has now amassed

tapes of weddings atop the World Trade Center recordings of the buildingsrsquoelevators and revolving doors home videos made by a lawyer in his 42nd oor of ce sounds of the Hudson riverfront recordings of late night Span-ish radio drifting through the halls as Latino workers clean the of ces an


interview with the piano player at Windows on the World sharing his rec-ollections video e-mail greetings that tourists sent from the kiosks on the110th oor voicemail messages from people who worked in the WorldTrade Center (Sonic Memorial Project 2002)

Materials were collected in a variety of ways including a voice mailbox that NPRcreated as well as from talk radio for example ldquoOn the Linerdquo Brian Lehrerrsquos pro-gram on WNYC Samples from the collection are now online and continue toprovide the basis for radio programs including ldquoThe Building StewardessesrdquoldquoWalking High Steelrdquo ldquoRadio Row The Neighborhood before the World TradeCenterrdquo ldquoStories of Love amp Marriage atop the World Trade Centerrdquo and manyothers that were planned for the anniversary of 911 (Everhart 2002) Taking adifferent approach ldquoOn the Edge of Ground Zerordquo a Soundprint radio docu-mentary recorded 24 hours along the perimeter of Ground Zero from 700 amon 12 December to 700 am on 13 December The web site is organized as atimeline with clocked images journal entries and audio les (Abumrad 2002)

Just as there is anxiety about taking photographs and ocking to the disastersitemdashthis behavior has been compared to ambulance chasing and rubberneckingat car crashesmdashthere is uneasiness about collecting the remains of a disaster beforethe body is cold These issues have been raised with respect to Missing Last Seenat the World Trade Center September 11 2001 an exhibition featuring between 175and 210 iers of missing persons that has been traveling around the United States( Jones 2002) An estimated 500 to 700 families created and posted about 100000 iers Rumors that victims were lying unconscious and unidenti ed in hospitalsor wandering around in a daze near the disaster site prompted some to post asmany as 500 or even 1000 copies of a single ier Louis Nevaer collected andsaved more than 400 different posters He was assisted by the NationalGuardsmenat the Armory whose outer walls were covered with iers The Armory housedthe Family Assistance Center A writer editor and activist Nevaer received some nancial support for the exhibition from the Mesoamerica Foundation a Mexi-can nonpro t organization for which he worked

12 Papers from the WorldTrade Center were carriedby gusts of winds as far asBrooklyn They were col-lected and incorporated intospontaneous memorials likethis one a memorial wallcreated by the legendarygraf ti artist Chico on Ave-nue A at 14th Street inLower Manhattan (14 Sep-tember 2001) (Photo byBarbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett)

Kodak Moments 31

Reporting on the exhibition at the Artistsrsquo Museum in Washington DC whichcoincided with the six-month anniversary of 911 Garance Franke-Ruta was dis-turbed by what she characterized as a ldquojarring tasteless presentation of some ofSeptember 11rsquos most powerful fragmentsrdquo (Franke-Ruta 2002) While she ad-mired Nevaerrsquos intentionsmdashto provide an opportunity for the people outsideNew York to know mourn and honor those who diedmdashshe questioned the waythe exhibition was installed First she objected to the aestheticizationof the iersonly the colored ones were shown (the black-and-white ones were considered lesscompelling) and the iers were framed Second such material deserved a moreprestigious venue than the ldquomiddlebrowrdquo Artistsrsquo Museum Third ldquothe showrsquosMarch 8 opening struck an offensively irreverent tone Gallery-goers wanderedamidst the posters drinking glasses of chardonnay while live jazz music thrummedin the background from a band playing in another gallery down the hallrdquo (Franke-Ruta 2002)8

Having been in New York when the iers covered the walls of the city Franke-Ruta was painfully aware of the inadequacy of the gallery installation eventhough it did include photographs of the iers in situ and condolence booksWhat this exhibition missed was attention to what Jan Ramirez director of theNew-York Historical Society called ldquoa threshold experience from a design per-spectiverdquo which the Societyrsquos Missing Streetscape of a City in Mourning sought toaddress Some families ldquowerenrsquot ready to have their loved ones historicized soquicklyrdquo according to Ramirez (in Franke-Ruta 2002) One way that the New-York Historical Societyrsquos Missing exhibition addressed this problem was to displayphotographs of posters and memorials in context and to bring elements fromshrinesmdashand in some cases the shrine itself with missing iers still attachedmdashinto the gallery There were refreshments at the opening but they were served ina hallway not in the galleries themselves As was the case with the Here Is New Yorkand Exit Art installations the photographs were deliberately not framed As a re-sult the installation felt more like the street than an art gallery in keeping with itscharacter as a memorial in its own right As Maya Lin noted any effort tore-create ldquothe magic of the makeshiftrdquo would produce ldquoa totally different expe-riencerdquo because the power of these self-organizing memorial efforts lies in theldquospontaneity of raw pure emotionrdquo (Lin 2002)

There is an understandable discomfort about taking historical distance in theheat of the moment Wait for historical distance or seize the moment As cam-eraman Evan Fairbanks re ected ldquothis event just became instant historyrdquo (inMandell 20011) That is how it was experienced An arrested moment How thento deal with that experience in an historically responsible way The New-YorkHistorical Society and the Municipal Art Society took a nimble approach in theirefforts to capture the moment and were already preparing exhibitions withinweeks of the event As Kenneth Jackson president of the New-York HistoricalSociety remarked ldquoMy gut instinct was that this is the most important event inNew York City history and that it was right in front of my facerdquo (in Collins2002A14)

A Year Later

Some institutions like the Museum of the City of New York have taken a slowapproach to creating exhibitions that deal with the disaster preferring more dis-tance from the events and a more selective approach to the collection of iconicartifacts for telling the story Not surprisingly the museum commissioned RalphAppelbaum who is famous for his storytelling approach to museums to designthe exhibitions in what were to be its new quarters in the Tweed Courthousedowntown Mayor Bloomberg has nixed that plan This and other museums have


been collecting such iconic objects as a crushed retruck ldquoa pair of muddy boots respirators and masksdust from the windowsills of Battery Park City even theclothes worn by Mayor Giulianirdquo and a twisted vene-tian blind (Pollock 200156) The Museum of the Cityof New York has even added the ldquoWall of Prayerrdquo to itscollection This spontaneous assemblage of images andmessages on a construction site fence was located at oneof the entrances to Bellevue Hospital This kind of col-lecting is more like the time capsulemdashitems from thepresent in anticipation of the futuremdashthan an archeo-logical record though archeologists were vital to theforensic effort while Ground Zero remained a crimescene that evidence will become part of the historicalrecord as well

The New York Fire Museum collected stories andphotographs in preparation for an exhibition in Sep-tember 2002 They focused on stories and photographsthat document both the rescue effort and the many me-morials to re ghters who perished trying to save oth-ers The Smithsonian Institution has used the timebetween the attack and its rst anniversary to solicitmaterial for September 11 Bearing Witness to History anexhibition that is occupying 5000 square feet of theNational Museum of American History from 11 Sep-

tember 2002 to 11 January 2003 This exhibition features amateur and professionalphotographs about 50 artifacts that include everything from fragments of theWorld Trade Center to Mayor Giulianirsquos baseball cap and cell phone a videomontage of news coverage the stories of individual witnesses and an area for vis-itors to record their own stories in a variety of formats The exhibition is like amemorial in character A special preview of this was organized for the families ofthose who perished without any media present9

Leading up to the opening on 11 September 2002 the project posted materialsin the online September 11 Digital Archive which solicits responses and makes themavailable online10 Of special interest is the collection of 2000 weblogs or blogsmany of them created just after the attack11

Blogs which often feature personal narratives of daily life and the expression ofindividual experience and feeling have proven to be a powerful medium for deal-ing with the collective trauma of 911 and have attracted witnesses and survivorsas well as ldquowar bloggersrdquo Blogs a self-organizing phenomenon are a prime formof micromedia although corporations are starting to create them as well Whiledifferent from such projects as Exit Artrsquos Reactions and Here Is New York blogs sharetheir participatory and grassroots qualities and some of the immediacy of photog-raphy (Blood 2000)12 As Steven Levy notes ldquoThe blog format lends itself to a newkind of reporting on-the-spot recording of events instantly beamed to the NetrdquoConnected to the Internet bloggers can take notes at conferences and upload themimmediately so that others can follow the proceedings ldquolike fans at baseball gameslistening to play-by-play on transistor radiosrdquo (Levy 2002)

With so many people taking their own pictures and creating their own websites and in light of highly successful projects like Here Is New York which quicklymet the need for a collective response even the largest museums are making thecuratorial process itself more inclusive Some of them are trying to involve virtu-ally all who are willing to tell their stories contribute their photographs or other-wise assist in the effort to record and re ect on what happened There are however

13 amp 14 Recovered brief-case and curatorrsquos notes Ac-cording to the curatorrsquosnotes this briefcase was re-covered from the WorldTrade Center wreckage andreturned to Lisa Le er anAon Risk Services employeewho escaped As DavidShayt (September 11 Col-lecting Curator Division ofCultural History NationalMuseum of American His-tory) explained it is ldquonotthe sort of thing we wouldcollect unless it had someextraordinary iridescentstoryrdquo (httpamericanhistorysieduseptember11collectionrecordaspID 4 41)

Kodak Moments 33

differences in tone set by the rules of engagement The request for material gen-erally includes instructions not to send unsolicited material but rather to contactthe museum rst and emphasizes greater curatorial control over what messageswill be posted online and what materials will be included in the exhibition ExitArt in contrast accepted and exhibited everything that came in

The American Association of Museums and the Institute of Museum and Li-brary Services issued a call to action ldquoCelebrate Americarsquos Freedoms A Day ofRemembrancerdquo with suggestions for how museums might commemorate 911(American Association of Museums 2002) Museums were encouraged to workclosely with their local communities in planning events Many museums devel-oped special exhibitions and programs and honored local rescue workers hostedconcerts ceremonies and dialogues and provided opportunities for visitors to re- ect upon and express their thoughts and feelings in journals murals and albumsSome created collective memorials in such forms as quilts paper cranes time cap-sules and oral displays Museums were encouraged to extend their hours andmany offered free admission to these commemorative events

Many museums commemorated the occasion with patriotic displays and af r-


mations of such American values as freedom tolerance and the willingness to diefor onersquos country The Barona Cultural Center and Museum a tribal museum inLakeside California honored their Native American veterans ve of whom arePurple Heart recipients The Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania presentedAmericans by Choice Photographs of Arab Americans in New York derived from thelarger exhibition on this subject at the Museum of the City of New York the pub-lic programs that accompanied this exhibition explored Arab American responsesto 911 Many museums have developed special ceremonies ranging from a pa-rade of re trucks to sound their sirens at the close of the ceremonies (CincinnatiMuseum Center) to the ringing of the American Freedom Bell every hour (Char-lotte Museum of History) Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa Oklahoma which dis-played handwritten documents including letters from Thomas Jefferson and asigned copy of the Declaration of Independence asked visitors to record their re-sponses to 911 in longhand on special heavy paper The responses will be boundinto cloth books and enter the museumrsquos collection Focusing on the themes offreedom and what it means to be an American several museums particularlythose devoted to American history have developed programs that include thenational anthem pledge of allegiance displays of ags and honoring of war veter-ans The Sam Rayburn Museum in Bonham Texas sponsored a ldquoPatriotic Win-dow Dressing Contestrdquo (American Association of Museums 2002)

Jewish Resonances and Responses

While the attacks on 911 targeted the United States rather than any particulargroup those events were experienced differently in various communities In whatways is 911 also a Jewish story and who will tell that story Certainly there wereJewish victims but they were not singled out as Jews Rather the diversity of thevictims is one of the hallmarks of the event as was the fusing of ldquoAmerican iden-tity and American Jewish identityrdquo in the words of Alan Dershowitz which ap-peared in the 14 September edition of the Forward (in Eden 2001) Missing noticesand memorials to Jews who died in the attacks can be found alongside those ofeveryone else Given their long history of responding to violence that was targetedspeci cally at Jews are Jewish museums equipped to respond to an event likethismdashan event that had its Jewish victims but did not single them out for beingJewish Who is documenting Jewish experiences and responses to the events of911 Who is collecting material conducting interviews and planning exhibi-tions that will bring the perspective of Jewish museums to this event

The New York Times reported on students from Stern College for Women whosat shifts guarding the dead outside the New York Medical Examinerrsquos Of cewhere a morgue renamed Memorial Park had been improvised in refrigeratedtrucks that parked within a large tent The Forward reported on the role of theHatzolah Orthodox volunteer ambulance corps in speeding injured rescue work-ers to New York University Hospital the dilemma of celebrating joyous holidayslike Simchat Torah in the midst of tragedy and lessons learned from Holocaustsurvivors about ldquosurvivor guiltrdquo collective mourning and pervasive sense of vul-nerability

Jewish organizations issued guidelines and curricula to assist Jews in respondingto the tragedy These documents suggested appropriate prayers (Kaddish El MaleiRakhamim) rituals (lighting a memorial candle) activities (donating blood vis-iting the sick giving charity reciting and studying sacred texts) and psychologicaladvice ( Jewish Education Center of Cleveland 2001)13 Jewish communal eventsbecame memorial services and the question arose of how to conduct synagogueservices under such circumstances Should the liturgy be left alone or should thecongregation argue with it Those who attended services found themselves ldquopeo-

Kodak Moments 35

ple spottingrdquo to determine who was missing Empty pews were a bad sign (Coo-per 2002)14

There are even Jewish 911 artifactsmdashor at least artifacts that have a specialresonance after 911 The Workmenrsquos Circle Bookstore is offering T-shirts withthe familiar ldquoI Love New Yorkrdquo slogan emblazoned on them in Yiddish Pro tsof the sales will go to funds providing relief for the 911 disaster Umbrellas withthe Yiddish slogan are also available The Orthodox community has produced itsown video and book15

Jews also expressed feelings of vulnerability not only was America under at-tack but also Jews were being blamed Muslim extremists identi ed Jews withNew York City and with American capitalism16 Americans were blaming Jewsfor the close ties between the United States and Israel According to a rumorthat circulated shortly after the attacks Jews working in the World Trade Centerhad received phone calls from Israel warning them not to go to work on 911(Snopescom 2001) Israelis noted that now Jews in the United States would knowwhat it is like to live with terrorism on their front steps Americans know ter-rorism from movies in contrast with the Israeli reality according to Doron Ro-senblum commentator for the liberal Israeli newspaper Harsquoaretz (2001) Jewishcommunal leaders anticipated that the terrorist attacks would make Americans re-alize what Israelis face on a daily basis (Eden 2001) Perhaps the United States andits allies would nally realize that terrorism is not just Israelrsquos problem Jews likemany other Americans have expressed grave concerns over the erosion of civilliberties and anti-immigrant sentiment in the name of national security

The Museum of Jewish History A Living Memorial of the Holocaust prepareda special exhibition for the anniversary of 911 entitled Yahrzeit September 11 Ob-served in keeping with the Jewish tradition to observe the anniversary of a deathThis museum is not only located a few blocks from Ground Zero but also on aland ll created from the earth that was dug out to create the foundation for theWorld Trade Center In April 2002 curator Jill Vexler put out a call for objects ordocuments associated with 911 and the days immediately following as well asattempts to memorialize the missing or dead responses in synagogues churchesand mosques schools and businesses and volunteer efforts (Vexler 2002)

Mirroring Evil

The Jewish Museum in New York delayed the opening of its controversial ex-hibition Mirroring Evil Nazi Imagery Recent Art from fall 2001 to 17 Marchndash30June 2002 Five years in the making and controversial under any circumstancesthe exhibition now found itself in a context it could never have anticipatedShortly after the attacks President Bush declared in Biblical tones ldquoWe are in acon ict between good and evil and America will call evil by its namerdquomdashwithGod on the side of good Putting the world on notice he declared that you areeither with us or against us He referred to this war as a ldquoCrusaderdquo and to the warin Afghanistan as ldquoOperation In nite Justicerdquo to the protest of Muslims who in-sisted that only God could mete out in nite justice after which the name waschanged to ldquoOperation Enduring Freedomrdquo Osama bin Laden became ldquothe evilonerdquo Provoking protests at home and abroad Bush identi ed an ldquoaxis of evilrdquowhich included Iraq Iran and North Korea and was later expanded to includeCuba Libya and Syria

Such statements with allusions to Satan and Armageddon applied simple di-chotomies to complex situations and served to foreclose public debate WhenPresident Bush asked ldquoWhy do they hate usrdquo he was not calling for the kind ofself-scrutiny envisioned by Mirroring Evil The Jewish Museum intended MirroringEvil as a ldquocautionary talerdquo a warning about the potential for evil in all of us and in


our own society (and not as a Holocaust memorial) The exhibition featured thework of 13 contemporary artists under the age of 50 who make conceptual andinstallation art and work in various media including photography digital media lm and sculpture Four of them are Jewish The others are Polish German Aus-trian English Scottish and French All the works in the exhibition use Nazi im-agery with the exception of Alan Schechnerrsquos Bar Code to Concentration CampMorph and Self-Portrait at Buchenwald Itrsquos the Real Thing both of them digitalworks In the latter image the artist has inserted himself into the famous MargaretBourke-White photograph of prisoners in their barracks after the American lib-eration of Buchenwald in 1945 The artist who wears a striped uniform and holdsa red can of Diet Coke is standing amid inmates

Except for Schechner the artists in the exhibition do not focus on the Holo-caust in their work The Holocaust is but one of several themes in larger projectsdealing with mass culture fashion consumption capitalism and conformismThese artists create works that actively engage and unsettle the viewer ZbigniewLibera who created the Lego Concentration Camp set is interested in the moralprovocation of surreal objects Roee Rosenrsquos Live and Die as Eva Braun HitlerrsquosMistress in the Berlin Bunker and BeyondmdashAn Illustrated Proposal for a Virtual-RealityScenario Not to be Realized asks the viewer to identify with Eva Braun as she andHitler have their last sexual encounter recounted in sweaty detail just before Hit-ler kills her and commits suicide

One inspiration for the exhibitionrsquos interpretive framework was Susan Sontagrsquosfamous 1975 essay ldquoFascinating Facismrdquo which connected the appeal of fascistdesign in the past as seen in everything from posters to uniforms to the sexualizingof fascist trappings today ([1975] 1980)17 Some of the artists and interpretive textpanels in the exhibition highlighted similarities between advertising and propa-ganda as instruments for the engineering of consent the dangers of conformismand the decadence of consumption Obsession a video by Maciej Toporowicztook as its point of departure af nities between fascist aesthetics such as the cultof beauty and idealization of the body and contemporary preoccupations withbrands fashion and physical perfection as exempli ed in Calvin Klein advertise-ments After the 911 attack on the symbol of world nance such critiques ofcapitalism seemed either trivial or too close to the knuckle if more germane thanever given that one answer to the question ldquoWhy do they hate usrdquo is that massmedia and consumer society erode Islamic values by promoting alcohol and drugspromiscuity materialism and immorality

Even before 911 there were concerns that equating the evils of the Holocaustwith the evils of capitalism trivialized and demeaned the Holocaust while someof the artists insisted that Holocaust indoctrination and mass media had alreadydone the job Some argued that the artists and the exhibition glamorized Nazis orthat the identi catory exercise would make the Nazis ldquounderstandablerdquo and view-ers sympathetic Others expressed concern that the Holocaust was off limitswhenit comes to ctive liberties and playful speculation even for art (see Lang 2000Langer 1998)

Mirroring Evil created a context for these works which were brought togetherbecause they shared an irreverent approach to Holocaust representation which isthought to indicate a shift in sensibility and iconography associated with a youngergeneration This generation is said to know the Holocaust largely through massmedia and to have become unresponsive to Holocaust memorials museums andcurricula created by earlier generations In contrast with most Holocaust artwhich focuses on victims and their experience this work was selected for its useof Nazi imagery itself a kind of taboo and the staging of scenarios that encouragethe viewer to identify with the perpetrators as a way of discovering their own ca-pacity for evil or the ldquolittle Nazi within usrdquo (Grossman 1999)18

Kodak Moments 37

15 Axe Throw a Frenchcomputer game on the Inter-net lets you ldquoPlay withthem like they play withyourdquo An ldquoEvilrdquo that can-not be located and capturedis fueling a shadow war thatuses voodoo violence to doto an elusive enemy whatthe war on the ground couldnot (httpwwwuzinagazcom)

However right after 911 how could this exhibition ask visitors to speculateabout their own potential for evil when they had just been traumatized by a dev-astating attack A speculative exercise had been upstaged by an actual event Visi-tors would be coming to the exhibition with a profound sense of their ownvulnerability Their overwhelming sense of victimhood was already being mobi-lized to strengthen patriotic support for the war on terrorism understood as a waron evil It was no more possible to expect Americans to identify with terrorists inorder to discover their own potential for evil than for Holocaust survivors toidentify with their victimizers in order to nd ldquothe little Nazi within usrdquo In thewake of 911 Holocaust survivors reported ashbacks ldquoThis is a catastrophe with re a catastrophe with ash a catastrophe with missing people of bodies inciner-ated without recovery This is something we went through with six millionrdquo(Rabbi Tzvi H Weinreb quoted in Wakin 2001B9) As another survivor who ob-jected to the exhibition commented ldquoIf I were a whale [] would I want to seea show made of scrimshawrdquo (Merken 2002) While this comparison captures aprevalent misapprehension of what the exhibition was about it does index objec-tions to the instrumentalization of the Holocaust and the limits of the Holocaustas an object lesson

Within a short time the Israeli-Palestiniancon ict escalated Ariel Sharon citedAmericarsquos war on terrorism as his mandate for Israelrsquos military responses to thesuicide bombings and President Bushrsquos ldquocrisprdquo message about good and evilwhich had prevailed in American policy on Afghanistan failed in what came tobe seen as the gray area of Middle East policy Israelis and Palestinians called eachother Nazis Palestinians compared their situation to Auschwitz and Buchenwaldand favorable American foreign policy on Israel was attributed at least in part tothe American Jewish electorate (see Hoffman and al-Mansour 2002)19 This sub-ject was also too volatile as a basis for identi catory exercises that would requireeach side to see themselves in the mirror of the other in order to envision them-selves as potential victimizers or as the evil the other sees20

The exhibition became a lightning rod for polarized debate even before it


opened While the exhibition had been delayed byabout six months the catalogue appeared on time andprovoked considerable opposition to the project Themuseum held rm in the face of demands that the ex-hibition be canceled and refused to remove the most of-fensive works At the same time the museum tookpains to contextualize the works of art and the exhibi-tion itself in a variety of ways including intensive pub-lic programs organized in collaboration with theAnimating Democracy Initiative21 The museum placedwarning labels in the exhibition alerting visitors thatsome Holocaust survivors were offended by the workmoved the most provocative works behind a barrier sothat visitors would have to seek them out and provideda quick exit from the exhibition should visitors wish toleave without walking through the entire show At theend of the exhibition a video presented a range ofviewpoints on the issues raised by the exhibition and atext panel alluding to the attack on the World TradeCenter invited visitors to think about how this disasterwould be remembered in the future Visitors needed noreminder They had already brought 911 with theminto the galleries and left their thoughts in the visitorsrsquo

book ldquoIf it [is] OK to depict ourselves as a victim of the Holocaust is it also OKto be a victim of the World Trade Center (3312002)rdquo

Finding a Moral Compass

The disaster is not limited to Ground Zeromdashto the ldquored zonerdquo or the ldquotraumazonerdquo as it is also called (Glanz and Lipton 2002A1 see also Rosenthal 2002)mdashand the six degrees of separation that link those closest to the catastrophe to ev-eryone else An open-ended war on terrorism has inspired a surge of patriotismand anti-immigrant sentiment in the name of national security Note the oppo-sition of Lynn Cheney former head of the National Endowment of the Human-ities and the wife of Vice President Cheney to the promotion of tolerance andmulticultural curricula What we need she said is an America- rst curriculumthat would ensure children knew more about America Multicultural curriculaimplied that Americans were at fault for not knowing more about Islam (WABC2001) The idea of a nation at war has licensed the erosion of civil liberties al-though as the ldquowar on terrorismrdquo was being launched in Afghanistan there wereprotests and as the anniversary approached and talk of invading Iraq escalatedsome commemorations of 911 called for peace

An ldquoEvilrdquo that cannot be located and captured is fueling a shadow war that usesweapons of digital manipulation to paint the world Talibanmdashfrom the rebuildingof Manhattan with a skyline of mosques to Toys ldquoRrdquo Us including Taliban Barbieand Tali-tubby This is how the world will look ldquoIf the Taliban winrdquo a phrasethat accompanies many such images Humor arrived belatedly relative to thespeed with which gallows humor has followed other crises but once it did voo-doo violence on an elusive enemy did what the war on the ground could not22

Axe Throw a computer game lets you ldquoPlay with them like they play with yourdquo(uzinagazcom 2002) Humor uses weapons of degradation Those weapons drawfrom the scatological (200 rolls of toilet paper bearing bin Ladenrsquos portrait weresent to the Pentagon in March and can now be purchased at Ground Zero itself )phallic bestial and homophobic imagination in order to dehumanize demonize

16 Imagining a rebuiltlower Manhattan hasprompted numerous satiricreactions from redesignedtwin towers through whichairplanes can y to a sky-line of mosques among themany responses to thespeculation ldquoIf the Talibanwinsrdquo Contributed byBetzabe Jara Carreto to theSpanish humor websitehttpwwwtonteriascom (httptonteriasiespanaestonteriasespecialtorresgemelasnuevastorresjpg)

Kodak Moments 39

and destroy the enemy But so too did our unfortu-nately named Of ce of Strategic In uence which cameunder attack By the end of February 2002 the decisionwas made to disband it Such images may circulate witha warning label ldquoNOTE Occasionally some Picturesmay be Tasteless Tacky and de nitely NOT PoliticallyCorrect In most cases thatrsquos what makes them so funnyDo not proceed if you are easily offendedrdquo (Strange-Cosmos 2002) They form a digital dime museum ofhoax and joke a tabloid of the really weird and weirdlyreal

Equivocations

The catastrophe has produced a series of equivocalsituations

Kodak moment or surrogate bodyCrime scene or tourist attractionMissing person notice or obituaryCheap souvenir or involuntary mementoldquoTragedy pro teeringrdquo or ldquoa place to put yourmemoryrdquoldquoAuction terroristsrdquo or ldquoguardians of memoryrdquoDocument or memorialInterview or therapeutic encounterVoyeurism or mourningThanotourism or pilgrimageAbove all the problem posed by documentation

whether through photographs or some other mediumis the presumed detachment associated with these activ-ities23 When where and how should documentation of memorials be exhibitedWill those images exceed their documentary status to become living memorialsin their own right Can the institutional context of the museum or gallery accom-modate the spontaneous memorial practices of visitors

The question of a memorial arose within days of the disaster and while NewYork City has many memorials commemorating other tragic events such a me-morial as this is unprecedented and has already been a subject of controversyThere have been temporary memorials the most visible being the ldquoTribute inLightrdquo Originally proposed within two weeks of the disaster as the ldquoPhantomTowersrdquo these beams of light reached into the sky from 11 March to 13 April2002 to mark the six-month anniversary of the event Julian LaVerdiere one ofthe artists involved in this collaborative project commented ldquoThose towers arelike ghost limbs we can feel them even though theyrsquore not there anymorerdquo (My-oda and LaVerdiere 200180) What you see in those beams of light are the pul-verized towersmdashincandescent dust When I looked up into the night sky I couldsee airplanes ying through the columns of light I tried to imagine what it waslike for people in the planes to glide effortlessly through their ghostly presence

There are no protocols for this situation Should people have been allowed tosee the site Should they be permitted to take photographs During the rst fewmonths after 911 the owner of NYC Tours refused to organize excursionswhose sole destination was Ground Zero but considered it important to stop atthe disaster site in the context of a standard city tour (Saulny 2001B1) While thecityrsquos economy depends on tourism and those gures dropped precipitously after911 there was reluctance to promote tourism that could be seen as pro ting

17 Wipe Out Terrorisman example of voodoo vio-lence using weapons of deg-radation Two hundred rollsof toilet paper bearing BinLadenrsquos portrait were sentto the Pentagon in March2002 and could be purchasedat Ground Zero shortlythereafter (httppoliticalhumoraboutcomlibrarygraphicsosama_tpjpg)


from the tragedy Besides many tourists who did come to New York at this timewhether or not they went to the site were in no mood to spend money and havea good time

By December 2001 the restrictions were easing Viewing platforms opened on30 December To alleviate the long lines and waiting there were tickets and eventickets were eliminated as access to the site was increased Photographs were al-lowed And perhaps most telling of all the language changed Those visiting thesite were no longer ldquotouristsrdquo They had become ldquopilgrimsrdquo although the NewYork Times estimates that New Yorkrsquos hottest new attraction will draw 36 millionvisitors in 2002 (Blair 2002) Two weeks before the 2002 anniversary of 911 2000Harley bikers rode 262 miles stopping at Somerset Pennsylvania where Flight93crashed the Pentagon and Ground Zero (Rosenstock 2002) Nonetheless thereare complaints that Ground Zero which is being managed by the cityrsquos Of ce ofEmergency Management not the New York City Convention and Visitors Bu-reau is becoming another stop on the tourist itinerary complete with tastelesssouvenirs and trophy snapshots24 The World Trade Towers themselves have en-tered the pantheon of world wonders posthumously

Can the memory palace of the museum ever approximate the memory palacethe musee imaginaire that the city itself has become

Notes1 Story told by Cicero in De Oratore and retold in Frances A Yates The Art of Memory (1966

1ndash2)2 This essay began as a series of over 30 e-mailsmdashinspired by the one that Martha Cooper sent

me right after the attackmdashwhich I transmitted during the days and months following 911Each one was titled ldquoOur Beautiful Towers RIP 1973ndash2001rdquo and contained an imagetaken at the time (or related to the moment when) the e-mail was transmitted I began writ-ing during the rst weeks after the attack in the present tense and published the rst itera-tion of this essay as ldquoOur Beautiful Towersrdquo in Samtid amp Museer (Museums amp the Present)3ndash4 (2001) which is published quarterly by Samdok a network of Swedish cultural historymuseums that collaborate on documenting contemporary life Since then the essay hasevolved I moved it into the past tense and continued to update it as the anniversary of 911

approached I would like to thank Martha Cooper Lorie Novak Diana Taylor MarianaHirsch Barbie Zelizer Jeffrey Shandler Emily Socolov Leshu Torchin the MemoryMattersproject and students in ldquoMuseum Theatrerdquo and ldquoTourist Productionsrdquo two courses that Itaught in the Department of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the ArtsNYUduring the fall of 2001 An earlier version of this article appeared on-line in the Tactical MediaVirtual Casebook 9-11 and After edited by Barbara Abrash and Faye Ginsburg (New YorkUniversity 2002) httpwwwnyuedufasprojectsvcbcase_911pdfskodakpdfUnless otherwise noted all web sites mentioned were revisited on 18 October 2002 and werestill current

3 The project was initiated by Gilles Peress a photographer with Magnum Photos who hasdocumented the massacres in Bosnia and Rwanda and Michael Shulin a writer and one ofthe owners of the building with the help of Charles Traub a photographer and chair of theMFA Photography and Related Media program at School of Visual Arts in Manhattan andAlice Rose George a distinguished curator and photography editor for such magazines asDetails Granta and Fortune See httpwwwhereisnewyorkorg

4 The information in this paragraph is taken from yers handed out at the exhibition See alsohttphereisnewyorkorgabout

5 The experience of the Museum of Jewish Heritage is detailed in Spilka (2002)6 While the exhibition focuses on the Mohawk skywalkers come from other Iroquois groups

as well7 Doug Cuthand who is a Native American lmmaker reported on the role of the Akwa-

sasne about a thousand of whom work on high-rise construction in Column 363 on hisBlue Hills Productions web site (Cuthand nd)

8 Photographs of the installation at the Hiddenbrooke Golf Club in Vallejo California (25

Februaryndash3 March 2002) show the iers (or copies of them) unframed and af xed haphaz-ardly to the walls with tape (City of Vallejo 2002)

Kodak Moments 41

9 This announcement appeared on the Families of September 11 web site httpwwwfamiliesofseptember11orgeventseventdetailaspevent_id4 23 which offers a comprehensivecalendar of memorial events including walks masses concerts meetings and receptionsOther activities listed on web sites from around the country include vigils ag raisings treeplantings interfaith services discussions tributes processionals and parades and NativeAmerican blessings

10 The September 11 Digital Archive is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution theMuseum of the City of New York New-York Historical Society City Lore New YorkCenter for Urban Folk Culture the City University of New Yorkrsquos American Social HistoryProject and George Mason Universityrsquos Center for History and New Media (2002a)

11 Their authors are part writer compiler editor curator and publisher Weblogs vary widelythey may combine elements of the digital diary or journal the personal web site a guide toa subject a collection of links digests essays opinion and quirky commentary What distin-guish them from other kinds of web sites are the frequent usually short dated entries Con-ciseness is highly valued as are wittiness and attitude The rst weblogs appeared in 1997Thanks to the introduction of blogging software in 1999 the blogging phenomenon hasgrown exponentially By August 2002 there were an estimated half million weblogs (Sep-tember 11 Digital Archive 2002b and 2002c) Although the weblog links listed in the refer-ences are no longer on the September 11 Digital Archives web site they can still be reached atthe URLs provided Weblogs are not necessarily updated and include broken links and linksto les that no longer exist

12 Blood distinguishes between the earlier type of weblog which was ldquoa mix of links com-mentary and personal notesrdquo that roamed the web at large from the more recent type whichis more like a ldquoshort-form journalrdquo The latter are updated often more than once a day andmay engage in conversation with other blogs Blogs attract their own fans and provide op-portunities for digital fame Perhaps because of the nature of the survey this kind of activitywas not noted in ldquoThe Commons of the Tragedy How the Internet Was Used by Millionsafter the Terror Attacks to Grieve Console Share News and Debate the Countryrsquos Re-sponserdquo by Lee Rainie Director and Bente Kalsnes Research Assistant (2001)

13 The document is undated but was issued quickly and not long after September 1114 I would like to thank Adrienne Cooper for sharing these experiences with me on August

24 200215 Jeffrey Shandler called my attention to the video and CD-ROM Video Pro les in Heroism

September 11 2001 by Aryeh Gelbard (2002) and the Yiddish book Himl signaln by YYS(2002)

16 Consider then the implications of feeding bagels and cream cheese to the Muslim prisonersheld in Guantanamo Bay (New York Times 2002 42)

17 ldquoFascinating Fascismrdquo rst appeared in the New York Review of Books (6 February 1975) andwas reprinted in 1980 The essay was prompted by the publication of Leni Riefenstahlrsquos TheLast of the Nuba (1974) the introduction to which whitewashed Riefenstahlrsquos career and JackPiarsquos SS Regalia (1974) which fetishized fascist trappings

18 Quoted in Norman L Kleeblatt Mirroring Evil Nazi ImageryRecent Art (200197)19 ldquoWelcome to the Worldrsquos Only Online Holocaust Museum Documenting the Israeli Ho-

locaust Against the Arab Peoplerdquo was researched and curated by former AP (New York bu-reau) reporter Michael Hoffman and Assad Said al-Mansour (2002)

20 While not particularly audible dissenting voices could be heard immediately and from vari-ous quarters including religious communities Some heard in Bushrsquos declaration ldquoto rid theworld of evilrdquo and to ldquobomb them back to the stone agerdquo a program of extirpation echoingHitlerrsquos ldquoFinal Solutionrdquo Others questioned the dualism noting that Americarsquos war on evilwas the mirror image of Bin Ladenrsquos war on evil and called for Americans to look into themirror (see Loy 2002)

21 The Animating Democracy Initiative was established in 1999 with the support of the FordFoundation to strengthen the role of the arts in civic dialogue (1999)

22 See for example OnlineVigilcom httpwwwonlinevigilorg NYCStories httpnycstoriescom which includes links to World Trade Center stories and folklore UrbanLegends Reference Pages httpwwwsnopes2comindexhtml Arts Wire httpwwwartswireorgcurrenthtmlnews3 The Onion httpwwwtheonioncomonion3734indexhtml and Dang Funny httpwwwdangfunnycom

23 Taking things a step further ldquotragedy pro teeringrdquo created havoc on eBay the auction web


site World Trade Center memorabilia as well as newspapersprinted at the time of the attackwent up for auction at in ated prices ldquoauction terroristsrdquo placed false bids many eBay usersexpressed disgust at the unseemly behavior and eBay rst implemented and then lifted aban on selling such items

24 Indeed the NYC amp Co web page for Lower Manhattan has hardly been altered except thatthe phantom towers have been slipped into the tourist itinerary as follows ldquoThe ghost of thetwo greatest the Twin Towers now has a viewing platform on Liberty Street where visitorscan pay their respectsrdquo (NYC amp Co 2002a) 911 is not included in the link to ldquoFun FactsAbout Lower Manhattanrdquo at the bottom of the page (NYC amp Co 2002b)

References

Abumrad Jad producer2002 ldquo24 hours on the Edge of Ground Zerordquo Documentary with Soundprint and

WNYC httpwwwoutpostsorgNew_Yorkindexhtm

Advanced Simulation Systems2002 Flight Simulators and Flight Training Devices httpwww ightsimulationcom

Adler Jerry2001 ldquoShooting to the Endrdquo Newsweek 15 October httpwwwmsnbccom

news639271asp0sp 4 w17b2BODY

Akira_AU2001 Operation Just Reward Version 2 Presented by War and Team Shadow http

wwwplanetrainbowsixcomatwarRSatwar_modsojrindexasp

Albino Blacksheep2002 New York Defender by Stef and Phil httpwwwalbinoblacksheepcom ash

nydefenderhtml

American Association of Museums2002 ldquoWhat Are Other Museums Doingrdquo Day of RemembranceAmerican Associa-

tion of Museums httpwwwaam-usorginitiativesmcaftk03cfm

Animating Democracy Initiative1999 httpwwwartsusaorganimatingdemocracyaboutindexasp

Baker Al2001 ldquoFire ghters Oppose a Plan to Record Their Memories of Sept 11rdquo New York

Times 7 DecemberB10

Beck Glenn2001 ldquoCoincidence or Conspiracyrdquo Glennbeckcom httpwwwglennbeckcom

news05172002shtml

Blair Jayson2002 ldquoGround Zero Crowds Donrsquot Please Everyonerdquo New York Times 26 JuneB1

Blood Rebecca2000 ldquoWeblogs A History and Perspectiverdquo Rebeccarsquos Pocket 7 September http

wwwrebeccabloodnetessaysweblog_historyhtml

Brown Roger William and James Kulick1977 ldquoFlashbulb Memoriesrdquo Cognition 5 173ndash99

Bumiller Elisabeth2001 ldquoBush and Blair Trade Praise at White House Love Festrdquo New York Times 8 No-

vemberB3

City of Vallejo2002 [Vallejo] News Bulletin February httpwwwcivallejocausGovSitedefault

aspserviceID1 4 229ampFrame 4 L1

Kodak Moments 43

CNN2001 ldquoMicrosoft to Alter lsquoFlight Simulatorrsquo Gamerdquo CNNcom Sci-Tech 14 September

httpwwwcnncom2001TECHptech0914microsoft ightsim

Collins Glenn2002 ldquoDisaster Rewrites Museumsrsquo Guidebooksrdquo New York Times 23 FebruaryA14

Cooper Adrienne2002 Personal communication with author 24 August

Corporation for Public Broadcasting2002 The Sonic Memorial Project httpwwwsonicmemorialorg A project of

National Public Radiorsquos Lost and Found Sound httpwwwnprorgprogramslnfsound

Cuthand Doug

nd Blue Hills Productions httpwwwdougcuthandcomColumns300Column363_dougcuthandhtml

Duke University2002 ldquoLooking Back 911 Across Americardquo Audio le Center for DocumentaryStud-

ies at Duke University httpcdsaasdukeeduexhibitslookingbackhtml

Dwyer Jim2002 ldquoBeneath the Rubble the Only Tool Was a Pair of Cuffsrdquo New York Times 30

OctoberB1

Dwyer Jim and Kevin Flynn2002 ldquoSept 11 Tape Heard in Secret in Fire Inquiryrdquo New York Times 11 July1

eBay2002 ldquo1000 Photo Images of WTC Attack and Aftermathrdquo eBay Item 1074801724

15ndash20 February httpwwwebaycom

Eden Ami2001 ldquoAmerica Reels as Terror War Hits Home Mideast Mayhem Invades Free World

in Apocalyptic Act That lsquoChanges Historyrsquo lsquoAmerican and Jewish Identities Mergeon a Day Like Thisrsquordquo Forward 14 September httpwwwforwardcomissues2001010914news1html

Everhart Karen2002 ldquoSonic Memorial Documentaries Recall Histories of the World Trade Centerrdquo

Current 13 May httpwwwcurrentorgdocdoc0209sonichtml

Exit Art2001 ldquoAbout Usrdquo httpwwwexitartorg

Filkins Dexter2002 ldquoBin Ladenrsquos Guys Have Cloaks and Daggers Toordquo New York Times 8 Septem-

ber sec 43

Franke-Ruta Garance2002 ldquolsquoMissingrsquo Sensitivity Washington DC Offers a Very Crude Commemoration

of 911rdquo The American Prospect 20 February httpwwwprospectorgwebfeatures200203franke-ruta-g-03ndash20html

Gefter Philip2001 Unpublished comments from the panel ldquoConfronting September 11 and Be-

yondrdquo Tisch School of the Arts Department of Art and Public Policy New YorkUniversity series ldquoRe ections on September 11 Antecedents and Conse-quencesrdquo 30 October 2001

Gelbard Aryeh producer2001 Video Pro les in Heroism September 11 2001 New York Studio 7 Productions Dis-

tributed by Sameach Music


George Lynell2001 ldquoVoices That Carry beyond the Towers lsquoSonic Memorialrsquo Will Preserve the

Trade Centersrsquo Aural Imagesrdquo Los Angeles Times 26 NovemberE1

Glanz James and Eric Lipton2002 ldquoRescuing the Buildings beyond Ground Zerordquo New York Times 12 Febru-

aryA1

Goedde Brian2001 ldquoThe Couprsquos Bomb MC Boots Riley and His Platformrdquo thestrangercom 11(1)

20ndash26 September httpwwwthestrangercom2001-09-20musichtml

Goldstein Richard2002 ldquoDay of Attunement Observing 9-11 the Jewish Wayrdquo Village Voice 4ndash10 Sep-

tember httpvillagevoicecomissues0236goldsteinphp

Grossman David1999 See Under LOVE NY Farrar Straus and Giroux

Hargraves Ruth2002 ldquoCataclysm and Challenge Impact of September 11 2001 on Our Nationrsquos Cul-

tural Heritagerdquo A Report for Heritage Preservation on Behalf of the HeritageEmergency National Task Force httpwwwheritagepreservationorgPDFSCataclysmpdf

Harjo Suzan Shown2001 ldquoNative Peoples in the Society of Sorrow and Justicerdquo Indian Country Today 19

September httpwwwindiancountrycom320

Here Is New York2001 ldquoAbout Usrdquo Here Is New York httpwwwhereisnewyorkorgabout

2002a Here Is New York A Democracy of Photographs Zurich and New York Scala

2002b ldquoHere Is New York Fact Sheetrdquo httphereisnewyorkorgcontactfactsheetasp

2002c ldquoPhoto archive to be displayed continuously on the Ellipse and at the CorcoranGallery in Washington DC for public re ection on the rst anniversary of 9-11

attacksrdquo Press release 19 August httphereisnewyorkorgwashington

Hoffman Michael and Assad Said al-Mansour curators2002 ldquoWelcome to the Worldrsquos Only Online Holocaust Museum Documenting the

Israeli Holocaust Against the Arab Peoplerdquo httpwwwhoffman-infocompalestinehtml

Jensen Jennifer2001 ldquoParks Removes Union Sq Memorial Fences Off Statuerdquo The Villager 10

October httpwwwzwirecomsitenewscfmnewsid4 2478574ampBRD41840ampPAG 4 461ampdept_id4 112392ampr 4 8

Jewish Education Center of Cleveland2001 ldquoThe Jewish Education Center of Clevelandrsquos Immediate Response Curriculum

September 11 2001 A Day of National Tragedyrdquo Curriculum Departmenthttpwwwjeccorgedrescurricirctragedypdf

Jones Bronston2002 ldquoMissing Last Seen at the World Trade Center on September 11 2001rdquo http

wwwbronstoncommissinghtm

Juon Steve ldquoFlashrdquo2002 ldquoThe Coup Party Music 74 ArkTommy Boyrdquo Review wwwrapreviewscom

5 January httprapreviewscomarchive2002_01_partymusichtml

Keegan Robert1999 Kodak The Kodak Century 1900ndash1999 Annual Report page 14 httpwww

kodakcomUSencorpannualReport99downloadpdfshistorypdf

Kodak Moments 45

Kleeblatt Norman L ed2001 Mirroring Evil Nazi ImageryRecent Art New York New Brunswick NJ Jewish

Museum and Rutgers University Press

Kuzub Ruth2001 ldquoLetter to the Editorrdquo Villager 3 October httpwwwzwirecomsitenews

cfmnewsid4 2444029ampBRD 4 1840ampPAG4 461ampdept_id4 237531

Lang Berel2000 Holocaust Representation Art within the Limits of History and Ethics Baltimore Johns

Hopkins University Press

Langer Lawrence L1998 Preempting the Holocaust New Haven Yale University Press

Levy Steven2002 ldquoLiving in the Blog-osphererdquo Newsweek 26 August httpwwwmsnbccom

news795156aspBODY

Lin Maya2002 ldquoThe Art of Honoring the Deadrdquo Newsweek 9 September httpwww

msnbccomnews801958asp

Linky and Dinky2001 http6482721920billsecretsshtml

Long Adam1946 ldquoScene of Plane Crash Last Night Airplane Crashes into SkyscraperCeiling Re-

duced by Fogrdquo New York Times 21 May1ff

Loy David R2002 ldquoA New Holy War Against Evil A Buddhist Responserdquo The Religious Consul-

tation on Population Reproductive Health and Ethics 18 September httpwwwsacredchoicesorgNew20Holy20War20Against20Evil20-20

loyhtm

Luo Michael2002 ldquoSome Want to Drop lsquoHerorsquo Labelrdquo Firehousecom 5 September httpwww

rehousecomterrorist9119_APheroshtml

Magro Anthony2001 ldquoLetter to the Editorrdquo Villager 3 October httpwwwzwirecomsitenews


Mandell Jonathan2001 ldquoHistory Is Impatient to Embrace Sept 11rdquo New York Times 18 November

sec 21

McKinnon Ethan and Drew Baye2002 Operation Catrsquos Lair The Hunt for Osama bin Laden The War on Terrorism Series

Dead Tree Entertainment httpwwwdeadtree-entcom

Merken Daphne2002 ldquoForget lsquoIs It Good for the Jewsrsquo Is lsquoNazirsquo Exhibit Good for Artrdquo Forward

March httpwwwforwardcomissues2002020322arts1html

Microsoft2001 Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 Flight Simulator Patch Microsoft Games Posted

by Microsoft on 3 October httpwwwmicrosoftcomgamesfs2000defaultasp

Museum of the City of New York2002 A Community of Many Worlds Arab Americans in New York City 2 Marchndash

11 September httpwwwmcnyorgarabsarabhtm

Myoda Paul and Julian LaVerdiere2001 ldquoFilling the Void a Memorial by Paul Myoda and Julian LaVerdiererdquo New York

Times Sunday Magazine 23 September80ff


New York Times1945 ldquoMayor Lays Crash to Bomber Pilot 8 Dead Identi edrdquo New York Times 30

July1ff2002 ldquoGuantanamo Food Pyramidrdquo New York Times 27 January 42

NYC amp Co2002a ldquoLower Manhattanrdquo httpwwwnycvisitcomcontentindexcfmpagepkey

4 4422002b ldquoDowntown NYC Fun Factsrdquo httpwwwnycvisitcomcontentindex

cfmpagepkey4 634

Onion2001 ldquoA Shattered Nation Longs to Care about Stupid Bullshit Againrdquo Onion 37 35 (3

October) httpwwwtheonioncomonion3735a_shattered_nationhtml

Pia Jack1974 SS Regalia New York Ballantine Books

Pie4Foo2002 Review of Operation Just Reward Piersquos Tactics Pie Tin Publishing http

wwwpiestacticscom lesmidasjustreward_reviewasp

Pollock Barbara2001 ldquoDividing the Artifacts of September 11rdquo Village Voice 25 December56

Rainie Lee and Bente Kalsnes2001 ldquoThe Commons of the Tragedy How the Internet Was Used by Millions After

the Terror Attacks to Grieve Console Share News and Debate the CountryrsquosResponserdquo Washington DC Pew Internet and American Life Project 10 Oc-tober httpwwwpewinternetorgreportstocaspReport4 46

Riefenstahl Leni1974 The Last of the Nuba New York Harper and Row

Rosenblum Doron2001 ldquoApocalypse Now and Foreverrdquo Forward 14 September

Rosenstock Bonnie2002 ldquoWatching as Weary Riders Road down to Ground Zerordquo Villager 2 September

httpwwwzwirecomsitenewscfmnewsid4 5211359ampBRD 4 1840ampPAG4 461ampdept_id4 112392

Rosenthal Jack2002 ldquo911 Finding Utility and Respect in the Dictionary of Disasterrdquo New York

Times Sunday Magazine 1 September28

Ross A2001 ldquoRevenge Promissory Noterdquo httpwwwcajuncowboycom2001dlrhtm

S YY2002 Himl signal in teror geviter nitsoylim un martier in der shoyderlikher tragedye in Amerike

Spring Valley NY Motsi Orah

Saulny Susan2001 ldquoPilgrimage to New York City Paying Respects and Spending Littlerdquo New York

Times 29 DecemberB1

Seelye Katharine Q2002 ldquoTV Drama Pentagon-style Fictional Terror Tribunalrdquo New York Times 31

MarchA12

September 11 Digital Archive2002a September 11 Digital Archive Smithsonian Institution the Museum of the City of

New York New-York Historical Society City Lore New York Center for Ur-

Kodak Moments 47

ban Folk Culture the City University of New Yorkrsquos American Social HistoryProject and George Mason Universityrsquos Center for History and New Mediahttp911gmueduindexhtml

2002b ldquoWhat Are Weblogsrdquo http911digitalarchiveorgwebsitesweblogwhathtml

2002c ldquoGuide to Websites Read Weblogsrdquo http911digitalarchiveorgwebsitesweblogshtml

Snider Mike2001 ldquoTrade Center Removed from the Next lsquoFlight Simulatorrsquo rdquo USA Today 17 Sep-

tember httpwwwusatodaycomlifecybertechreviewgames20010914attack- ight-simhtm

Snopescom

2001 ldquoAbsent without Leaverdquo Urban Legends Reference Pages httpwwwsnopes2comrumorsisraelhtm

Sonic Memorial Project2002 ldquoAbout the projectrdquo The Sonic Memorial Project httpsonicmemorialorg

publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan

1977 [1974] ldquoMelancholy Objectsrdquo In On Photography New York Farrar Straus and Giroux

1980 [1975] ldquoFascinating Fascismrdquo In Under the Sign of Saturn New York Farrar Straus andGiroux

Speer Albert1976 [1948] Spandau The Secret Diaries Translated by Richard Winston and Clara Winston

London Collins

Spilka Abby R2002 ldquoRemembrance and Renewal One Museumrsquos Account of 911rdquo Museum News

SeptemberOctober40ndash45 61

StrangeCosmos2002 ldquoFunny pictures political parodiesrdquo httpwwwstrangecosmoscomjokes

picturesasp (8 September)

Uniformed Fire ghters Association2001a ldquoSafety Interviews on World Trade Centerrdquo Uniformed Fire ghters Association of

Greater New York Local 94 65-2 28 9 October httpwwwufalocal94org652_main652_2001652_28of01html

2001b ldquoFirehouse Interviews and Closing of Safety Battalionrdquo Uniformed Fire ghters As-sociation of Greater New York Local 94 65-2 35 12 December httpwwwufalocal94org652_main652_2001652_35of01html

2001c ldquoContinued Participation at Services Is Imperativerdquo Uniformed Fire ghters Associ-ation of Greater New York Local 94 65-2 27 4 October httpwwwufalocal94org652_main652_2001652_27of01html

Uzinagazcom2002 Axe Throw Web site originally created 1999 httpuzinagazcom

Vexler Jill2002 ldquoPlease Respond Can You Helprdquo E-mail 29 April

WABC2001 ldquoTextbook Publishers Rush to Make Updatesrdquo New York-WABC 8 October

http abclocal gocomwabcnewsWABC_our school s_100801

texbookshtml

Wakin Daniel J2001 ldquoSeeking Guideposts to Help in No-Manrsquos Landrdquo New York Times 18 Novem-

berB9


White EB1949 Here Is New York New York Harper amp Brothers

Wice Nathaniel2001 ldquoDid Terrorists Train with Common PC Flight Simulatorrdquo On Magazine 13 Sep-

tember httpwwwonmagazinecomon-magreviewsarticle09985174835

-195700html

Yates Frances A1966 The Art of Memory Chicago University of Chicago Press

York Jamie Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva producers2002 ldquoWalking High Steelrdquo Aired on All Things Considered NPR 1 July http

wwwnprorgram lesatc20020701atc06ram

Zehren Charles V2001 ldquoAd Eerily Echoing Tragedy Is Pulledrdquo Newsdaycom 13 September http

wwwnewsdaycomny-bzad132363680sep13story

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is University Professor and Professor of PerformanceStudies at the Tisch School of the ArtsNYU Her most recent book is Destination Cul-ture Tourism Museums and Heritage (University of California Press 1998)


ceased The shrines appeared in parks subway stations rehouses police stationshospitals and on stoops Large crowds gathered spontaneously for vigils We callthe event and its aftermath 911 Not only is 911 a way of saying September 11American-style with the month rst but alsomdashironicallymdash911 is our emer-gency phone number2

The city post-911 is more like what I remember from the 1970s when it wasfacing bankruptcy than the years right before 911 when it was awash withmoney Af uent New York of the last decade was under the tight control of theGiuliani administration which clamped down on street vendors street perfor-mance community gardens and casitas and reworks Arrests for minor ldquoqualityof liferdquo crimes were common It is not surprising then that the Department ofParks and Recreation halted the creation of memorials in parks three weeks afterthe disaster and despite continuing protests They have been collecting memorialsand saving them in a warehouse Susan Sipos who takes care of Jefferson MarketGarden is composting the owers from shrines at re stations in the neighbor-hood (Magro 2001) This compost will nurture new plants dedicated to the mem-ory of the many remen who perished while trying to rescue those caught infalling buildings

The attack on the World Trade Center is said to be the most photographed di-saster in history This is a city designed to look at itself from spectacular vantagepoints whether from the tops of Manhattanrsquos signature skyscrapers high-riseapartments and tenements from the streets along suspension bridges on boatsalong the rivers surrounding the island or from Queens Brooklyn and New Jer-sey The attack produced a spectacle that was photographed incessantly and seeninstantaneously across the globe Within a short time Mayor Rudolf W Giulianiissued an executive order banning amateur photographs of the World Trade Cen-ter ruins because as his of ce explained the site was a crime scene not a touristattraction Flyers were posted in the area ldquoWARNING NO cameras or videoequipment permitted VIOLATORS will be prosecuted and equipment seizedrdquoThis ban indexes the quarantine that has separated the disaster scene from the restof the city We knew it was there but we could not visit the site We were told togo back to work go shopping go to Broadway shows and eat in restaurantsmdashspending money was a civic dutymdashas if the rest of the city was now back to nor-mal The disaster even issued its own currency in the form of Revenge PromissoryNotes in only one denomination $2001 (Ross 2001) Was this a valiant effort torebound or part of a larger problem ldquoA shattered nation longs to care about stu-pid bullshit againrdquo was the subject of a satirical article that appeared in the Oniona humor newspaper in their 3 October 2001 issue

To have been so close to the disaster and yet so insulated from it means that wetoo knew it from photographs rather than from direct experience of the ruin Welook and do not see the towers But neither can we see where they should havebeen The gash on the ground is a negative space a giant footprint in the tangledconfusion of a disoriented Lower ManhattanOnce the smoke cleared the woundin the sky left no visible trace There is simply nothing there The skyline has be-come doubly historical It is at once the skyline before there was a World TradeCenter and the skyline after its disappearance Nothing in the sky indicates thatthe towers ever existed

Television producers rushed to digitally remove the Twin Towers from seg-ments shot before 911 to be aired later They feared that viewers would be trau-matized and distracted by the sight of the towers The United States Postal Servicemodi ed the skyline that was to appear on its 2002 ldquoGreetings from New Yorkrdquostamp But what will happen to the many images of Manhattanrsquos iconic skylineon business cards trucks maps stores tourist guides postcards and souvenirs

Kodak Moments 13


Kodak Moments











Kodak Moments 15









Flashbulb Memories






Kodak Moments 17













Kodak Moments 19













Kodak Moments 21













Kodak Moments 23








Museums Respond





Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html







Kodak Moments 13


Kodak Moments











Kodak Moments 15









Flashbulb Memories






Kodak Moments 17













Kodak Moments 19













Kodak Moments 21













Kodak Moments 23








Museums Respond





Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html














Kodak Moments 15









Flashbulb Memories






Kodak Moments 17













Kodak Moments 19













Kodak Moments 21













Kodak Moments 23








Museums Respond





Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html








Flashbulb Memories






Kodak Moments 17













Kodak Moments 19













Kodak Moments 21













Kodak Moments 23








Museums Respond





Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html







Kodak Moments 17













Kodak Moments 19













Kodak Moments 21













Kodak Moments 23








Museums Respond





Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html















Kodak Moments 19













Kodak Moments 21













Kodak Moments 23








Museums Respond





Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html















Kodak Moments 21













Kodak Moments 23








Museums Respond





Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html












Kodak Moments 23








Museums Respond





Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html










Museums Respond





Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html







Kodak Moments 25














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html














Kodak Moments 27











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html











Kodak Moments 29










Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html












Kodak Moments 31




A Year Later










Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html















Kodak Moments 33










Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html













Kodak Moments 35





Mirroring Evil









Kodak Moments 37













Kodak Moments 39


Equivocations






















Kodak Moments 41



















References









nydefenderhtml





Times 7 DecemberB10


news05172002shtml






vemberB3



Kodak Moments 43







Cuthand Doug





OctoberB1










ber sec 43











aryA1



























Kodak Moments 45









news795156aspBODY








loyhtm






sec 21
















cfmpagepkey4 634



















Times 29 DecemberB1


MarchA12



Kodak Moments 47






Snopescom



publicabouthtml

Sontag Susan




London Collins













texbookshtml


berB9





-195700html







Kodak Moments, Flashbulb Memories - California State University

Documents

Transcript of Kodak Moments, Flashbulb Memories - California State University