Looking for a needle in a haystack - never was this metaphor more
relevant than while work on this project continued.
The first task is to find the contemporary names of old streets.
Once done with that, you have to make sure that the previous and
current street numbers match, and finally, you have to have physical
energy left in order to visit and photograph about five hundred
houses in the city. Remember that they are not always located at the
addresses indicated.Some have been demolished, some are falling
apart, and some others have been replaced with completely new types
of residential buildings.
81 years may not seem like a long time for history, but for visual
anthropology it is eternity. Cities are changing at lightning speed
and those changes are especially visible in post-Soviet cities,
including Tbilisi.
The focus of the presented project is the Swabian German minority
that lived in Tbilisi and neighboring settlements from the mid-19th
century until November 1941.
The main part of the project is the topography of its deportation.
Within the framework of topography, more than 400 residential
objects were marked on the map of Tbilisi alongside with relevant
pictures and the names of Germans living in them.
Main Activities
The process of working on the project included four main stages:
(1) Archival and library queries;
(2) Field research (finding, exploring and photographing certain
locations around the city);
(3) Preparation of content (mapping);
(4) Representation (preparation of a web platform and placement of
visual material).
Project Results
The main goal of the project was to delineate the topography of the
deportation, which was achieved. A special website was prepared for
the project presented, where a map of the topography of the
deportation was placed, complete with relevant visual materials
(www.topography.ge). The online platform and the techniques used to
visualize the past can be edited in accordance with recommendations.
The author is open and welcomes any competent comments.
