In Week 7, our group focused on identifying our central neighbourhood issue, teasing out the structure of our project, creating a team name, developing our key research questions, and assigning goals for next week. First, our team discussed how to mold our broader interests and ideas into a more narrow and feasible project idea. We begin our discussion wanting to focus our project on two main groups: elders who have been Regent Park long-time residents, and Regent Park youth. We planned on asking them about their favourite places, comparing the answers of the two groups, juxtaposing these with old archival footage of old Regent Park, and then mapping these answers onto a contemporary Regent Park map. However, we decided this approach may have had too many moving parts. Instead, we came together and thought: what if we just focused on one place in Regent Park, and went in-depth to understand what that place means to both younger and older generations?
Mishika offered the idea of focusing on Regent Park South Ice Rink - or, “The Rink.” Its use has remained the same throughout the revitalization, whilst every other building around it has changed. We thought it would be fascinating to talk to folks about their memories of the rink and what its preservation means to them amid a neighbourhood facing constant change. Our choice to focus on one key spot was also influenced by the short doc, Bill’s Tacos, shown in our seminar. We hope to draw inspiration from this doc's use of interviews, B-Roll of the restaurant “happenings” (in our case, the neighbourhood and the rink), archival photographs/videos, and overall layered, short-form style. After having our big moment of clarity, we returned to choosing our group name - appropriately titling ourselves “Frozen in Time.”
For our last task, we discussed our guiding research questions for our project. 1) How does “the rink” represent the resilience of the old Regent Park in the face of immense change? How is memory preserved in physical space? And 2) How is a culturally and historically significant public space, like Regent Park’s skating rink, understood and experienced by younger generations of residents amid the revitalization? Finally, we noted some tasks for next week's class: Maddy and I will be looking through city archives and other documentaries for inspiration, and Mishika and Sumayyah will be thinking about who we should reach out to for our interviews.
For our media component, we have attached three (very low-resolution) photos from the City Rinks archives of the Regent Park Ice Rink over the years. Taken by and for community members, these simple pictures and captions capture the importance of the rink in neighbourhood placemaking, as well as the spirit of carefreeness and quiet resistance it embodies.
The team members of Frozen in Time are Mishika Khurana, Maddie Wintermute, Sumayyah Shahajan, and Charlotte Pink.