This project was based on Gregory Ulmer's MEmorial project, which he outlines in his book Electronic Monuments. The MEmorial seeks to bring attention to issues that have been overlooked by associating them with issues that have already have monuments and have received undue attention.

The issue of water scarcity has certainly not received a great deal of attention in the Fargo/Moorhead area, as we often suffer from an over abundance of water. The Hjemkomst monument certainly is representative of the time, effort and dedication that the people of this area, particularly those of Nordic decent, put towards memorializing their Northern European heritage.

A huge part of the MEmorial project is the incorporation of the peripheral, a physical representation of the Electronic Monument the MEmorial constructs. My proposed peripheral (one that I hope may yet sill be built) takes the form of a metal sculpture of a tree and clothesline. I've even proposed several locations within the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center that would be appropriate sites for my peripheral.



The tree itself appears dry and twisted, which provides a sort of visual jolt of the message itself. This becomes my punctum, an idea that Ulmer borrows from Roland Barthes. The clothesline calls attention to the amount of water that we use to clean and the sacrifice that represents in terms of life (the dead tree). Along the clothesline are dollar bills which similarly invoke a connection to dirty money and water profiteering by corporate interests, the need to clean that money, and (because visitors are invited to take the dollar bills) that idea of putting the control and the power of water back into the hands of the people. The dollar bills will also be stamped with the project's emblem which lists the website address and encourages people to donate a dollar to the fight for global water justice. I'm interested in seeing if I can connect the value and electracy of the MEmorial to the "viral" phenomena by the passing and spending of dollars around the community. Ulmer discusses the need to create traffic flow to the MEmorial and the "dollars for water" idea just might have that ability to catch on.

At the top of the page is the project's Emblem. This strives to be a visual representation of the project that connects with a slogan to encompass the message of the project very quickly and effectively through simple design. The elements I've focused on are the viking ship, the clothesline and the water, all the key elements of the project. The slogan "Not a drop to drink" from the cliche adage about the ocean, does a few things. It connects to the idea of Viking ship as a seafaring vessel, comments on the growing issue of water scarcity, and also suggests that water used for washing becomes water that can't be used for drinking.