Jerry Berman’s Letters: Digitisation Day 2

 

Figure 1. Documentation of archiving. Jerry Berman’s
Letters to Meyer and Sonia Fortes, by permission of
their granddaughter, Alison Marshall. Image:
Sara Nesteruk, 2021.




Today I have spent with Alison Marshall. This is
day 2 of digitisation for Jerry Berman’s letters.
Jerry wrote these letters to Alison’s grandparents,
Meyer and Sonia Fortes. In his letters Jerry documents
conditions during Holodomor. Work on this project
includes three methods of digitisation. All
materials I have scanned with Alison for high and
low resolution digital archiving. As time ran out
this evening I tried photographing these materials.
In a fifteen minute window some glorious sunlight
through my living room fell to create fantastic
shots of these letters. Figure 1 shows iphone
quality versions of this part of my practice
with Alison. These phone images are much lighter
light, details and complete collection appear in
these documentations. Contents and forms, graphic
ephemera, details and Jerry’s subject matters.

Alison has written about her grandfather’s letters.
These appear in an article online (Marshall, 2020).
Alison in her article makes a comparison between
deaths during Covid-19 and during Holodomor. This is
my first time to consider this relationship. Both
feature unimaginable death, incomprehensible
amounts of people dying.

Archives represent materials is different ways and
use different approaches. University of Reading and
LUX are working on a collaborative project to document
materials and films by filmmaker Stephen Dwoskin
(Bartliff, 2021). In this project metadata is
extracted from archives to give a complete overview
of Dwoskin’s digital collections. These diagrams
create a visual representation or a map of
these materials rather than deep comparisons or
analysis between individual elements within
this collection. This is an overview of a project.
Maps are also possible for Jerry Berman’s letters.
For example to give examples of his movements
and timelines.




References:

Marshall, A. (2020). Testimonies of Horror: the Ukrainian Famine of 1932–33 [Online]. History of Yesterday. Available from: <https://historyofyesterday.com/testimonies-of-horror-the-ukrainian-famine-of-1932-33-bc496f706565> [Accessed 15th June 2021].

Bartliff, Z. (2021). Dwoskin Project Blog #20: Dwoskin’s Drives [Online]. LUX. Available from: <https://lux.org.uk/writing/dwoskin-project-blog-20-dwoskins-drives> [Accessed 15th June 2021].

Recovering Family Histories

A brilliant talk organised by Ukrainian Institute
London with three speakers stories. These are projects
uncovering family histories, relating to Ukraine.

Letters provide physical documentation and insights
into family’s histories. Józefa’s Letters (2019) is
a short film created by Michael Daniel Sagatis.
This focuses on letters written by his great
grandmother. Józefa left her family and was
taken to Siberia. She stayed in regular contact
until her life ended. Józefa’s experiences are
documented in these letters. Sagatis’ film uses
music, theatre and visuals to interpret these letters
and tell stories. These are touching and raw. Of an
author’s hand. An experiences connect
through generations.

Facts and fictions merge in family histories. Circling a
Fox is a film and TV programme by Matthew Zajac.
This is Zajac exploring his father’s story. There are
unknowns and contradictions in what Zajac knows
about his father, and knew as he was growing up.
This is about unknown, unshared and discovered
parts of a family’s life. This is a mainstream TV
production and play with a book.

Histories connect generations. 100 Years in Galicia (2020)
is a co-authored book by father and daughter
Dennis Ougrin and Anastasia Ougrin. Based in
Galicia their talk and introduction included a
map with details of Eurasian Steppe. This steppe
describes why and how people settled in Galicia from
all over Asia. This discussion included roles of place
and place making in histories.





Sources:

Ukrainian Institute London (2021) Recovering Family Histories. [Webinar], Zoom, 25th May.

Sagatis, M. D. (2019) Józefa’s Letters [Online video]. Available from <https://vimeo.com/353994141> [Accessed 26th May 2021].

Ross, B. director (2021) Circling a Fox. [Online]. Presented by M. Zajac. Executive Producer J. Archer. Available from <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s083#credits>
[Accessed 26th May 2021].

Ougrin, D. and Ougrin, A. (2020) One Hundred Years in Galicia: Events That Shaped Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars.

Supervision Meetings with Lisa

Tuesday 25th of May

Camus, the Outside, r, distance and absence of
emotion and connection and contact, Alain de
Botton, Freud, unfamiliar and familiar, Alexievich,
door chapter, a life on a door familiar stories
and unfamiliar experiences, Street scenes,
Moth, Forever Flowing, Queue descriptions,
PEAS, Appendices, Interviews, describe who
people are. Film, conference presentations
S-ARCH deadlines, Photochemical film,
positions, house, time, reversal, Kentridge
and Cheadle, time plans (awkwardness)
reversal scenes, Perec, structures and formalism
and humanity and emotions, weekend plans,
PDF, submissions, websites, interview
transcripts and links, permissions, images,
layouts and pages, separate text and images,
asnwering my own questions, epigraphs and
footnotes, Holodomor timelines and maps,
areas of collectivisation, Recipes as rebirth
and family recipes. Production and next
stages, next meetings, Soviet Propaganda,
Convincing, capitalism and American ideals,
dogs, early motion graphics, collective farm,
Forest, existential absences, and presences,
forms and voids and meanings, project endings
and next steps, publicity, schedules and
launches.

Research Supervision with Lisa - Thursday 13th May

 Writing, case studies, Aims and Objectives, staying
out of everything, SODA, diagrams, Beckett’s heirarchy
of needs, input diagrams (Holodomor diagrams)
going to Leeds, dreams, forms, new buildings and
turning up, old buildings, devices and chat, going
(not going) viva outputs, Skirts, Men Should
Wear Skirts, Phin Harper, £8.50 outfits, writing,
dust seen, scene, dust, seen and unseen,
case study 3, universal truths and poetry,
boundaries, differences and contributions to
knowledge, Godspell, Tommy, Roger Daltry,
Holodomor, audience reach, industry projects,
Mike and commitments for funding at Huddersfield.

Meetings with Simon

Tuesday 4th May
Meeting requests and feedback, chapters, polyphonic
voice, abstract notes, chronotopes, Holodomor
Research Council Funding, sections, aims and objectives
structures, production, films, visuals and
websites, existing back end, organisation of final
deliverables, trainers, drawings, Sartre, Being and
Nothingness, multifarious, Family of Man,
academic success, photochemical film, funding,
Arts Council, healthcare in Ukraine, abstract
revisions, viva, examiners feedback, existing back
end, submissions, word counts, bibliographies,
Grossman, publishing dates, details, Bakhtin,
epic time and adventure time, Flamin, documentations,
spirals, dizzy with success, dusk, Sholokhov,
artworks and presentations, leaving things out,
editing, an(e)motion, disclosure, Kyiv, letters
and archives, digitisation processes, archiving,
literature reviews and project maps, diagrams,
stories of literature, spirals, meanings, artists
truth, organise final submission, delivery,
appendices, website and film launch plus
documentations, text versions, Holodomor timelines,
print and digital versions, the Photographer,
contributions to knowledge, wipes and
production processes, Nike Air Max, folders,
PDF’s, project global.

Meeting Notes with Lisa

 Tuesday 20th April 2021

Basketball, Jeff Koons, sport projects,
timelines of activities, diagrams, keywords,
no TV. abstract re-write, warrants, aims
and objectives, claims and hypotheses,
differences and contributions to knowledge,
sport, Leeds, School of Arts and Humanities,
Monty, music, layouts, contents, html,
Holodomor, timelines, Alison, completions,
examiners, films, fifth film, conclusions,
exhibiting, literature reviews, introductions,
peas, contexts, contents, meanings, finishing,
use of images, footnotes, next meetings,
David Crowley, experiments, case studies,
duplicates, no TV, after PhD projects,
other PhD’s, keywords, Holodomor, literature,
memories, endings.

Meetings with Lisa and Simon:

 Friday 16th April 2021

1990’s rave music, structures, Bakhtin,
editing, time, efficiency and academic
paractices, sign offs, next meetings,
meetings on Tuesdays, Mondays, bank
holidays, uses of images, graph paper
diagram, other people, books,
references, word counts, britney
spears, films, case studies, commercial
practices, time, Bakhtin, Cheadle,
Ion, Spherikal, books, references, 300
word blocks, Babyn Yar, introductions,
the Accident, work in progress, other
people, literature reviews, depth,
meanings, histories, Benjamin, Applebaum,
books, interludes, underpinning practices
work in Ukraine, exhibitions, 10 films,
press, residency, poetry, and poetic
materials, depth, parts, Abstract,
next meetings, reading time, writing
time, diagrams, separations, Lisa,
Simon, Holodomor timelines, stories,
conventional methods, methodologies,
carts, chapters and headings, Ukraine,
outcomes and outputs, safe, areas, areas
of interests, areas of influence, focus
points (find a compromise to this)
editing and structures, final designs,
including everything, submissions, films and
commercial outputs.