Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
8-2024
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Fine Arts
Degree Program
Art (Creative) and Art History with a concentration in Art History, MA
Committee Chair
Sichel, Jennifer
Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)
Reilly, Elizabeth
Committee Member
Reilly, Elizabeth
Committee Member
Reitz, Chris
Author's Keywords
urban renewal; photography; racism; Louisville; housing; art
Abstract
This thesis chronicles the historical significance of the Urban Renewal Commission photograph collection, traces the history of racial capitalism in Louisville through research at Metro Louisville Archives & Records Center, and argues for alternative ways of organizing, digitizing, and presenting these archival materials in the University of Louisville’s Archives & Special Collections. I describe my methodology for breaking the photographic materials from their original order, going against typical archival processing methodologies, with the aim that the collection will more accurately represent the city’s strategic displacement of Black Louisvillians and civic prioritization of capital efficiency over community. This work emphasizes the powerful dichotomy within these images: that the photograph collection inadvertently documents a thriving and innovating community displaced by the very practices that spurred the collections’ creation, critically engaging with mythmaking and perceived progress of urban renewal. My paper further questions the potentiality of the archive through critical reflection on my own artistic efforts to reconstruct a complete picture of Louisville in the 1960s using the Urban Renewal Commission photograph collection, which I’ve undertaken alongside my work reorganizing and digitizing the materials. Through reprocessing, I developed an impulsive artistic practice, embracing conditional world rebuilding ambitions utilizing the v photographic materials. This speculative artistic exploration conjures futuristic projections of Louisville grounded in the historical evidence presented in the photograph collection, while recognizing the function of failure within structures of repair.
Recommended Citation
Meurer, Cassidy, "Lost in the (re)process: Challenging constructions of downtown Louisville through the urban renewal commission photograph collection." (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4419.
Retrieved from https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd/4419
