Add Architecture, Stir Memory

Add Architecture, Stir Memory

In Add Architecture, Stir Memory: Japan, Shay Youngblood explores early memories of home, enduring friendship, loss and survival as seen through the lens of her visit to Japan and experience of 3/11, the 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear tragedy, ten days after her arrival in Tokyo from Texas. Fact and fiction, poetry and music, mix and mingle in interviews and narrative stories. The live performance work incorporates soundscapes, architectural drawings, animation and video.

As a teenager living in Hawaii I was introduced to Japanese culture, language and food as a volunteer in a hospital working with Japanese patients who had not been home in many years. In 2011 I was selected as Japan U.S Friendship Commission Artist Fellow. During a residency in Japan, I interviewed architects (Kengo Kuma, Fumihiko Maki, Itsuko Hasegawa), designers (Kashiwa Sato, Kazuko Koike), curators and other Japanese creatives about their early memories of home. I was inspired by my conversations with them and deeply affected by the aftershocks of the earthquake, which resulted in an unexpected, new direction in my work.

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Indiegogo

My Indiegogo Campaign to fund a technical performance of Add Architecture was a beautiful success! Over $7000 was raised for the technical production at University of Texas on the Square Gallery 4 August 2015.

Thank you to the early contributors, those who handed me checks on the street, made online contributions in the middle of the night and weeks before the online campaign began and especially Meri Nan-Ama Danquah, who gave me the challenge.

Anonymous, you thrill me, eternally grateful!

Early Contributors April 2015
Anonymous
Shazah Philip and Luella
Jason and Rene Devlin Weiss
Paul Meltzer and Bonnie Friedman
Isabelle Bagshaw
Maggie Mermin
Linda Bryant and Wendy Belkin
Annette Lawrence
Patricia Lodewick
Jinnie Seo
Cantrice Penn
Constance Bryan
Stephanie Grimes
AC and Gail Lawrence
Indiegogo Online Contributors
Ellen Ryfle & Stephen Johnson
Frances Bagley and Tom Orr
Rahna Raney
Erik & Pam Goodlett
Patricia Sobral
Dorothy Randall Gray
Sally Packard
Martha and Vincent Falsetta
Alane Freund
Veta Goler
Valerie Boyd
Lisa Bruni
Doug Campbell
George Morton and Karol Howard
Christine and John Irving
Nicole Stutzman Forbes
Susan Diachisin
Roseanne Boudreau
Nell Painter
B. Makonnen
Noel James
Michelle Mackey
Sebastien Boncy
Debra Snell
Lowell White
Leah Lax
Liz Lockley
Irene Klaver
Jessica McCambly & John Oliver Lewis
Alejandro Borsini & Paula Gaetano Adi
Jacqueline Foertsch
Eric Lane & Bob Barnett
Liana Tomcheeson
Rachel Fisher

Anne Connell
BMKonnen
Kathy Lovas
Heyd Fontenot
Janet Caldwell
Nancy Whitenack
Sarah Westrup
Jasmine Rose
Susan K. Grant & Richard Klein
Kimberly Alidio
Amanda Insall
Adrienne Fishe
Jonathan Santlofer
Patricia Volk
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah
Rebecca Barham
Lorraine Fontana
Marilyn Richardson
Ivonne Acero
Aaron Flynn
David Herman
David Richeson
Kelley Alexander
Sally Warren
John Keene
Elisa Durette & Ruth McFarlane
Dale Rice & Antonio LaPastina
Celia Eberle
Margaret Mermin
Heather Infantry
Christine Irving
George Morton & Karol Howard
Janet Bernhard
Irene Klaver

Priceless and inkind contributions: Jessie Glass, glassfoundry graphic design and web, UNT on the Square Gallery, Meredith Buie and Herbert Holl, Priscilla Hale and Rose Pulliam, Allgo, Sharon Bridgforth, Daniel Alexander Jones and Yaddo.