‘documenting Aurora’ is a legacy project created with the purpose of capturing digital information about the ever changing Town of Aurora, Ontario beginning in its Sesquicentennial year 2013. Our goal is to track changes to the landscapes, heritage buildings and sites of heritage value. We will also track social, cultural, political and economic changes that affect everyday lives of the Town of Aurora community.
At documenting Aurora we implement creative ways to use digital tools to display attention-grabbing digital content. In addition, this is also a great opportunity for us to acknowledge the 150th Anniversary of the Town of Aurora, Ontario by marking in history all the Sesquicentennial events of 2013.
It is not our intention to re-write the history of our town or repeat what has been written prior to 2013; however, it is our intention to capture information about our past through dialogues and conversations with people – perhaps a search for untold stories, hidden away photographs or videos.
The sole goal of documenting Aurora, a Sesquicentennial Legacy Project, is to collect information in a digital format and then organize, archive and manage it accordingly. The end result being digital content documenting the Town of Aurora in the form of essays, eBooks, photo, audio and video galleries in one central location.
“Our goal is to track changes to the landscapes, heritage buildings and sites of heritage value. We will also track social, cultural, political and economic changes that affect everyday lives of the Town of Aurora community.”
Photographic documenting is a valuable tool for before and after comparison to show changes in the landscapes. Therefore, documenting Aurora.ca is planning to engage in photographing and documenting activities such as building restorations or conversions, building demolitions, and new developments. Sometimes, this will involve photographing a complete process from the beginning to the end of the project. Occasionally documenting Aurora.org will re-photograph heritage buildings and their architectural details. It is also in our plans to document all the changes occurring with time by photographing natural environments (trails, forestland, arboretum, boardwalks and conservation parks). One day these photographs will tell the story far more effectively than words alone. Journals will be kept to complement these photographic records.
In search of untold stories or records. A great story can only be appreciated once it is shared. In some cases people do not have photographs but they do have their stories. Therefore, it is also in our plans to engage in conversations and dialogues with people in the community to collect information about the Town of Aurora and its past – the information that was never written.
Documenting local town events, celebrations, ceremonies, festivals, grand openings, political activities in our community will also be a big part of ‘documenting Aurora.’
The opportunities to document Aurora are endless and with time as we establish ourselves, we will introduce more projects that will help document almost every aspect of our community in the Town of Aurora, Ontario.
