A New Reality
For my memory space, I created an interactive documentary about my family’s immigrant journey from Jamaica to Canada and our first experience dining in Toronto’s original Chinatown.
I experimented using photogrammetry to capture the original location of Sai Woo Restaurant back in 1974, which is today a yoga studio. I also used this technique to document the candies I first enjoyed in the restaurant. The backdrop is a 360-degree image taken at the address of Sai Woo Restaurant using Google Earth. Two-dimensional personal objects from the trip and a restaurant menu are displayed amid the 3D images.
The first-person narration is told from my recollection as a young girl travelling with my family. I used sound effects to make the experience more immersive. Overall, I wanted the user to get a sense of the time period 1974. However, the modern buildings belie the passage of time and shows how long ago the journey took place. I also highlight the Chinese cultural differences my family experienced moving from Jamaica to Canada.
Credits/Sources:
Thank you to Lilian Leung for her guidance and assistance with this project and to Linda Dunlop for copyediting the text of the narration.
All images and audio including narration provided by Jeanette Kong except for the following:
Sai Woo Menu courtesy of University of Toronto Scarborough Library, Archives & Special Collections, Fonds 015 – Robert Bon Lee Collection
This interactive documentary uses these sounds from freesound:
“airport terminal” by inchadney (https://freesound.org/people/inchadney/sounds/164903/#) licensed under CC0 1.0
“highway” by deleted_user_7146007
(https://freesound.org/people/deleted_user_7146007/sounds/383729/) licensed under CC0 1.0
“restaurant” by soloan (https://freesound.org/people/soloan/sounds/82910/) licensed under CC0 1.0