Last Fall, when I moved my family into Storke Family Housing, I knew that I was entering a new chapter in my life's story. I was eager to explore this beautiful place and naturally, I was curious about its past. The University of California Santa Barbara sits snuggly on a plateau overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean, embraced by beautiful reserves, and watched over by the Santa Ynez Mountains. Beyond the campus, approximately twenty-six square-mile miles of jurisdiction functions under the incorporation of Goleta, California. Originally, my project was going to be a timeline of this little piece of America, but I decided to focus on UC Santa Barbara because one history was slightly less complicated than the other. I imagined a high school student, eager to map out their future, methodically searching for information about different universities, and coming across this timeline. My audience would be them and their peers, who are dedicated to mapping out their future beyond impulses and with substance. The timeline gives brief historical accounts, supported by pictures that say more than the words.
Thirteen images were used across the timeline that either was representative of an era or actual images taken during that moment in time. Seven of the images have double meanings that I would like to leave up to the observer to interpret. My intentions are to create a curiosity in the audience that compels them to look beyond the vagueness of the timeline in search of more details for better clarification. The images may contradict the historical account enough to accomplish this. Consider the timeline of 1949, when the federal government gave away land for free that once belonged to the Marine Corp. This historical account is embedded with an image of the Chumash Natives. Another image depicts black students occupying North Hall in a sixties tradition, the reality is that today only five hundred black students out of a body of twenty-two thousand attend UCSB.
Once I decided to complete a timeline of UCSB's history, I began to conduct searches online. When I discovered an interesting fact, I would read about it and do searches for the corresponding images. In my search for the images, I found interesting stills of time that can be best described as a once violent and eruptive volcano belied by beautiful valleys, vegetation, wildlife, and beautiful waters; a formation that is one man's paradise and another man's hell.
This timeline revealed to me an interesting history that I would have never imagined. Although I am shocked at some of the historical facts, I am not that surprised. I haven't fallen in love with this University and I do not think I will. Not because I have any animosity against the school, but because I can't seem to develop an intimate relationship with it. Even though the school's history is interesting, I feel disconnected from the institution of UCSB. This is what has been on my mind since the completion of my project. Being an older transfer student (a lot older than I look), I have realized that my perspective was formed before many of my student peers were even born, and I often have a hard time integrating wisdom with naivety and stubbornness with optimism. This project has changed my perspective on this and now I realize that history outlives us all. In the next one hundred years, we will all be mashed together as one generation according to someone's passive interest.