Last week on Monday, October 14th our Innovation Lab class took a field trip to the 9/11 Memorial in New York. This fits in our learning for Inlab because we already had received prior knowledge on the event, but visiting the museum made the experience much more real and personal after learning about it in class. I never really knew much about 9/11, especially because I wasn’t alive during the tragedy. But after hearing stories from both my parents and strangers on the screen I know that this event was much more serious than I had originally thought. Our class went on this trip not only to learn more about 9/11, but to prepare us for our upcoming German Memorial project. By going to the Memorial, we were given ideas and inspiration for our own creations so we wouldn’t get stuck on certain details.
This picture on the left shows our group outside at the memorial. On the right, you can see a photo that I took of the ‘plaque’ around the memorial with a birthday rose stuck in someone’s name.
First we visited the main Memorial. They were two fountains with black marble around them to signify where the buildings originally where. Thousands of names were etched into the surface of the marble, and some had white roses stuck in them to symbolize that it was someone’s birthday.These memorials stood where the twin towers used to be, and to see it in person kind of startled me. It was much bigger than I thought it would be, and also very impactful.
Our inlab teachers asked us to interpret what the water symbolized, because the videos we watched in class talked about how most people thought the water symbolized tears, or ‘holy water’. I agreed with the former, due to the fact that when I saw the memorial in person I couldn’t help but picture the water representing a nation weeping after countless lives lost. The way the water flowed downwards into the black pit made me want to cry in a way as well.
This was a surviving pillar from the attacks. Even after all that happened, it stood. People seemed to think of it as a symbol of hope.
Then our class visited the main museum. It hadn’t seemed very big when looking at pictures of it, but when we got there, it seemed like the floors just didn’t end. It was kind of like an infinite staircase, and I feel like it could symbolize the sinking feeling that everyone felt on 9/11. What was even more disturbing was looking around and seeing everyone’s faces. There wasn’t a single smile, and there were even a few people with teary eyes. I thought it was interesting to look at the debris from the attacks, and to see how badly things were torn up. Especially the firetruck down near the bottom floor. It was dented and squished in places, and it was hard to believe that people drove in it once. It also makes you wonder how it got torn up like it was. Did some of the building fall on it? Did it swerve and crash after seeing the attacks? There could’ve been multiple reasons that the firetruck was all messed up.
To conclude, our class did end up learning a lot from this Memorial, and it fueled my group’s inspiration for our Germany project. We were influenced by the impact of this particular museum, and we knew that we would want people to feel the same way about our memorial. My group’s design was also greatly affected by this Memorial and Museum’s design. For example, we added glass to our Memorial after remembering that was a recurring theme in this ‘park’. Now, our Memorial is stronger than ever and we’re almost positive that it’s going to turn out well.
Here are some pictures of the inside of the museum. On the right, you can see the beaten up firetruck I described.
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