For the last project, I would like to research on something more serious. Being in New York, a world-known metropolitan almost means you are living in the center of the world- a place that anything could happen- including some horrifying terrorist attacks. Not only for America but the 9/11 terrorist attack is probably the worst attack for the whole world. Such an event absolutely worth researching- hopefully with the project I will know more about what actually happened and how it affect the people who witnessed the tragedy.

Since it is a bridging project, I would like to mention a bit about what I will be doing for the essay for the seminar class. Basically I will write a paper on how places and people interact with each other, using the 9/11 terrorist attack as an example. Before writing it I’ve did some research on the topic (including the phone interview I had with Sunny, a witness of the tumbling tower 2) and found a lot of interesting, unexpected proofs that points to the fact: people and places do interact with each other. So for the feature, I will discover deeper since by interviewing people I get to talk to them and know deeper of how they really think. How the event altered lifes and thereby alter places later on.

 

To start with, let me show you some heart wrecking photos and video to make you understand how hard that day was for America, especially for New Yorkers.

Pictures of 911 terrorist attack on world trade center

 

The twin tower before the attack.

 

The twin tower during the attack.

 

Twin tower collapsed after around six hours of fire.

The birdview of the chaotic site after the towers collapsed.

Video link of the attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNNTcHq5Tzk

 

As you can see, on 11th Sep, 2001, the World Trade Center was destroyed by a terrorist attack- using two terrorist hosted planes crashing onto the twin towers in the lower Manhattan. 2,996 had their lives ended in that morning but a lot more than that witnessed the disastrous attack and had to continue to live their lives until today. In the feature, I interviewed one witness (Sunny watched one of the towers being hitted) and hope to know more how did he felt that moment, and how does he feel now.

 

About the feature

Although the feature focuses on the interviews, I think introduction and other parts should be included to make the whole experience more engaging and complete. For the introduction I will of course mention a brief background for the event and familiarize the audience to the topic. After that I will have to do the editing- determining what parts of the interview will contribute most to the questions that I’ ve raised and thereby giving them good answers. In between the interview, me myself will try to narrate some facts about the event- I’ve researched how people in Manhattan felt reluctant to take public transport after the attack. (a graph that showed the percentile difference, before and after the attack)

Questioning directions:
– whole experience in 9/11 (where he was, what was he doing, whom is he with and how did he feel)

– how does the event affect him now, did it change him in any ways(if not, how come)

-how does he now look at the event and ground zero

 

Significance

The interview is focused to understand how did Sunny interact with the event and the place. For my essay, my thesis is all about exploring how places and people change one another. (it takes place even if the event is a terrible one.) Also, I would like to know how the place can reversely change people(for example, educate our next generations on what happened that day with the memorial parks and the brand new designs for the ground zero/ WTC).

Personally, I think this project would be very meaningful as this reminds us( sounds a little bit off topic but definitely worth mentioning) , as human beings; how all these conflicts among countries really make the innocents pay the ironic price. Now with all the ISIS crisis, I think it would be a good time to reflect: why war?

Coming back to the topic, exploring the relationship between human and location is the key to achieve this project for me. So for the next interview (like how I tried in the previous one with Sunny), I would also try explore how a place affect my interviewee. And below is a great example from the website ‘HISTORY’, a three minute video that demonstrate exactly the relationship I am trying to discover more about.

Video link for Brian’s Story:

http:///topiwww.history.comcs/9-11-attacks/videos/brians-story

 

 

Reflect

Up til now I only have one interview done and I am still looking for the second one to go. Sunny, in fact revealed another side of the story. During the interview he mentioned how he managed to move on in life while some of his friends whom were there with him on 9/11 too could not let that day go. He mentioned he was lucky that he lost nobody (family, friends) on that day. His story alone already is very interesting but I think if I manage to find someone who still cannot let go what happened that day- that would help create a huge contrast thereby making the feature a lot more engaging as it reveals both sides of people.