Join CETI for a first look at our augmented storytelling project around the stories, culture, contributions, and history of the Chinese immigrant community buried at Block 14 at Lone Fir Cemetery.
Friday, October 11 — 2 pm to 5 pm
Saturday, October 12 — 2 pm to 5 pm
Projection Experience Serenading the Departed — 6 pm to 8 pm both days
In one corner of the Lone Fir Cemetery—Block 14, a neglected open field, lie graves with no markers. The people buried here were primarily Chinese immigrants and their families—laborers and railroad workers—whose role in building this city remains unacknowledged, whose stories were erased, and whose bodies were interred with no visible headstones or marking. A hundred years ago, many of the men were disinterred and sent to China but some of the women and children’s bodies remained—another forced displacement and family separation.
CETI, in collaboration with a broad and diverse community of participants and partners, will create a series of immersive and interactive experiences using emerging technologies and the creative imagination and fragmented memories of a collective of artists, technologists, storytellers, and community members, to tell the stories of these Chinese communities so integral to the creation of our city; to acknowledge, to remember, and to celebrate their contributions. We will center the voices and stories of the communities involved and collaborate with and draw upon the work done already in planning a potential physical memorial and use these ideas as inspiration.
Our collective work will be a reflection, a remembrance, an XR (hi)storytelling, and a joyful celebration of culture and rituals, launched from, the Ghost Festival (August 24, 2024), the Double Ninth festival (October 11, 2024) with final experience by Dong Zhi Festival on December 21, 2024.
Please drop by and meet the artists, technologists, researchers, and storytellers. Bring family and friends. linger, share stories, and ask questions.
Scan our QR Code! It will take you to the app that allows you to engage with this experience on-site. We recommend that you download this before you come to Block 14.
Partners and supporters who helped make this project possible:
- PSU College of the Arts
- PSU Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design
- Oregon Community Foundation
- Metro
- Portland Chinatown Museum
- Oregon CCBA
- Next Gen Innovators
- RACC
- Trace 3D
- and others
Visitors and participants in all CETI spaces, programs, and events agree to CETI's Code of Conduct and Terms of Engagement.