AN EXPLAINATION OF THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF THIS PROJECT

When I initially concieved of this project I intended to image map the central image of King being beaten by the LAPD officers and use it as the interface between the reader and the hypertext. But using this single image as a recurrent icon for my entire project seemd to reek of the overuse of the video on television during the period itself, so I began to imagine the project as a series of concentric circles. The circles each represented an historical layer: the closer to the centre, the more involved with the immediate events an item was. 

This approach had distinct limitations however-- I found myself literally thinking in circles, isolating factors and personalities from events. To understand the 'vibe' of the era was my main intent in creating this project, and I discovered just how difficult it is to capture the emotions and sentiments of the everyday within cyberspace.

Essentially, my focus shifted to an examination of physicality and agency as I delved further into the materials available and issues at play. I wanted to identify the icons and symbols of the time that have endured, but also examine the forgotten or ignored factors. In my mind, Ice Cube's black Raiders cap epitomised many issues at work in this period: fear of the urban youth, based on suspicion of criminality, and possibly of class, and almost certainly based on race. It also represented Cube's willingness to identify himself as something to fear, something which urban blacks were rapidly becoming expert at. All it was, was a hat. Any baseball cap, is just a hat. But suddenly LAPD Chief Darryl Gates is instructing his anti-gang taskforce that a baseball cap worn backwards is a possible sign of gang activity.

I feel I failed in my attempt to capture or even glimpse the street. The codes, icons, symbols, multiple-meanings, shifting boundaries, slippery identities and personal politics involved in the different aspects of project were almost overwhelming. Either due to its proximity to the current time, or due to a lack of scholarship on the subject, I struggled to fully grasp the issues and context involved. I could not reconstruct in my mind or in hypertext a chain of events or even possible causations that made a coherent explaination of this event and its context. It was very difficult to know what documents and statements to trust, or to give weight to. I began to think that the problem I was encountering was one of my own making: and I doubted my own qualifications as a white, female, Australian commenting on black, male, American rap. I am not satisfied with this project's outcome.
 

 read an explaination of my approach to the source materials involved.