Photographier les X-codes de La Nouvelle-Orléans après Katrina. Perspectives mémorielles d’une exposition sur le Web

New Orleans, 2005. The X-codes, cross-shaped forms sprayed on houses by search and rescue teams emerged in the chaos following Katrina. The repetition of the Xs on the walls of nearly every house, as well as their visual strength and symbolic meanings rapidly turned them into icons of the catastroph...

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Main Author: Maude Oswald
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institut des Amériques 2019-03-01
Series:IdeAs
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/5267
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author Maude Oswald
author_facet Maude Oswald
author_sort Maude Oswald
collection DOAJ
description New Orleans, 2005. The X-codes, cross-shaped forms sprayed on houses by search and rescue teams emerged in the chaos following Katrina. The repetition of the Xs on the walls of nearly every house, as well as their visual strength and symbolic meanings rapidly turned them into icons of the catastrophe. Confronted with powerful symbols embodying the destruction of the city and the disruption of personal lives, New Orleans residents chose to preserve, erase or modify them. Photographers then began to represent these visually compelling testimonial marks, as well as record traces of signs often bound to disappear over time. In doing so, they participated in building a memory of the disaster. The collective exhibition Katrina+5: An X-Code Exhibition, put online in 2010 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the catastrophe, helps us to understand the memorial potentialities of the X-codes, from their actual presence on houses to their photographs and beyond in the changing space of the Web.
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spelling doaj-art-a4f133e398dc4575a56ce2d2cd0da4b92025-08-20T03:07:10ZengInstitut des AmériquesIdeAs1950-57012019-03-011310.4000/ideas.5267Photographier les X-codes de La Nouvelle-Orléans après Katrina. Perspectives mémorielles d’une exposition sur le WebMaude OswaldNew Orleans, 2005. The X-codes, cross-shaped forms sprayed on houses by search and rescue teams emerged in the chaos following Katrina. The repetition of the Xs on the walls of nearly every house, as well as their visual strength and symbolic meanings rapidly turned them into icons of the catastrophe. Confronted with powerful symbols embodying the destruction of the city and the disruption of personal lives, New Orleans residents chose to preserve, erase or modify them. Photographers then began to represent these visually compelling testimonial marks, as well as record traces of signs often bound to disappear over time. In doing so, they participated in building a memory of the disaster. The collective exhibition Katrina+5: An X-Code Exhibition, put online in 2010 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the catastrophe, helps us to understand the memorial potentialities of the X-codes, from their actual presence on houses to their photographs and beyond in the changing space of the Web.https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/5267memoryX-codeKatrinaWebexhibition
spellingShingle Maude Oswald
Photographier les X-codes de La Nouvelle-Orléans après Katrina. Perspectives mémorielles d’une exposition sur le Web
IdeAs
memory
X-code
Katrina
Web
exhibition
title Photographier les X-codes de La Nouvelle-Orléans après Katrina. Perspectives mémorielles d’une exposition sur le Web
title_full Photographier les X-codes de La Nouvelle-Orléans après Katrina. Perspectives mémorielles d’une exposition sur le Web
title_fullStr Photographier les X-codes de La Nouvelle-Orléans après Katrina. Perspectives mémorielles d’une exposition sur le Web
title_full_unstemmed Photographier les X-codes de La Nouvelle-Orléans après Katrina. Perspectives mémorielles d’une exposition sur le Web
title_short Photographier les X-codes de La Nouvelle-Orléans après Katrina. Perspectives mémorielles d’une exposition sur le Web
title_sort photographier les x codes de la nouvelle orleans apres katrina perspectives memorielles d une exposition sur le web
topic memory
X-code
Katrina
Web
exhibition
url https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/5267
work_keys_str_mv AT maudeoswald photographierlesxcodesdelanouvelleorleansapreskatrinaperspectivesmemoriellesduneexpositionsurleweb