Questions
The questions this archive is trying to answer. Some are open, some are partly answered, a few have settled. They are listed here so the work has somewhere to point.
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Open
When a sign is written in two languages, what decides which one goes on top?
Ownership, expected customers, city bylaws, and habit all seem to play a part. The Main Street survey is the attempt to find out which matters most.
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Open
Can a photograph be evidence of belonging, or only of presence?
A sign proves someone was here. Whether it proves they were welcome is a harder reading, and one I keep returning to in the Chinatown entries.
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Partly answered
Who decides which neon signs are heritage and which are clutter?
The archival record shows a clear shift in the 1970s driven by planning policy rather than public taste. What remains unclear is how much the current revival is memory and how much is branding.
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Partly answered
Does a mural change how people use the wall it's painted on?
Yes, but not always in the direction the commissioners intended. The interviews in the Walls That Talk project point both ways.
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Settled, for now
Should the archive stage photographs to make a point more clearly?
No. An archive that arranges its evidence stops being an archive. The rule costs some good pictures and is worth it.