Stories From Sirovich, by Anna Schuman

Abstract

This project provides the immersive topic of senior living facilities, and the lack of interconnectivity between older adults and their community. Isolation is highly evidenced in this project through the stories of the older adults. The need for interconnectivity is posited conversely in certain articulative form. The older adults who were interviewed, showed an intrinsic enamoring with the need to voice their opinions and be heard. COVID-19 has made the hope of connection an almost impossible one in a physical sense. However, on a visceral level, interconnectivity has never been more of a practice, and has never been more of a practicality. We are verging from the idealistic frame of thought when dealing with humanistic connectivity, because the emotive function of our individualistic capacity is explicated and emphasized during this time of the pandemic. The older adults of the Sirovich Senior Center were interviewed in 2016, and their responses remain concurrent to today's society because they are facilitating of the same methodology of thought which is to place an exaggeration on listening to one another and placing a further emphasis on listening to the needs of one another. The older adults who spoke in the interviews sought to have their message connect to all individuals, and in speaking their minds they felt more connected to others around them. The business, Quantifying Community which is being actualized is also veiled under the attempt to connect and bridge the gap between older adults. There is a level of trust that is found between individuals who are commoned by something, be it years, experiences, like mindset. They find comfort in having this familiarity, and Quantifying Community is tailored to meet the needs of older adults who all share the commonality of age because it will increase their level of receptivity. The aim of the project is to connect older adults who currently audit college classrooms, to those who seek to learn more about the program, and have no clear sight on how to begin the process. The goal is to allow them to proceed with their college career, and keep them actively engaged in both the community as well as their own interests that might seem too impossible to reach. Resulting from this connection, will be a friendship, and a new definition to the word interdependency. This interview project acts as the initiation to a more grand scale embodiment. The target audience who were the older adults were being directly impacted by the project because it was allowing them to find a voice, and use it to impact their community.