About the Gallery System

On July 14th, 2005, my two-year old daughter, Julia Erin Fraher was diagnosed with stage-four neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer of the central nervous system. For the next nine months, my wife, Laurel and I accompanied Julia on a journey as we worked together to make her cancer-free. Unfortunately, Julia’s battle with cancer ended on May 24th, 2006.

As a result of this experience, my understanding of my life and the purposes of my work were significantly transformed. I became motivated by a strong desire to benefit the many people who find, or have found themselves in situations similar to what Laurel and I experienced with Julia. As an interactive designer, I asked myself, “To what ends can I apply my disciplinary competencies that may promote healing of the emotional damage caused by cancer?”

In answer to that question, I chose to create Hope & Strength Galleries as my thesis project for an MFA in interactive design. The gallery system is designed to function as a community resource for people whose lives have been affected by cancer. The purpose of the system derives from my perceived need for additional resources for the cancer community that promote feelings of hope and strength. To that end, Hope & Strength Galleries is a free resource aimed at facilitating individual expression and fostering community involvement.

The goal of the system is to help cancer patients and members of their support networks by allowing people to tell their stories, for their own benefit as well as others in similar circumstances. To accomplish this, the system allows people to combine images, text, and audio to create multimedia galleries for themselves or a loved one. In this way, the system is an equally appropriate resource for people whose journeys with this disease finish positively, as well as for those whose journeys do not. For the cancer survivor, the system facilitates an expression of triumph over an unforgiving foe. In the case of defeat, the system allows a member (or members) of a victim’s support network a simple way to create an engaging and immersive homage to a loved one.