Collective Storytelling – Week 11

Trip to the Tenement Museum and Final Project Development Continued…

This week, the class went to the Tenement Museum.  I’d already visited earlier this semester for Nancy’s Cabinets of Wonder class, here is my write-up.  I joined the class after for a post trip discussion:

Post Tenement Museum Discussion

It was interesting to hear how different people responded to the tour, some found it quite a personal experience as they fel they understood a little more about their grandparents who lived in tenements when they first emigrated to NYC.  Others were slightly disappointed, in the sense that they didn’t feel they’d had their questions answered sufficiently.   In terms of storytelling done by a museum, I still find the Tenement Museum in a class of it’s own.

 

Final Project Further Development

Preliminary Thoughts on Memory and Storytelling Paper

1) Introduction

Following trauma, we are encouraged to give the narrative of the traumatic events, combined with attempting to express how we feel as a result of these events, whether this is done on a psychiatrist’s couch, within a group or as part of a wider community.  We also tell stories to remember, to commemorate but initially, the purpose is simple: to get the trauma out of our bodies: out of our heads and our hearts, that in the process of telling, and sharing, there is understanding – not just in telling other people, but also, to attempt to make sense of something ourselves.  One way of thinking of it, is to quantify the pain inside us, these powerful feelings may, through verbalizing, may become in way anchored, the telling is a method to understand what actually happened.

As years pass, we are further removed from the trauma by time, and so the story that we articulate, when first told, often with extreme pain, and fear, becomes the memory that we carry, forever.  We never forget.  It doesn’t matter how much therapy, how many pills, how much meditation.  Unless we have a chunk of our brains lopped off, our memories are always with us.  And come back in sometimes the most unexpected times, or places, triggered by the seemingly craziest things.  They are ours.

In the sense of dealing with trauma, this is the limit of the healing power of telling a story, because the memory will always be there.  Not to be flippant in discussing such weighty matters, but an ex-boyfriend said to me once as we were breaking up, “I can forgive, but I cannot forget.”

That one sentence summarizes the limits of memory.  Our memory of events is what it is – it is what actually happened, and it did happen. Sadly, we cannot turn back time, words cannot be unspoken, acts cannot be undone.  You can’t re-write history.  No matter how much regret or remorse are shown by perpetrators.

In understanding the limits of memory, the question becomes, how do you manage these memories.  How do they stop being our principle driver in our lives, how does the pain of the memory when recollected not drive our actions in a destructive sense? [cf. how does the comparison of idolizing a dead person ie choosing to remember the best bits – is it suppression? Or is there the concept of selective remembering?]

2)  Description of what happens after the memory is formed: moving on

Individuals
Our instinctive responses form the first part of healing from the trauma.  Some of the examples in this paper are genuinely awe inspiring, such as when I first was told of them, and then went home to follow up more, I was moved. [Cite example of Ubuntu in South Africa.  Contrast with other world-views on healing/revenge/justice eg eye for an eye, love unto others as they do to you. Compare/contrast].

Governmental/Legal Redress/Compensation/Justice
There are further attempts, to heal after injustice. Often legal methods for redress, justice.  [Give examples of TRC and restorative justice in SA, contrast with more traditional? concepts eg Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia – is it criminal or are civil penalties enough – look for other examples, consider Nuremberg].

Communities
Communities [consider inserting above justice section] such as Northern Ireland post troubles – Hillary Clinton etc meeting with women in tea shops.  Does it really work or is it just a few minorities eg case of Jewish/Palestinian Israeli olive oil makers – and is it really impossible when a whole generation is prejudiced, mindset, the memories are stronger than the new reality?

Glue Figures/Respected Voices
Key figures to respect – cherished on both sides?  Or if not cherished, respected enough, Mandela, Peres? How far can they go?

3)  Problems to look at in this paper: What Next?  It’s not enough right now.  Looking at 2 aspects: creating dialog and secondly, improving quality of life.

All of the above is very good, but how long can it hold the strength of the memory, how do you neuter the power of the crippling pain of the memory after the initial hope following a regime change dies away?  Not just in a bigger scenario to quell the desire for revenge that could lead to destruction of a nation, eg civil war, or uprising of a previously suppressed minority (SA, Iraqis) but on an individual level, how to you make peace between individuals?

How do you begin communication between people from different sides following a repression or battle?  Is it by further the further telling of the stories to promote understanding and empathy – to humanize each other, how do we do that?  How do the memorials built do that effectively (eg Freedom Park).

This paper suggests though, its all potentially fruitless if people’s lives don’t improve, because although the terror aspect of the memory may no longer be reality, if life is still full of injustice, its hard to place the memory into the past, because to some extent, it is not a memory, but a reality.

What else do we need to do?  Are remembrance and commemoration enough?  This paper argues it is not, because if nothing else has really changed in people’s quality of life, or their view of others, then the memory is still the overriding stage setting – the scene that people live in within their heads and their hearts. How do we improve dialog, communication?  Are the keys increased opportunities, and economic improvement?  Does a healthy economy and wealth trickling down to the wronged, and also to the perpetrators (insecurity in a new regime will breed a sense of longing for the past), will this help people to move on?

Memories are always there, but the bad memories can be put into the background if the reality of life is reinforcing positive progress.  Even with improved quality of life, the limit is still there, “I can forgive, but I cannot forget.”  Memory itself is the limit.  With that absolute constraint, how do we progress, as individuals and a collective following a period of intense trauma?

I keep returning to communication.  Dialog breathes life into the seeds of understanding, or, if understanding is impossible in some cases due to such polar viewpoints and irreconcilable differences, by communication, the boundaries are defined, which is helpful to at least begin to attempt progress.

Collective Storytelling – Week 10

Final Project Continued – ALL CHANGE PLEASE…

I’ve found this happens to me sometimes at ITP: I have an idea, talk it out, get feedback, wrestle with it, and it sometimes just.won’t.sit.right.  This is happening with my idea for my final project.  And then sometimes, something falls out of no-where and yells ‘pick me! pick me!’  So, out with the mapping of emotions project, it was beginning to make me cringe, and in with a giant show and tell concept – originally presented in Nancy’s Cabinets of Wonder class here.  My idea was to have a show and tell for the class, with the our objects and their corresponding stories uploaded to a website.  Still though, something wasn’t sitting right, it seemed a little contrived.  I still had creative indigestion.

Meanwhile, I discussed with Marianne a paper I’m working on for submission to a conference in March at the New School, on the limits of memory.  I recently brainstormed with Tom Hennes of Thinc Design, the agency behind the 9/11 Memorial Museum and the Freedom Park in South Africa.  We discussed in particular, how in telling the story of the trauma someone has suffered, it breathes life into a memory.  The question is, how are these memories managed?  How do these memories take their place in a society that is being rebuilt?  So – in a fit of creative indigestion banishing, we finally decided that the paper I am writing for the conference in March will be my final project for Collective Storytelling.  Much better.  Here’s the abstract:

By looking at the case study of The Freedom Park in Tschwane, South Africa, this paper considers the limits of memory as a tool for reconciliation and forgiveness.  Few places in the world have had such a violent past. The hope for the future depends entirely on their ability to move beyond their past divisions and become one nation. This cannot happen if the past is either ignored or used as a justification for revenge.

The Park aims to ‘transform community pain stemming from past conflicts into a shared strength with an explicit objective for a way forward.’   There is risk in this. When an individual first recounts a memory, his narrative breathes life into a statistic or event. Issues emerge: how does the telling affect the teller, how do the victims’ (and their descendants) stories affect the oppressors (and their descendants), how is it recorded in the nation’s collective memory; how can the nation recover?

Since 1994 there has been considerable success, aided by: 1) Ubuntu, an African worldview, stressing interconnectedness, has restrained the impulse for revenge.  2) The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s practice of restorative justice and 3) highly respected leaders such as Nelson Mandela.

Still, lack of employment and disparity in opportunity threatens the fragile memory-management that has largely succeeded thus far.

This paper investigates these issues.  While such disparity remains, traumatic memories will always remain in the present, unable to take their place in the past despite efforts thus far to constructively engage the nation’s collective memory.

Collective Storytelling – Week 9

Final Project Continued…

I presented my final project idea to class this week, and was given some great feedback.  In particular, fleshing out how exactly to get people to participate.  The method of participation changes how people may respond. Thomas and Marianne pointed out that people will respond differently if you actually ask them to go to the place where something significant happened rather than just asking them to write about the story.  Also, the questions you ask people are important.  Is it a smart idea to be quite broad or instead ask direction questions, for example ‘where were you first kissed?’

Other ideas included asking people to take pictures of a place they feel great fondness for, and upload to a website via their phone.  I was slightly concerned the story element would be lost though if that was the case.  It was also suggested people could send in audio recordings of their memories, but that smacked a little too much of the Tree Museum to me.

In the end, I’ve decided to ask people three questions via surveymonkey, anonymously (I’ve found from previous collaborative projects that people are more likely to open up and share if it is done anonymously).  Questions such as ‘when was the moment you realized your parents couldn’t do everything – where were you’ (me, 6 years old,  at home in the country, asking him to fix my doll, and he said he couldn’t do that, I was crushed.)  Or – another question, ‘first kiss – where?’ (At nightclub, with boy from school…  He was wearing a shrimp colored shirt.)

These snippets of people’s lives, will then be mapped onto a world map, using mapping software.  Getting there…

Collective Storytelling – Week 8

The Shape of Things to Come….

• Discussion: Part 2 and Final Projects
• Guest Lecturer, Larry Smith: SMITH Magazine
• Assignment:
  • Read: Read Henry Jenkins Convergence Culture, Chapter 3, “Searching for the Origami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling”
  • Review Stephen Fry’s “The Dongle of Donald Trefusis” at http://www.stephenfry.com/dongle/
  • Write: Reaction to both, post to blog. Be prepared to discuss in class.
  • Write: Final Project Proposal – be prepared to present in class

“Searching for the Origami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling”

In this chapter, James discusses transmedia storytelling, and the importance to the movie industry of embracing it, to gain access to the widest audience.

Some points he made were particularly pertinent with respect to collective storytelling:
-”Media convergence makes the flow of content across multiple media platforms inevitable” (pg. 106)

- He discusses the future of the concept of licensing, moving from its current model to “co-creation” (pg 107), most pertinently: ” If media companies reward that demand, viewers will feel greater mastery and investment; deny it, and they will stomp off in disgust.”  Looking at the audience as co-creators will potential have big effects on the fanfic world.

- “Stories are basic to all human cultures, the primary means by which we structure, share, and make sense of our common experiences.  Rather than seeing the emergence of new story structures, which create complexity by expanding the range of narrative possibilty rather than pursuing a single path with a begining, middle and end.” (Pg 121).  Again, the world surrounding film tie-ins will in all likelihood be revolutionized over the next few years.

- 3 types of consumers: “the actively engaged real-time viewers … the more reflective long-term audience … [and] the navigational viewer who takes pleasure in following thhe connections between the different parts of the story.” (pg 121 quoting Janet Murray).  This is useful advice, in telling a story, must be aware of the different types of audience member.

Stephen Fry’s The Dongle of Donald Trefusis

I grew up with Stephen Fry, he is one of my favorite comedians.  Particularly his performances in the BBC sitcom Blackadder, the show has a cult following in England.  Its a great example of a long, long story – each series has the same actors, playing different historical characters in different periods of time.

He is a great storyteller, I’ve read his autobiograhy.  And he is the epitome of someone embracing transmedia storytelling, he has over 1 million followers on Twitter – he tells his story of his day to day life in detail in 140 character bites.

I will be downloading the Donald Trefusis podcasts to listen to, in the meantime, the trailer was riveting.  Its interesting to see an established actor become very tech savvy and engaging with a completely new audience.  Reminds me a bit of Kanye’s blog – oh, did you know, Kanye loves ITP?!  Another example of a celebrity investing in connecting with a new audience via a new medium.

Final Project Proposal

Last year I wrote an essay for Red Burns’ Applications Class.  Paper posted here.  I rode the M5 bus from La Guardia and Houston up to the George Washington Bridge, and just wrote.  What showed up on the paper was the fact our perception of a city or other place is colored by the emotions we have felt there.  Even the crappiest looking street, or the most mundane bodega can evoke the fondest of memories, especially if these are places we have felt loved, or given love.  I’ve had the idea to make a map of these places, and the stories behind them.  I really need some feedback on how to do this – how to gather information, an online questionnaire perhaps using surveymonkey.com.  Maybe an interactive online map, or simply a huge wall hanging.  A world map, or just Manhattan?!  Lots of questions.

Collective Storytelling – Week 7

Midterm

This course has been one of the most eye-opening I have taken at ITP.  Its also been challenging.  Mostly challenging on two levels: firstly, and easiest to describe – production classes are ones I find tough.  That’s ok, its been a great experience trying to work on new skills such as audio work, and animation.  Still, there’s a sense of frustration with that also.  Secondly, stories are sometimes hard to listen to, and also, in telling people’s stories, in being a narrator or a facilitator, this carries responsibility.  I hadn’t focused on this aspect of the course when we began, but each week – as we listened to more and more stories, and began to tell ours, or other people’s, it dawned on me how important this work is.  Not only that, but how powerful the effect of telling a story can be, both to the teller, and the listener.
This midterm aims to address those two challenges I’ve faced on this course so far.  Firstly, its a paper, I’m alright at those, so no tearing hair out.  Secondly, I’ve tried to capture the nuts and bolts of what I’ve learned and figured out over the last half-semester with respect to storytelling.  It’s had a big effect on me.

Some Elements of Storytelling - Midterm Paper

Stories are powerful and our reasons for telling stories are infinite.  This paper considers these two elements of storytelling: why we tell them, and their impact.  Until taking this course, I had never properly considered the role of storytelling in our lives, and the role of storytelling in society as a whole.  As I’ve researched, my conclusion is that utterly everything in life, begins and ends with a story.

A Review

This course so far has been incredibly instructive in showing the different methods of telling a story: written (from 6 words to a book), oral (interviews), visual and oral (a movie).

We were shown the different environments where stories are shared, from a book, to a museum in the traditional sense, captured on a film and shown in a theater or on the web, to a tree in a park combined with a cell phone.  The possibilities are endless to communicate with others.

We have also learned basic elements of how to tell a story, for example, the importance of structure, how to interview someone and edit their responses, sound considerations (minimizing background noise, stopping your subject messing with the microphone – all those technical things),  to working with the utmost sensitivity with interviewees who are telling difficult stories (in particular Alison Cornyn’s work at the Brooklyn Historical Society with Vietnam Veterans – and the Tenement Museum’s work on telling the story of immigrant families in the US – my blog post my visit is here).

Power

In thinking about a midterm assignment, I started to consider the type of stories I consumed with gusto on a regular basis.  It became apparent quite quickly that I’m a current affairs junkie.  In fact I am sitting here with the Economist by my side, reading the obituary of Ludovic Kennedy, one of Scotland’s finest storytellers, whose stories about various people convicted of murder shed light on some miscarriages of justice, and is said to have been one of the key figures working towards the abolition of capital punishment for murder in the UK in 1969.  More on Kennedy’s life here in his obituary in the NY Times.  His life makes for a fascinating story.  But in making a cause known, like Kennedy did, via your talents as someone who can engage others on a topic that they may not be initially interested in, is the very essence of two huge cornerstones of society: legal decision making and policy formation.  The Judiciary, Legislature and the Executive are the division of political power, espoused by Montesquieu, but each area is fundamentally based on effective persuasion via story telling, be it a litigator to the jury in a court, a parliamentarian arguing for a law to be passed in a political chamber, or the President persuading his electorate on the healthcare debate.  Storytelling is an art form – and a powerful art at that.

It could be argued that the power of persuasion described above is not storytelling, it is a form of effective argument.  I disagree, mostly because you can’t persuade someone to do something you want them to unless you either get them to agree with you (very rarely happens), get them to empathize and understand to a degree that persuades them away from their point of view – even if they don’t agree with you or finally, to convince them that your view is the best to agree with to avoid a greater problem.  Its the second of these areas – the empathy and understanding element where the storytelling moves from being a purely ‘I want you to do what I want – no matter whether you are affected by my words’ to attempting to have an impact or indeed change someone’s thinking.  That’s huge.

Telling someone’s story can be immensely powerful -as shown by Ludovic Kennedy’s work.  Every week I listen to the BBC Radio 4 program ‘From Our Own Correspondent.’  The 30 minute weekly radio broadcast captivates me in 10 minute chunks of time, on topics I just would never really run into in my daily life.  This week, I heard about the hideous ordeal of childbirth for mothers in parts of Pakistan, the reality of life in rural Afghanistan, and life in the town Vincent Van Gogh spent time painting in.  So diverse, and for the 10 minutes I listen, am completely absorbed in the story that is being told.

Another example of this is Matt Frei’s Americana program, also on BBC Radio 4.  Its sort of an update on the legendary Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America (he is also known in the US as the host of PBS’ Masterpiece Theater).  Cooke’s weekly radio show was how I learned about American life, from a very early age, I used to listen on a Saturday morning as the radio played throughout our home.  He reported as an Englishman in America for an astounding 58 years, it is to date the world’s longest running radio show.

These examples of journalists taking listeners for a short while to a different world – even though part of the same world, are important not just for entertainment value – but in bringing a little perspective and understanding to us.  In telling a story that takes us out of our daily lives, we grow inside a bit, our horizons are broadened – even if at the time the effect is latent, I’m sure it must affect us somehow.

Why We Tell Stories

So many reasons, some of them are:

-    to entertain
-    to remember
-    to commemorate
-    to share something of ourselves
-    to communicate
-    to persuade people about something
-    to pass on knowledge

The sheer variety in the above list is fascinating.  Adding into the mix the even greater permutations for our motivations when the collective element of storytelling is added in.  One of these is community building.  We heard from Mathew Belanger, an new media artist who was one of the architects behind Lumens, described here:

‘A project of Networked Realities: (Re)Connecting the Adamses, Lumens was an installation of lamps networked across three spaces. Scores of personal lamps that usually inhabit and illuminate the interiors of homes and shops were borrowed from the residents of Adams and North Adams, Massachusetts, filling two gallery spaces: Greylock Arts in Adams and MCLA Gallery 51 Annex in North Adams. In addition, their images and stories are represented on Turbulence, which also served to connect the two locations telematically.

Lumens reconnects North Adams and Adams, originally a single community, through an exploration of location, influence, history, and the present.’

The project brought two communities together, in a highly effective and beautiful way.  People connected via objects.  This concept is a fascinating one, that objects (in this case lamps) can hold a story, which in turn connects people.  My midterm for Cabinets of Wonder focused on the stories behind objects also – a show and tell for adults.  It worked really well, as sat there, showing object of importance to us – we discussed, learned about each other, laughed, and by the end of the 20 minute session I felt closer to the people I work with, perhaps understanding a little more of what makes them tick, how they respond to others.  The greater importance of this is that this new understanding informs our interactions and relationships with each other, and hopefully strengthens these connections, and in turn, increases the ties within the community of which we are a part.

Conclusion
Stories can transport people away from their day to day experiences, place them in new territory or conversely, take them to a place that is completely familiar.  Stories can be emotive and persuasive, and as such storytelling is the key method we use as members of society to gain consensus on issues.  This paper has laid the groundwork for the direction of my work over the rest of the semester, the background and effect of storytelling fascinates me.

Collective Storytelling – Week 6

Communicating…

Response to Jonathan Harris’ Collecting Stories TED Talk

I am huge fan of Harris’ work.  The first piece of his I heard about when slogging over finals last year was his ‘We Feel Fine‘ project.  He built a program to trawl the Web for the phrase ‘I feel’  or ‘I am feeling’ and then captures the rest of the sentence.  The program collects 20,000 feelings a day and categorizes and displays them in quite beautiful ways.

Image: ADN xtc

His work has high emotional impact.  The variety and honesty of many thousands of people stating simply how they feel is powerful – from the witty “I feel like I’m parked diagonally in a parallel universe” to the heartbreakingly sad: “I can feel the cancer growing inside me.”

Last year, inspired by Harris’ work I undertook a similar project, on a much smaller scale.  The Best Friend Project was based on a series of questions I asked over 100 people about their relationship with their best friend.  I made small program in Processing (a Java-related programming language) to visualize in a contemplative manner the responses to the survey I carried out on the best friend relationship. As the viewer clicks on the mouse different questions and answers are displayed. Key words from each answer are displayed separately to highlight people’s perceptions of why their relationships are so important.

Project viewable here, it takes a while to load.

The question I asked is in the center of the screen, with the answer scrolling across the page, with the key word from the answer also displayed.  Click the mouse within the box to view different questions and answers, or don’t click to stay on a particular question to see multiple answers scroll across.  Its slow and clunky and the text overlays often (notice I’m not programing this year!) but the key point I took from doing this project is how people were so incredibly willing to open up and be incredibly honest.   These answers were all from my friends, anonymously given, some of the answers made me smile, laugh and nearly cry.  When you ask people about things they hold dear – such as their feelings, or their close relationships, they open up.  Here are screen grabs from a short movie I made of some of the amazing answers I received.

Projects such as We Feel Fine and the Best Friend Project really intrigue me, to understand more about connectivity, love, attachments and relationships.  Understanding more about this is the main reason I came to ITP.

Harris spoke about his more recent projects.  One of his huge strengths in being an artist and a computer scientist is his ability to sift through the seemingly un-labelable and categorize and organize in a way that can give a totally different viewpoint on a story and in doing so, he enables the recipient of the story to act as their own narrator.  This is an interesting concept, and gives the potential for many people to see a different version of the same story.  This was shown in a more recent project: The Whale Hunt.  He writes:

“The photographs are presented in a framework that tells the moment-to-moment story of the whale hunt. The full sequence of images is represented as a medical heartbeat graph along the bottom edge of the screen, its magnitude at each point indicating the photographic frequency (and thus the level of excitement) at that moment in time. A series of filters can be used to restrict this heartbeat timeline, isolating the many sub stories occurring within the larger narrative (the story of blood, the story of the captain, the story of the arctic ocean, etc.). Each viewer will experience the whale hunt narrative differently, and not necessarily in a linear fashion, constructing his or her own understanding of the experience.”

The final project he presented in the TED talk is a collection of the dreams and hopes of people living in Bhutan.  He asked over 100 people what they wished for, wrote it on a balloon, took a photographic portrait of them with their balloon, a goofy picture of them smiling and lastly a shot of their hands – which told a story in themselves.  Finally, he collected all the balloons and put them up with prayer flags.

Image: One Floor Up

I found this piece moving, particularly because, as the photos continued to be shown, it was like a wave of hopes, dreams, honestly, reality, washing over you, over and over again.  Incredibly powerful.

Harris’ work has been incredibly inspirational to me while at ITP  where the key aim of much of my work is to try to understand the strength and magic of our relationships with one and another.  Harris has a talent of communicating people’s emotions, and doing so, enabling often delicate and intimate thoughts to be shared.

Collective Storytelling – Week 4

Beautiful stories…

• Review Audio Stories / Oral Histories
• Discussion: Interpreting Stories and Digital Storytelling
• Pedro Meyer: http://zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/fotografio/
• Vikram Tank’s Flittr
• http://www.storycenter.org/stories/
• Assignment:
  • Read: handout: Center for Digital Storytelling Cookbook
  • Read handout: Except form Will Eisner’s Writing & Sequential Art
  • Following the forms presented / discussed in class make 1 minute digital story. Post online. Be prepared to show in class.

As this course progresses, I’m stunned at the stories people have to tell, some about seemingly nothing, others about hugely important things – for example, their experiences of war.  I’m learning that its not the gravity of the content that always matters, its the importance of the story to the person telling it, and their desire to communicate it to others.  The second element of this is the effect of that story on the listener.  That it what makes a story meaningful, even beautiful in some cases.

This week in class we showcased our stories that we wanted to tell, the task was to incorporate both audio and visual elements, and to keep it short (around a minute).  I’m currently taking a graphic design course (Visual Communication) and studying typography. For this assignment I therefore wanted to work with words, and concentrate on the importance of engaging someone with the typeface and color used, to enhance the story one is attempting to communicate.

In the second class we worked on telling a story in just 6 words.  My fellow classmates are hugely talented (she beams – am so lucky to be surrounded by such creatives…) so I decided to make a short movie showcasing some of these 6 stories.  For more on this, see Smith Magazine’s Six-Word Memoirs Project.

Originally I planned to work in Photoshop and After Effects, but time ran short, and in the end I decided to give myself a crash-course in Apple’s Keynote as I needed to pull myself out of PowerPoint.  It worked well, animation was incredibly easy, and adding a soundtrack simple also.

Here’s the finished movie:  Tell me a story in just 6 words.

Thanks to Zoe Fraade-Blanar, Aaron Urmacher, Elizabeth Fuller, Jelani John and Jorge Just.  Soundtrack is the very beginning of Jurassic 5′s Action Satisfaction from their album Jurassic 5.

Collective Storytelling – Week 3

The Tree Museum

Today we vistited the Tree Museum in the Bronx.  The museum is a collection of 100 trees, each with a separate phone number listed on a plaque underneath the tree.  When a visitor calls the number, they are told a story about the area the tree is in, or someone’s recollection of living in the Bronx.  The trees are spread over a large stretch of the Grand Concourse, from 138th Street, right up to Mosholu Parkway to the North.  The trees are real trees – not housed in buildings – so the word ‘museum’ here tangles with the normal perspective of one.

Calling the tree…

I was underwhelmed by the whole experience.

We had a map, which was well designed – in the sense it looked nice.  3 of us though walked around the Joyce Kilmer Park near Yankee Stadium, and had huge trouble finding the trees.  We found 4 in the end, but there were many more listed.

Maybe this was the problem?

The recordings were not the best quality, and it was hard to ascertain exactly what they were explaining sometimes.  Thomas noted he thought the recordings were going to be about the tree itself, but this didn’t seem to be the case.

The journey to the Bronx was stressful – trains being canceled, overcrowded subways, and I found the area intimidating (a fellow student was mugged at gunpoint on this visit the week before and this worried me).  Still – the assignment was an important one to do, and there were three of us in a group.  I feel strongly though that the point of visiting a piece of art, is that the experience is to some extent enjoyable or if not enjoyable, certainly not unsettling – or even if unsettling, that there was some real meaningful impact that came out of the experience.  This was not the case here though.  The stories were hard to listen to – and to the extent that the art was meant for the community, I wonder how much they actually were participating in it apart from initially recording their stories.

Yankee Stadium

It was great as ever, to see a new part of New York, but being completely honest, I found the art uninspiring, the stories hard to hear, and the process of getting to and from the art and the neighborhood itself – pretty stressful.

I’ll be very interested to read Thomas and Zoe’s reviews!

Catherine, Zoe and Thomas at the Tree Museum

Collective Storytelling – Week 3

Tell me a story….

This week we looked at people telling their stories – and the different approaches in doing this:

Assignment:

• Discussion: Oral History / Stories in parts and perspectives
  • Oral History and Oral Traditions
  • Millman Parry: http://chs119.harvard.edu/mpc/
  • StoryCorps: http://www.storycorps.net/
  • StoryCorps Great Question List
  • Radio Rookies: http://www.wnyc.org/radiorookies/
  • 1-10 Witness Project: http://www.i10witness.org/
  • Listening: This American Life: The Super (part 1: Bob) – setup | anticipation | revelation | reflection
• Assignment:
  • Read: Tell Me A Story: Narrative and Intelligence Roger Shank, Excerpt “Chapter 2: Where Stories Come From and Why We Tell Them” and “Chapter 3: Understanding Other People’s Stories”
  • Read handout: Excerpt from “They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky” (Benson Deng, Alephonsian Deng, Benjamin Ajak)
  • See class 5: Visit The Tree Museum (http://treemuseum.org/) Note it closes on October 12th. Post response / critique to blog by class 6)
  • Create: Audio Story in Three Parts (can follow any of the examples reviewed in class: Three different perspectives on a single subject; Three components necessary in completing a single tale, etc. You can work in teams. Upload to blog. Be prepared to present in class. )

Tell us about your local….

Having been inspired by the great American storyteller Ira Glass in the NPR show This American Life, my friend Zoe Fraade-Blanar came up with the great idea to ask a resident New Yorker his experiences of his local restaurant -after all, most New Yorkers have one, our second kitchen right?  For many students, a favorite diner acts as a second library, and for young professionals, the coffee shop can certainly be thought of as their second office.

But its sometimes hard to find that perfect place: prices go up, staff change, and what happens when you move town?  The whole process starts all over again.  In this short radio show, Aaron Glazer tells us about his three favorite locals.

Listen to the .mp3 here:  The Local

Music credits:

Intro and Room 1 – The Kitchen: Halfway Around the World, Hepnova

Room 2 – The Library: You’re For Me, Hepnova

Room 3 – The Office: California Soul, Marlena Shaw

Ending: Such Great Heights, The Postal Service

Thank you Aaron Glazer for telling us your story.

Recorded at ITP, NYU Tisch School of Arts and edited using Audacity.

Collective Storytelling – Week 2

Don’t Say What Bridget, Say Pardon…

This week we looked at the concepts of creative writing, constraints and community:

• Class discussion: Fan Fiction and more
• Guest Speaker: NancyKay Shapiro, (writer – NancyKay Shapiro is the author of a novel, What Love Means To You People, and, under the pen-name Herself, of a collection of Buffy The Vampire Slayer fanfic, which can be accessed at http://www.echonyc.com/~stax/Buffy/herself/index.htm
• NancyKay is currently at work on another novel set in the early 19th century. She lives in Manhattan. You can download her presentation here.
• Assignment:
  • Choose a show / movie / book you are a “fan” of. After reviewing samples, post to your blog your own original work. Minimum of 700 words.

The Most English of Fan Fiction Pieces Ever?

I’ll be honest, this whole world of fan fiction slightly perturbs me.  Is it not a teensy bit odd to write additional plot lines, mostly focusing on character relationships – and then, gulp, homoerotic ones as well?  The world of ‘slash‘ came as quite a surprise to to me.  To be really honest, given a lot of fan fiction has its origins in the Sci-Fi world, I’m immediately sent running – but then, as so often happens here to me at ITP, it was good to be exposed to different things – to learn about them – and showed me a world I would never have come across, or so I thought…

When I was 14, the BBC premiered its version of Pride and Predjudice.  My mom and I watched, transfixed every Sunday evening for 6 weeks, waiting, to put it bluntly, for Mr Darcy to get it on with Elizabeth.  And pretty much every household in the country was the same.  It catapulted Colin Firth into movie stardom and was the BBC’s hugest hit for quite a while.  As a result of this, I read the book, but was always left wondering what happened next, did they really live happily ever after?  The bookshops at the time were taking advantage of the ensuing Austen-mania, and all manner of related books were on the shelves, including this one.  And reader, I bought it.  And so, in reading Pemberley, or Pride and Prejudice Continued as its know, I suppose this was my first (and last) foray into the world of fan fiction.

Or so I thought…

Two words:  Bridget Jones.

From Wikipedia:

‘Bridget Jones’s Diary is a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. Written in the form of a personal diary, the novel chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London. She writes (often humorously) about her career, self-image, vices, family, friends, and romantic relationships.’

Bridget Jones is one of my very favorite characters of all time.  She is a blonde, smart but often amazingly dippy, white wine and vodka swigging, oft disaster-prone in the romantic arena, always trying to shed just a little extra weight, Londoner.

Here’s a few quotes by way of introduction:

Bridget: Resolution #1: uggg – will obviously lose 20 lbs. #2: always put last night’s panties in the laundry basket. Equally important: will find nice sensible boyfriend and stop forming romantic attachments to any of the following: alcoholics, workoholics, sexaholics, commitment-phobics, peeping toms, megalomaniacs, emotional fuckwits, or perverts.

Mark Darcy: Mother, I do not need a blind date. Particularly not with some verbally incontinent spinster who drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney, and dresses like her mother.

Interviewer: What do you think about the El Nino phenomenon?
Bridget: It’s a blip. Latin music’s on its way out.

Bridget: Daniel, what you just did is actually illegal in several countries.
Daniel Cleaver: That is one of the reasons that I’m so thrilled to be living in Britain today.

Tom: Whose side are we on?
Shazzer: Mark’s of course. He never dumped Bridget for some naked American.
Bridget: But he did shag Daniel’s fiancée and left him broken-hearted.
Tom: You’re right, it’s a tough one to call.

Bridget: I choose Vodka. And Chaka Khan.

My friend and I used to make our dinner at college in the evenings killing ourselves laughing as we quoted lines from the book.  In short, Bridget is a true British legend.

Here’s the thing though – Bridget Jones’s Diary bears such a remarkably similar plot line to Pride and Prejudice, that I would argue that it is the greatest ever work of Fan Fiction ever.  Bridget is Elizabeth Bennet, Mark Darcy is well, Mr Darcy, Bridget’s cringe-worthy mother is definitely Mrs Bennet-worthy, and the touching relationship between Elizabeth and her long suffering father, the downtrodden Mr Bennet, is often shown to be the case with Bridget and her Dad.  The plot line too – the hiccups and disasters leading to Bridget and Mark finally getting together is a dead-ringer for the Elizabeth-Darcy saga.  Oh – and Colin Firth played Mark Darcy in the film of the book too.  With Hugh Grant as the Wickham-eque Daniel Cleaver.

So, I’ll attempt to continue the story, of my favorite heroine, Bridget, I mean Elizabeth – whichever.  What would happen if Bridget came to the US on one of her infamous Mini-Breaks?  My apologies to the genius that is Helen Fielding….

Not quite NY-Lon….

Friday 1 May

129 lbs, alcohol units: 14 (crossing time zones, therefore day was longer than 24 hours, so doesn’t count), cigarettes: 6, cigarettes contemplated eating on plane as due to Federal Law I can’t fucking smoke: 537, calories: 2500, v.g.

3.46 pm.  London: Office

59 minutes until I leave for Heathrow, squeal!  Oh god why does the clock slow to a snail-with-a-limp pace whenever I’m about to go on holiday?  Although this is not just any holiday.  Mark Darcy is taking me to New York!  For a long weekend!  This is not just any Mini-Break, it is THE Mini-Break.  He is speaking at some scary American lawyer convention as the hotshot London barrister on Monday, and we’re taking the weekend to spend time there beforehand, together!  I feel he will see me in a whole new light in the Big Apple, in manner of transatlantic-jetsetter, a (slightly plumper) Carrie Bradshaw flitting along Park Avenue, deftly balancing a coffee, and all the while (having swallowed a not inconsequential amount of guidebooks in the past 2 months) knowing the locals’-only wine bars and restaurants.  In short, Mark Darcy will be amazed and astounded at my wonderful globetrotting abilities.

4.30 pm
One cigarette then off I go.  Meeting Mark at check-in at Terminal 5 at 6 pm.  Want to be there on time, London traffic nightmare on Fridays along the Westway.  Just going to tidy desk…. Ooh, boss walking towards me looking purposeful, dammit.

“Bridget, did you send me the details of the Lancaster event?”  I hate it when Joe does that: asks me things I have no idea about.  “The one on Monday, I’m speaking in the afternoon session.”  Brain frantically searching, searching, plink, plink, “AH!  Yes, I did, yesterday evening, I remembered it was coming up and that I’d be away, in New York.”  Joe sighed, “Bridget, I know you’re in New York on Monday, you’ve mentioned it every 2 minutes for the last 2 weeks, but you sent me the Lincoln details – that’s the one in THREE days, I mean NEXT Monday in Lancaster, come on ducky, Blondie McBlondie – I need it now, am planning my talk.”

Oh bugger shit.  He’s right.  Despite calling me Blondie McBlondie.  Fuckwit.  Ok, breathe Bridget, breathe.

I gulp, “sure, on its way – right now, sorry boss.”

4.45 pm
Where the hell is that pile of documents….

4.59 pm
Shit.

5.16 pm
Hurrah!!  Found it.  Note to self, must improve my office filing system when I get home.  Now quite late but should be able to just get cab, and be at airport in 45 minutes, I mean, who goes away, really, on a bank holiday weekend, most people stay at home now – staying home is the new going away….

5.30 pm

I was nearly just killed hailing a taxi on Cheapside.  Admittedly standing in middle of road could be construed by some people as slightly risky but – desperate times.  In one now.  Alive.  Thank you God.

Phone ringing, I’ve promised my driver the tip of his life and a number of possibly illegal things if he gets me there by 6 pm, but its now 5.34 pm and we’ve barely made it out of the City.  Breathe, yogic thoughts, Zen, calm, I am an international travelista, Anna Wintour on tour….  Ooh, phone, aaaagh, its Mark.  “Bridget, darling – just checking you’re doing ok, where are you?”  Hmmm, creative answer required here.  “All fine!” I trill like a pill-starved maniac. “All fine darling, en route, in the car.”  “Excellent, I just wouldn’t want us to be late, and you are, well…”  He trailed off.  “Anyhow, I have arrived, and waiting for you so we can check in together.  See you soon, at the desk, bye.”  “Bye darling.” I click end and try to smoke a cigarette out of the window, screw my hairdo and screw immediately kissing Mark Darcy.  Nicotine is more important right now.

6.05pm
Still edgy, but zooming along Westway.  Everyone leaves so long before a flight anyhow, for small unforeseen hiccups such as this.  Hmmm, wonder if its possible to be poisoned on those little Listerine melty-strips?  I just ate 5 of them.  Cough.

to be continued….

Response to readings and writing fanfic

Post reaction to both 1) the readings and 2) the process of writing a piece of fan fiction.

• Read: Henry Jenkins “Convergence Culture”, Chapters 1 (Spoiling Survivor – The Anatomy of A Knowledge Community) 4 (Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars? Grassroots Creativity Meets the Media Industry) and 5 Why Heather Can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars) Be prepared to discuss in class. If you haven’t already, read Francesca Coppa’s “A Brief History of Fandom”
• Read samples (i.e. see FanFiction.net — note the quality is pretty dismal, but, examine the spectrum of interests. Seek out specific works and communities of interest to you.)

Francesca Coppa’s “A Brief History of Fandom”

- Interesting that Star Trek fanfic grew as a result of Gene Roddenberry’s allowance of it

- But that eventually Trekkies split off from other science fiction fans – and how fanfic was considered lesser than actual science fiction writing

- Interesting on page 45 that it was educated, well read and scientifically literate women who largely built those fandoms.

- The change of how fanfic was published, intially ‘zines, then mailing lists to these days where most fanfic is hosted on people’s personal blogs.

- Internet really increased fanfic’s audience and the ease of finding it.

Henry Jenkins’ Convergence Culture

- Spoiling Survivor:  I had NO idea!!!  Wow – people are really into television shows, the communities formed around shows such as Survivor are astounding and the work of fans such as Wezzie and Dan is quite incomprehensible to me.

- The way the community treated ChillOne was fascinating from a social groups point of view.  The fact he could have been the Executive Producer was another twist.

- Pierre Levy’s thoughts on knowledge communities – very interesting.

- Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars? New media environment compared to the ‘older folk culture of quilting bees and barn dances, this new vernacular culture encourages broad participation, grassroots creativity, and a bartering or gift economy.‘  He states that this is ‘what happens when consumers take media into their own hands.‘  Reminded me of the disscussion in Comm Lab last year on mash-ups, for example the rise of hip hop eg DJ Shadow and Jay Z’s work.

- McCracken’s copyright discussion interesting.

- Why Heather Can Write -