Exporting Reminder & Help

http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f15426v1004

Closure II -- Apply to Your Picture Choices

Thanks for your efforts last night. I liked how you listened to each other, how you listened to your own stories, how you asked questions -- all of these are skills needed in any language, in any job, in any country, no? Listening, thinking, questioning, modifying-- minds at work.

Think about how a picture and text can work together. Work alongside one another. When you write "I left home", for example, you do not have to show a picture of you leaving home. You CAN think about the idea of leaving, of growing, and ask yourself what kind of picture you want to symbolize this growth ... maybe a tree bud, symbolizing the potential for growth. This requires your audience to think about meaning--"What? she was talking about taking care of an orange tree, but she showed a picture of two hands, fingers entwined ..." The audience then has to figure out the meaning of the story, perhaps about helping one another, comforting one another.
Listen, nobody really needs to see a lot of pictures of people they will not ever meet. Okay, maybe one picture. But the rest ... use closure as a means of teaching something important in your story.

Closure I -- The concept

Closure
Comic theory (although it is known by other names in other fields)
Coined by Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics, the term "closure" refers to the act on the part of the reader of adding in information or detail not specifically articulated in a passage of a comic book. These details can take many forms, for example visual details left out by the artist or temporal details of events which happen between a pair of panels. These details the reader fills in and completes from his or her own experience forming "closure" with the narrative.

Gestalt Psycology
The human perceptual process of attributing more qualities and meaning than are present onto or into a stimulus which employs reduced detail. The missing detail is fleshed out subconciously by viewer using past experience and cultural knowledge to make sense of what is being percieved.
Source-- http://www.allcatsaregrey.co.uk/glossary.php?#Closure

An Open Letter to Ricardo: Zoom in on a Story

Photo by Phil Hilfiker [CC by-nc-nd]

Which photograph is better: One of the man or one of 3 million people?

The answer lies perhaps in who is looking at the photograph and also in the purpose of the photograph. The same factors would help determine the answer to your question: Why write a personal story?

Perhaps another important question is, should the skill of personal narrative be taught to agricultural engineering students? Should you be able to articulate a passion, a problem, a situation? Or is it all science and analysis?

If an employer already knows you can do the job, another critical answer you must provide is in response to this: Why do you want to do this job? Why do you care?

The employer wants to know if you've got anything inside you other than the some skills and a desire to collect a paycheck. He or she may want to know that what you've learned besides numbers, formulas, systems, and names of plants is held together by a belief in something more than money. Are you more a collection of cells that processes equations, senses the outter world and processes it, eats, drinks, defecates, and dances to music? A consumer. You're much more: Let's go there. Not just cells, but stories we think about, cry about, laugh about, are inspired by.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The power of story is unmatched as a learning tool, a tool to convince, a tool to inspire, even entertain! Personal story, especially. But sure other kinds of stories too. We are biologically programmed to receive story too. Trace it back to mankind gathered around fires and gnawing on bones in caves, we were painting stories on cave walls and sharing what happened on the way to the river. Watch commercials: So many tell stories now. Tight, short stories so readers will remember and take action. Your stories, I think, will do something even more important. They can raise the level of awareness and passion for similar ideals and values. Take a close picture or two so this can happen.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you are talking in the cafeteria today or walking to class, people are telling stories. People love them. I'm asking you to write something that honors your identity and your purpose. I don't know what that is unless you tell me. I do know when you are still searching for it, when you are shying away from it. That's when I push. That's when you resist. When you find it, we all win: audience and you.

Feedback & Second Drafts: 3 steps

Thanks for your work on your first drafts. By now everyone should have received feedback from me. --- IF YOU DID NOT, PLEASE contact me as soon as you can via email; send me your draft again. ---If you have any questions, let me know!
You are all busy, but we need to push forward soon!
In a nutshell, feedback centered on these ideas:
1. What memory is pressing forward today?
2. What are you doing today at EARTH that is making you recall this story?
3. Reflect on the challenge, the problem. "reflect" means to think about, struggle with words to find meaning.

Second Draft: The "Why Now?"

Once I was hiking and ran out of water.
The day grew hot and I grew dehydrated.
I found a stream and bent to drink, and as I did
I remembered a story read to me by my grandmother.
Perhaps you know of it, this legend of the king and his hawk
out hunting and the king grew very thirsty. He found water
running down the side of steep hill. He put his chalice
to the water and his hawk swept down and batted
his golden cup away. The king tried it again and then a third time.
Each time the hawk flew down and knocked his cup out of his hand.
On the fourth attempt, in frustration and delirium, the king
felled the hawk with his sword. He climbed up that hill to the source
of the water to drink. There he found a poisonous snake.
The hawk was trying to save its friend.
As I bent to that stream, I remembered this story read to me by my parents. Then a breeze shifted
directions. A foul smell found me and thirsty as I was, I walked up stream
a short ways and found a dead cow decomposing in the stream.*
***
Stories have a way of finding us as we face challenges. Why tell your story
today? This is a powerful question I've been asking you. That your story
that comes from the past is made powerful by what it says about today,
what you are facing, what you are becoming. Keep writing.
*story used by permission from Kim Stafford

Watch, think, write ...

http://storiesforchange.net/event/earth_univeristy_digital_storytelling

If you're having trouble watching any stories at the Center for Digital Storytelling, I would like you to try this website! You might recognize some faces and places here. Let me know (thank you, Ale), if there's a problem with these.

Your Story!

Email it to me when you have a draft!

The Center for Digital Storytelling

http://www.storycenter.org/stories/

So this is the place I've been trained and inspired to do this digital storytelling work. I used to be a journalist and loved hearing people tell their stories and then I'd piece them together with some of my own words. Now, I just help people do their own storytelling using some of the powerful tools technology can offer.

This site has a ton of information, but why don't you just pick one or two stories for now and listen and watch them just to give ourselves an idea what a finished product looks like. They're all different, so don't feel like you have to make yours like someone else's.

When you come to class Friday with your script, also come to talk about the story you watched and share what made the story memorable to you. I will be talking to you in class Friday morning and I can't wait to hear your voices.

Your Script: Let's Write!

Start your engines. Let's write a first draft. See if you can write about 250-500 words. Pick one of the below and write!
A. Take a challenge you’ve faced in your life and then tell one piece of that big story, say, of about 5 minutes.
B. Describe one moment that sheds some light on how you came to be at EARTH.
C. Look at a prized object of yours. It could be a possession/something you own. It could be a landmark. Tell the story that you share with it. How it came to be yours.
D. Write about a person who has shaped you. Make the person come alive in your writing. Recall one moment you shared. How have they influenced you?

What is a digital story: Part I

The Center for Digital Storytelling defines the work as this:
"While the term "digital storytelling" has been used to describe a wide variety of new media practices, what best describes our approach is its emphasis on first-person narrative, meaningful workshop processes, and participatory production methods."
----------------------------

We will continue to explore this definition. But let us begin together with this: The first thing to say about digital stories (DS) is that they are first and foremost STORIES. They have to be good stories. True stories. Stories that are important to you. Your story is the foundation of your digital story. You can have great pictures, a wonderful soundtrack, and know the editing software and yet still have a weak DS if your script doesn’t work. Think of it as a birthing. It ain’t easy, so I’m told, but the product of the process is miraculous.What makes a script work?
1. Find a topic you want to say something about.
2. Be brave as you approach it.
3. Be honest to yourself and to your topic. Your audience will follow you to the ends of the world! 4. Be open to discovery as you write your story. You may learn something about an experience you thought you knew everything about.
5. Listen to me and other readers. I don’t expect you to do everything I ask. I offer a lot of ideas. Listen to me. Explore new ways. I get lost too, but I help writers find their stories. I’m your Sherpa! -- Ask me how, what, where … anything. I am here for you and committed to seeing you through.
6. Expect to re-write. Re-write. Re-write. Most of you don’t know what it means to spend dozens of hours on one page of writing. I do. It’s a fantastic challenge, and it may not take you days. But expect work and expect a good story in the end.
7. Give yourself to the process. The journey can be unforgettable. And in the end, join the circle of human race in the 21st Century and share. I, for one, am waiting.
--------------------------------------------------------

One Hello!

About You:

Please post something that you've done at EARTH and that you're proud of. Add what name you would like me to use to address you. As well, share what country you are from. Finally, add anything else about yourself! The more, the better. PLEASE do this by 10 p.m., Wednesday, May 27.

* In order to "comment" here and post your responses, you need to register your email account at Google as an iGoogle user.

About me:

I write a poem almost every day, and I play the guitar. This all keeps my heart pumping pretty hard. I love being outdoors, especially away from the city where I can fish, birdwatch, and listen to the world. A picture above shows the Platte River; I am playing in it with my children, brother, and nephews. It's not deep! Call me Phip, please.

I'm coming back to Costa Rica because I loved my time at EARTH, the students, my colleagues, and the landscape.

Video Greeting from Phip