Category: StoryCenter

Chapter Critique – “A Road Traveled”

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I was intrigued by the first chapter of Joe Lambert’s book, Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community.  In chapter 3, Lambert tells his own story of how he, along with several other key contributors, founded the Center for Digital Storytelling.  His journey began in 1950s Dallas, where he grew up in, as he put it, a “small oasis of liberal friendliness in the desert of 1950s Texas conservatism” (p.26).  I was intrigued about how folk music of that era played a major role in shaping Lambert’s idea of storytelling.  He comments “digital storytelling is rooted fundamentally in the notion of democratized culture that was the hallmark of the folk music, reclaimed folk culture, and cultural activist traditions of the 1960s” (p.26).

Coincidentally, my mother has had a life-long interest in folk music since her days as a student at Iowa State University in the early 1960s.  On many a long drive to my grandparents’s house in Iowa, we would hear Peter Paul & Mary, Joan Baez and The Kingston Trio.  Although I’ve never been a huge fan of the genre, I understand why young people connect with those songs as well as with the songwriters of that time period.  Much of the folk music inspired college students during the protest movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s.  For Lambert, the folk music gave him ideas on how individuals, especially those marginalized by factors such as income, race and ethnicity, could tell their stories.  As Lambert puts it, “… the populist artist in the folk traditions sought out a way to celebrate the ordinary, the common person, and their daily battles to survive and overcome” (p.27).

In discussing the significance of folk music, Lambert brings up the idea of “citizen-centered authorship and authority” (p.27).  He further expands on the significance of this concept when discussing how, in 1993, he and his future Center for Digital Storytelling collaborators “came to understand that mixing digital photography and non-linear editing were tremendous play spaces for people” (p.32).  To me, the 20th century concept of “citizen-centered authorship” sounds very much like what we have now in the 21st century internet with WordPress blogs and YouTube videos.  These are forms of personal expression that are not subject to centralized editorial control.  As someone who went to college in the early 1990s and studied television production, our generation were just beginning to understand the possibilities of using video for storytelling purposes.  Unfortunately at that time, my educational institution, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, only had Panasonic camcorders and simple linear editing systems for us to put together our personal narratives, which were largely inspired by indie filmmakers of fiction such as Richard Linklater, Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino.  I never thought I would drift off more towards the documentary genre later in my career.

One thing missing from this chapter was information on where Lambert went to college.  That might seem like a small omission to some, but I was curious as to what type of institution helped steer Lambert in his thinking.  He mentions coming to San Fransisco in 1976, but everything between his arrival there and his childhood in Dallas seems to be a mystery.  Personally, I found my time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to be incredibly rewarding, despite learning with out-of-date video technology.  Overall, it was a very enlightening chapter that gave me a glimpse into the author’s journey.  I am already delving into the next chapter.

Chapter Critique – “The Work of Story”

Most of the time, change is good.  For our Learning with Digital Stories class (INTE5340), we were given the option of critiquing a different reading from the book Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community.  The author is Joe Lambert, who founded the Center For Digital Storytelling in 1994.  The organization’s website, StoryCenter, showcases a variety of digital stories that include themes such as health, family, education and social justice.  I’ve already critiqued a couple of these videos on my blog.  After reading this chapter, I felt like I was having an “Ah Ha!” moment in realizing the purpose of humans to tell stories.

This first chapter, entitled “The Work of Story”, explored an interesting explanation on the origins of storytelling.  From Lambert’s point of view, much of it has to do with human survival and endurance.  I found this significant since a major focal theme I am concentrating on in this class is adversity.  Lambert nicely explains that:

“The memories associated with our most important life lessons are inevitably those with either strong emotional encoding at the moment, as in traumas or events involving those close to us” (p.8). 

After reading this sentence, I thought about not only the pivotal moments in my life, but also those moments in history that other people have witnessed and felt compelled to report to the rest of humanity.  The Nazi Holocaust is a perfect example.  Under the cover of war, millions of innocent civilians were systematically executed while the German people never suspected a thing under the Nazi propaganda system.  It wasn’t until years after World War II ended, when people began listening to the growing number of stories from the survivors, did the public become more aware of the horrific slaughter.

Lambert also discusses how 20th century popular culture tapped into myths to help explore a industrial age society that was feeling dislocated as people were moving from the country to the city.  For example, he cites how the Western genre of film “showed us how to bring frontier ethics into our chaotic urban experience, mapping the pastoral ideal of self-sufficiency and family integrity onto a suburban ideal of the single family dwelling” (p.9).  Director John Ford was masterful in this genre with films such as Stagecoach, The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  The author’s ideas of storytelling in American cinema got me thinking about another classic film: Jaws.

In the middle of the movie, the three main characters discus the origins of their tattoos.  Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) asks the boat captain Quint (Robert Shaw) about an old tattoo on his arm.  Quint tells Hooper it’s the name of a U.S. Navy ship he served on during World War II: The U.S.S. Indianapolis.  Prodded on by local sheriff Brodie (Roy Scheider), Quint tells the tale of how he survived a massive shark attack after the U.S.S. Indianapolis was torpedo by a Japanese submarine.  It’s one of the most memorable moments in film history, but when reading this chapter, the scene got me thinking about Lambert’s idea of storytelling.

In reality, those actual crew members from the U.S.S. Indianapolis who survived that horrific ordeal felt a need to tell that story years later for several reasons.  First, because they were on a top-secret mission to deliver the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima, they could not discuss what happened for many years.  Secondly, there reached a point after the end of World War II that people didn’t want to hear “war stories”, especially ones that ended in disaster.  Due to the fact that for many years, even decades, had passed before the truth could finally be told about the U.S.S. Indianapolis, it was up to survivors to keep the story alive so that others would understand the many sacrifices made by soldiers, sailors and airmen in harm’s way.  These such stories need to be told for the benefit of future generations.  Lambert mentions the importance of storytelling when he adds, “Story… works biologically to insure the total recall of those events which define we have ingrained as of greatest emotional importance to us” (p.8).

I’m looking forward to the next reading from Joe Lambert’s book.

Digital Critique #5: “To Be or Not To Be”

The experience of adversity can come from different cultural perspectives at various times in history.  From StoryCenter comes a tale from Alan Fong entitled, “To Be or Not To Be.”   It tells the perspective of an Asian-American conscientious objector during the Vietnam War era.   The video was posted in April 2013.  For this analysis, I chose to judge the digital story on the following evaluation traits:

  1. Story – Fong has a very clear voice that guides the viewer through the series of images.  Most of the historical stills give the viewer a sense of the students discontent at the University of California-Berkley during that time.  Fong includes images of Asian-American students, protest buttons, and also archival footage of Chinese railroad workers and Japanese internment camps to give the viewer his cultural perspective.  One thing I wished to hear, however, was what Fong is doing today.   Perhaps seeing a present-day picture of him in Berkley.
  2. Project planning – Fong does a fair job of presenting the narration and images in chronological order.  Much of the emphasis was on his time at UC-Berkley in the 1960s and 70s, but he refers back to Asian-American history from the 19th and mid-20th century closer to the end.   It feels a bit out of order, but I can understand the logic.  If a digital storytelling creates the narration first, then the visuals will compliment the audio.
  3. Citations & permission – Fong cites the Ike & Tina Turner music playing in the background, but he fails to credit the historical images he included.  Even if this project is purely for educational purposes with public domain material, a storyteller must properly give credit to content creators like newspaper photographers, magazine artists and historical archive collections.

On a side note, I was hoping that Fong would have made a greater effort to personalize this story about Asian-American history.  He could have included pictures of himself or his family to give some more context.   I enjoy tales of cultural adversity like this, but I wish Fong could talked a little more from the heart.

Digital Story – “12 Inches”

I’m fascinated by the topic of adversity.   There are challenges we choose in life and there are challenges that life seems to choose for us.   The former is adventure and the latter is adversity.

This video from StoryCenter is a simple yet moving example of how the elements of voice narration and photographs can tell an emotional tale of a man battling physical and emotional scars.   The creator, Stein Rosqvist, draws the viewer in with an array of photos showing him before and after a life-changing event.  At times, there’s a noticeable contrast between the expressions on his face in the snapshots and the tone of his voice in the narration.  It’s like an inner struggle he’s still coping with at this very moment.   Stein also skillfully contrasts the thrill of climbing a mountain with his struggle to move his foot up one flight of stairs in physical therapy.   It’s a simple and effective use of story, writing and media content integration to paint a picture of personal adversity.  My only criticism is the lack of underscore music which could add a little extra layer of emotion.  On the other hand, the wrong piece of music could be a distraction.

A very impressive visualization of adversity.