There are two parts in my post.
First, and in reference to the upcoming celebration of the
International Day for Sharing Life Stories ( May 16 -
www.ausculti.org) and in answering Cynthia's request to discuss the
communication of memories in other cultures, I want to bring up John
Miles Foley's "Navigating Pathways: Oral Tradition and the Internet"
- namely his discussion of digital and oral storytelling in
Aboriginal peoples.
Foley suggests that digital storytelling gives the elders a new
audience - no longer just the immediate and culturally relative one.
In Brazil, digital storytelling community-driven projects have been
proliferating in remote locations such as the Amazon, and seem to be
be well received by the elders in these Aboriginal communities.
I agree with the ideas of 'one of a kind' as opposed to 'score'
aspects of orality that have been put forward and would like to add a
generational dimension (as in age translated in experience to be
passed on).
Secondly, I wonder how the social web is integrating structures of
oral tradition in graphic representations for expressive
communication or even interfaces for browsing/searching audio data...
namely given the 'one of a kind' personal production aspect of orality
that Roger Malina noted.
- Judith Donath and Fernanda Viegas proposed 'chat circles' (and you
can see what they look like at http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/chat_circles_series.pdf
) and later suggested (w/ Ethan Perry and Ethan Howe) a graphic
representation of "conversations in a museum", reminiscent of an
archeological sedimentary structure on 'Artifacts of the Presence
Era: Using Information Visualization to Create an Evocative Souvenir'
at http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/papers/artifacts_infovis04.PDF
- Then there is the corporate world:) - the beta version of google
audio using colored marks on a linear player labs.google.com/gaudi...
as well as the Babble and Loops interfaces ( IBM Social Computing
Research Group) proposing other types of visual representations for
communication (http://www.research.ibm.com/SocialComputing/Loops.htm)
For me, these metaphors of sedimentation and layers (Donath/Viegas),
discrete nodes (google audio) and orbitals (Babble) are proxies for
expressive communication. Are there other that others may want to
discuss here, which may be closer to oral traditions (along the lines
of what has been discussed - and weaving comes to mind)?
Regards to all,
Ana Boa-Ventura
College of Communication
University of Texas at Austin
On May 2, 2009, at 10:30 AM, Cynthia B Rubin wrote:
> Roger asks the question about how to respond to my proposed topic on
> traditional ways of passing down information.
>
> Is science always separate from story telling in general? is there
> an overlap in what is important to communicate?
>
> s history (as in describing the past) always recorded/communicated
> in the same form as science?
>
> Is there an overlap in research?
>
> Do all cultures approach the field differently?
>
> In the current methods of Anthropology, for example, the
> documentation of cultural practice and communication of memories is
> treated as a science, even when it is applied to contemporary
> societies. (not my field, so it would be nice to know more here).
>
> We take our own cultures for granted, so observations from other
> cultures would be welcome.
>
>
> Cynthia Beth Rubin
> http://CBRubin.net
>
> On May 2, 2009, at 8:28 AM, roger malina wrote:
>
>> PS from roger: we should try to respond to this in the context
>> of the arts and new technologies or art and science since this
>> is the focus of YASMIN
>
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On May 2, 2009, at 10:30 AM, Cynthia B Rubin wrote:
> Roger asks the question about how to respond to my proposed topic on
> traditional ways of passing down information.
>
> Is science always separate from story telling in general? is there
> an overlap in what is important to communicate?
>
> s history (as in describing the past) always recorded/communicated
> in the same form as science?
>
> Is there an overlap in research?
>
> Do all cultures approach the field differently?
>
> In the current methods of Anthropology, for example, the
> documentation of cultural practice and communication of memories is
> treated as a science, even when it is applied to contemporary
> societies. (not my field, so it would be nice to know more here).
>
> We take our own cultures for granted, so observations from other
> cultures would be welcome.
>
>
> Cynthia Beth Rubin
> http://CBRubin.net
>
> On May 2, 2009, at 8:28 AM, roger malina wrote:
>
>> PS from roger: we should try to respond to this in the context
>> of the arts and new technologies or art and science since this
>> is the focus of YASMIN
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to
> subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-
> mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down
> the page.
>
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and
> enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if
> asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear
> ("options page").
>
> HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the
> "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
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HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
