While I’m really enjoying the feedback on Barbara Ganley’s digital workshop, I’d also like to offer an alternate prompt for this week, following up on last Thursday’s discussion. Here it comes.
What are your reflections about how we can make our projects in this course most collaborative and most meaningful for Starksboro residents? To frame this another way, how can we make it most likely that folks in Starksboro will feel a sense of ownership in our work, rather than just admiring the final projects as impressive work by Middlebury students?
Coming off of the workshop this afternoon at the Vermont Folklife Center, it seems that the most important facets of our interviewing process need to be in the respect and interest we show. Greg’s emphasis on maintaining a real honesty with the participants in our conversations is well founded; being honest while respectful is going to be the challenge of working with groups like mobile home residents. Though it’s going to be challenging (and maybe we ought to look into Deb’s “intermediary” idea), as long as we’re sincerely interested in the stories, that’s going to be the most important part. Hopefully we can turn out a product that honors those involved.
And, coexistent with an attitude that fundamentally respects Starksboro’s residents is this idea of allowing them to “own” the process. Letting the interviews move in whatever directions the interviewees are most passionate about is going to be a big part of that. Secondarily, we need to find an easy way to make all of our research available to the class. Perhaps if we used a “Interviews” category in the blog for everyone to post their field notes – some sort of abstract of the interview…? If we build a bank of interviews on which all of the groups can draw, we’ll have stronger products. Not only will our final projects seem more cohesive, but I believe that the town of Starksboro will be more satisfied by groupings of stories that “dialogue with one another.”
Some other thoughts – I hadn’t even considered this, but the group we met with represents a very specific stratum of Starksboro society. Not only should we start looking outside of this planning board microcosm, but we should be open to individual people, regardless of how we think they fit into the fabric of Starksboro. The most obvious example being residents of the mobile home parks – I’m sure there are quite a few individuals with stories to share (in a respectful context, of course). Similarly, we have an image of people like Stoney Mason, the Cliffords, etc that will definitely color our interviewing process. It seems that we’ll have a more engaging result if we talk to these folks like anyone else, though. Perhaps that’s why the autobiographical interview approach is appealing – it starts everyone on the same footing, allowing them to relate what they feel is important…
I think the only way to make Starksboro feel like they have a sense of ownership in our work is to get them involved. More and more I am feeling as though maybe turning over a blog to them at the end of the semester isn’t going to have much impact. If it was just a place where residents can post about the town, I feel like participation would be very low, and would die out.
As for a digital narrative, that is exciting as well, but will probably end up more like “an impressive project from those Middlebury kids,” especially if we don’t thoroughly involve residents. And how will it be made available to everyone, and will it have lasting impact?
I feel like something more tangible is necessary. I fully support the idea of putting a computer in the local library with a microphone for recording. A sort of Starksboro StoryCorps would be kind of cool. Maybe the interviews could be played on local radio, or otherwise made available easily to residents?
The last idea I have, though admittedly farfetched, is some sort of physical object to turn over to the town. Whether it was something the kids made (a mosaic, mural, tapestry?) or a local artisan made, if the whole town can see it, it becomes a constant source of pride.
What a couple those Coons are!
The Coons’ remind me a lot of my own grandparents, only in reverse. They’ve got a great dynamic – while Bill was perhaps the more reserved, soft-spoken spouse, Celene was absolutely bursting to tell her story. Not to say that Bill’s wouldn’t have developed further. I’m excited for follow up!
I agree with Christian, Deb’s suggestion of intermediaries is a great idea. I think that having someone in the room with the interviewee whom they know and trust often makes it much easier to begin the interview. In a way, Bill and Celene were acting as their own intermediaries. I’m certainly more likely to open up to my mother or best friend than to someone I’ve never met before. On that same token, I’m less likely to spill the beans on the nocturnal social scene at Middlebury to my father than I am to a high school friend. The wrong intermediary could cause the interviewee to self-edit, especially given that Starksboro is a small town, something I’m sure many of us can relate to.
Greg was amazing at conveying a sense of interest and eliciting a story from the Coon couple. I know when I first started interviewing I was apt to mumble words, or more often sounds, of encouragement – which I think is often our natural impulse in our desire to connect and empathize with people. Greg has the nodding and wide-eyed interest down! I loved how by the end of it Cheryl was beaming.
…and that was when Greg posed the question about her former marriage. Establishing a rapport seems to be key!
Something else that struck me about Tuesday’s session was the place. The Coon’s were fabulous in opening us to us – a room of nearly 15 people. But as Hilary asked and Greg said, I’m not sure we’ll have that same luck in all of our interviews. People open up when they feel most comfortable. My Dad is one of those people who’ll open up in the line to buy groceries…my mother is at times reticent even in her favorite living room chair. Involving the participants in the process could begin with them choosing a time and place (and maybe an intermediary?) to conduct the interview.
I think defining the ways in which we’ll give back to Starksborians is going to be central to our project. I liked Luke’s idea of giving back something physical. Many of us were lamenting dwindling number of print newspapers the other day in class. Web-based digital stories may be difficult for elderly members of Starksboro to wrap their heads around, computer or no computer. Perhaps some sort of short book of photos and story excerpts would suffice, or as Luke suggested, a sort of photo/image montage of Starksboro interfaced with text.
Maybe it’s a standing exhibit in a public place that could continue evolving after we’ve left. As for the individuals, a framed photo and a copy of the CD is always a great gesture. In terms of what we’ll be handing over, one idea I had was training these faceless intermediaries we’ve been throwing around so that they can continue the project after we’ve left, sustaining Starksboro voices and diminishing the prominence of Middlebury in the production process. I think we’re all impressed by the power of stories on the individual, why not share that feeling?
Working with the community in Starksboro is going to be vital to the success of this project. I think this means more than interviewing a few residents. We want to get a broad variety: residents of all ages, diverse interests, and from areas of the town. But we also need to establish a relationship with the town itself by wandering through it, striking up a conversation with someone we meet on the street, and taking chances when they arise. We need to be open to absolutely everything and anything, which sounds easier than it is. I also agree with the idea that we need to leave something tangible behind for Starksboro. If we only leave only a digital file like a cd for the town, they will feel disconnected from it, much like the commuter residents who work out of Starksboro and leave only the footprint of their houses. Maybe we can achieve a better connection with Starksboro by leaving them a photo exhibit with running commentary or interviews, or a compiled script of what residents have told us about Starksboro. This could include all kinds of digital, print, and audio components. This kind of exhibit might also be a cohesive way to pull together all of our projects into one place/forum for an extended period of time. And I’m sure that most residents of Starksboro would check it out- especially if they knew several of the people who had been interviewed and felt a connection to the places we explored. They would bring their families, their kids, friends, relatives, and most importantly- it would be in a public place. This would generate conversation at the exhibit and people would connect and continue the process of storytelling that we started with our project. Perhaps some kind of computer or book could be left open for people to add their thoughts, stories, etc. after they viewed the exhibit.
I am not sure that us chosing topics per say, as we planning, will be conducive to giving the town an ownership of this project. Perhaps a better way to make this collaborative, is to collect as many stories as possible, listen to them, and then see what threads we can draw from the interviews. Perhaps in a few weeks, a meeting with Starksboro residents and our class, where we listen to the interviews we have collected and see the directions stories are moving in, seeing what the people in Starksboro are passionate about, would help us decide together what topics to pursue further. I think it is important to have residents along with us in the process, if possible. And being open and flexible.
After I was done interviewing on Tuesday, I was playing soccer at the school with a bunch of kids, and they asked what we were doing here. I told them that we were collecting stories, and of course, a bunch of them had stories to tell, random stories, but things that were meaningful to them. So I recorded them. We would have to get them (and parents) to sign our sheet before using them, but perhaps those stories would lead to something, maybe about what is important to kids in the town, maybe a comparason in the way the oldest and youngest in the town feel and think. In any case, there is more that we can do to include the town fully in this project, but being flexible and having focus points rise naturally from interviews will make the town have increased ownership over the project.