YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

I remember hearing this notion, “you are what you eat,” from multiple voices. I can’t tell you who say this first, but the idea behind it makes a lot of sense. If you want a healthy body, eat healthy foods. Does that make sense to you?

Then it follows “if you want to be a good writer, read good writing.” I have been saying this line since I began teaching. We live in a world where most people are unaware of what they read and how it impacts their minds. I strongly believe that if you give some attention to what you see as “good writing” you will have a sense of what you need to do in order to ‘level up.’

Likewise, if you want to be a good performer, storyteller or leader, you need to attend to good performances, stories and leaders. This leads me to my second detour; here is an opportunity for you to observe good storytellers.

OBSERVE GOOD STORYTELLERS

Your personal stories are yours. Your stories are unique and specific to you. And there is no better way to learn how to craft and deliver a narrative than by watching storytellers you admire. Do you know people you regard as articulate public speakers? Are these people engaging storytellers? Chances are you’ve come across a handful of talented storytellers. Look at good storytellers and learn through observation. How do they craft a successful story?

When listening to the stories of others:

PRACTICE DEEP LISTENING SKILLS.

PRACTICE FOCUSED ATTENTION SKILLS.

If you want the outcomes, you have to be prepared to do the required work.

There are no easy answers in life. You can enhance your listening and attention skills by observing good storytellers. Listen and pay attention to how the story makes you feel; how does the story resonate within you. Have you experienced good storytelling?

QUESTIONS

Who do you look to as a good storyteller?

What materials do you read that you consider well written?

What does it mean to write well?

What does it mean to present a story well?

What did good storytelling teach you about yourself? your family? your friends?

What can a good story teach you about your community? your ethics?

What about these stories was so intriguing?

Which elements offered real perspective into your own life?

What did this story teach you about the things that really matters to you?

QUESTIONS

Which parts of Deavere Smith’s performance resonated with you?

What did it feel like?

Can you connect any of her themes to you and your life?

Are there any choices, images, emotions or values you need to reconsider?

What details and moments speak to you?

Were there gaps in any of her stories that trouble you?

What stories or characters help situate your sense of self?

The notion of this layered story, with four monologues, is a sophisticated structure.

What did you think of her structure?

YOU ARE A STORYTELLER

Storytelling is a powerful tool. Political leaders tell stories to motivate their constituents; talented writers harness the power of stories to create the gift of literature. Your story reveals something about your life. Whether the story is about you or totally outlandish, you’re sharing a piece of yourself. Does this feel more challenging or more intimate than producing a standard five-paragraph essay you mastered in high school?

As a learner and a human, developing your skills in written and oral communication—as writer and storyteller, are important for your future, as you navigate how to understand your own experiences. This attention to storytelling aligns with the labour-market’s growing demand for graduates with competence in a number of professional practices; the language of 21st century skills seems a little late. These are these skills you need for NOW.

Recalling memories or manipulating ideas into a story requires practice. The possibilities for practice are endless. Be mindful of when and how you integrate writing and storytelling into your daily life. Consider who you write for. There are so many people waiting for you to show up in the world; the world needs to learn YOUR STORY.

PRAGMATICS OF COMMUNICATION

There are few other rules that will help you answer this question, “What makes you an interesting person?” The pragmatics of communication, again, highlight how we are always building relationships with our language. You may not remember what I say, but you will remember how I make you feel. I think several authors share this sentiment and, at the moment, the idea is attributed to Maya Angelou. She may have said this; she was not the first. I am certain.

In my “stuffy-theory-vestiges-of-colonialism” way, I try to share some pragmatic realities about communication messages:

(1) All communication messages provide both a content and relationship level.

(2) Silence speaks volumes: one cannot not communicate.

(3) Manage compulsive and impulsive reactions; instead, invite wonder and awe into your symbolic worlds.

(4) In fact, while you’re at it, find humour when you can. Finding humour speaks to the flexibility of your mind, like your ability to resist rigid conventional use of rules.

(5) Strive for quality (as in expertise, technique and artistry) with clear and precise language and communication.

(6) To level up, as I previously wrote, you are required to acquire fluency with multiple meta-languages. What’s a metalanguage? Language about language; thinking about thinking. Building mental models and conceptualizations that are ABOUT language and communication itself, not about a topic or subject. It’s like understanding the language of mathematics. Have you ever been able to solve a math problem without any sense of how it applies to your actual life? When learners understand this metalanguage, they experience fewer errors and less confusion.

All this to consider the question,

“WHAT MAKES YOU AN INTERESTING PERSON?”

Here are pragmatic methods for discovering your answers:

i. query your prior experiences (how can you apply prior learning in this new context?);

ii. tax your creativity and imagination (this is where innovation begins!);

iii. begin your adventurous quest for an answer without fear (demonstrating your ability to measure risk);

iv. invite wonder and awe;

v. find humour;

vi. strive for artistry;

vii. apply grit. I like that word grit. It invites you to play in the sandbox of learning. And I do not refer to sand as the meaning of grit. No. Grit refers to PERSERVERANCE. Your effort. Don’t surrender to frustration.

We are all trying our best (that is one of our course agreements).

viii. write. When the writer writes, he/she/they figures out what he/she/they have to say.

Write. Write as often as you can. Build or begin a writing “practice.” Find or create your sacred writing space. A place of one’s own. And follow a schedule. Try to write for 30 minutes twice a week. That’s to get started. Sound like a lot? Sound easy? Regardless of how you react, learning will become increasingly self-directed when you are able to create and follow a schedule that clears time for your writing practice.

Sometimes, I work in two-minute intervals. Timed writing. When you are under the gun, it’s amazing what you come up with. Then, I slowly increase the time interval. Five minutes, ten minutes. Soon, thirty minutes, IN FACT, seems very easy. A writing practice may allow for point form lists of words. However, a list is not a story. Once you are able to string sentence after sentence, you discover the joys and pleasures in writing.

At first, you might discover every time you reach for a verb, you grab the closest-at-hand, in the form of to be or to have. That’s how I recognize the writing of first year students. One of our goals asks we activate our worlds with active language. Let’s see how it goes. Are you ready to give it a try?

Anyone can tell a story. You’ve been telling stories all of your life. The challenge, now, is to develop and enhance your abilities to translate your intuitions into symbolic expressions. The language of your story is critical. When you ‘tell’ a story with words and images, detail and precision act as triggers to release symbolic thought in the minds of your audiences; and there’s no telling what an unknown audience will make of your narrative—whether banal fabula of artistic masterpiece.

The ‘fabula’ usually points to a traditional kind of tale like fables, legends or folklore. Many literary theorists/critics insist the deep structures of stories, helping humans understand the world, limit the amount and kinds of stories we can tell. I’m more in the camp of acknowledging structure and dismissing the goal of plotting my world in linear sequential order. This is your story and your life. And here is an opportunity to tell a story about yourself in whatever way you want. There are no formal rules. Go crazy!

In addition, you are asked to tell a story for an audience—say the unknown reader. Do you want to provide some kind of plot? That sense of structure that links and orders events, telling audiences what happened. Stories typically contain a plot, characters and narrative point of view. So what? I ask. Because I know that everyone interprets stories differently, whether consciously or unconsciously, through the lens of their experience. What you say about my story reveals a great deal more about you than it does my story. We give ourselves away, often without awareness.

Your TEACHING TEAM WILL watch all of your submitted digital stories. You really have no idea what we might make of your creativity and symbolic expressions. I hope you trust that we are not here to judge you. Our job is to evaluate the outcomes of your work—which is a very different cognitive task. So really, this is your opportunity to explore.

This experience of exploring what and how you approach the task of storytelling is so important. I really can never know what or how you are thinking. The closest I get is when you express your thinking with precise language. I have been reading the writing of students for over thirty years (32, if you count my job as a Teaching Assistant (TA)). What I am excited about is how you will extend your written thoughts with sounds (the creation of your sense of an acoustic environment) and images (the creation of your visual worlds). And the format of a story, I believe, is so important because of its connection to how we see the world. All humans narrate their experiences. Your stories are directly linked to your memories. We remember not what happened but our stories about what happened.

In the words of psychologist Jerome Bruner, storytelling “operates as an instrument of mind in the construction of reality.” It is the stories we tell about ourselves that give us our sense of identity and allow us to enter into relationships with others. We learn to tell ourselves about ourselves (ah ha! A meta language.).

POSITIVE SELF-TALK

I encourage positive stories about what’s going on in your life. A natural human tendency is to frame the world by that “which it is not.” We measure our perceptions against previous perceptions to distinguish differences. And the process involved in that cognitive agreement is a basis of survival. Friend or Foe?

In fact, I argue that most humans spend 60-80% of the day in a negative ruminating state. What negative thoughts are you holding onto? Your language reveals your point of view. Do words like “problems” or “but” clutter your dialogue? IF so, you’re relying on cognitive strategies that are not serving your life. When your basic survival is not at risk, it’s time to change the script. I suppose this is what cognitive behavioural therapy is about.

INTRAPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Any study of media considers how communication messages are contextual and relational. Let’s say you have this communication message: “I’m going for a walk.” The context (where) and relation (when) dramatically impact what and how you might utter such a statement. It sounds normal within an interpersonal context (inter=between; among; in-the-midst). But is that how you “talk” to yourself? When I tell myself “I’m going for a walk” –let me tell you, there are a lot of words that move through my mind:

Time for walk?; outside; dogs; leashes; or one dog; BettyRu does not need a leash to go across the street to the yard; ball; no ball; sugarbush, my aching back; my legs; can I move?; I’ve been sitting for hours; I must get up; time to move; do I hafta go outside?; maybe I can walk around the house or play inside; mask?; what time is it? Where am I? What was I supposed to do? Let me just jot down a note so I know where I am when I get back; quizzically–hun? Get back? walk; yes; I’m going to take BettyRu for a walk!

Intrapersonal contexts are very specific (intra=within, from Latin interus, modifying the object: inward); intra is always inward, within one’s own mind. The third mode of contextual and relational messages looks at situations from group dynamics to arena-sized audiences, spectators at stadiums or masses and masses of people. We cover this third mode elsewhere. Now’s the time to sail inward. How well do you understand your own thinking?

Intrapersonal communication is necessarily reflective. Your reflections may still be reactions—the goal is to improve your communication with your thinking mind and evolving ‘self’’ in ways that are symbolic, positive and meaningful.

(Ah ha! Thinking about thinking! A METALANGUAGE.)

IMPROVISATION

Storytelling: the art of conveying events in words, images and sounds, often including IMPROVISATION and/or EMBELLISHMENT. Both IMPROVISATION and EMBELLISHMENT are the elements that make you and your story authentic—actually your story. This is important because storytelling holds that rare and universal aspect of shared humanity, recognizable across cultures. Always present, the art of telling a story is germane regardless of where or when you are living. The act of telling—through improvisation and embellishment, defines all human experiences: since the beginning of history; through the tides and epochs of time; & storytelling will continue until the end.

ATTENTION & LISTENING

Our brains are far more engaged by storytelling than by just cold, hard facts. Stories are often used to reflect on the past and interpret the future. Your stories can be anything. YOU ARE ONLY LIMITED BY THE LIMITS OF YOUR IMAGINATION! (oh, and there’s a time limit. Oh, and you cannot break the law, or I will get into a lot of trouble.) Your stories can blur the boundaries of reality and fiction and/or represent some aspect of history or a fantasy world.

A common form of digital storytelling is a narrated personal story of overcoming obstacles, achieving a dream, honouring a deceased family member.

Storytelling includes the social and cultural practice of sharing an experience with others. Someone is always LISTENING. As we attend to stories, like a gift, listening permits us to bear witness. LISTENING acts as support and encouragement, marking other people’s lived experiences as important. Engaging with other people’s stories, even fictional ones, can foster empathy and improve social skills.

Storytelling allows people to make sense of the world and derive deeper meaning from their lives. The techniques and delivery methods of good storytelling may have changed over the years, but the power of storytelling to move people and provoke a deeper sense of connection between people is consistent.

Mixing digital tools with your narrative can function as a motivating and mighty form of expression for both the creator and the audience. In this partnership of creators and listeners, let me share my observations of inviting learners to play with media tools:

Digital storytelling can break the lonely isolation and existential dread many of us live—daily. Whether creating or listening, learners realize they are not alone. Within this context, any learner can overcome their anxiety with technology and nervousness about what someone else might think. In addition, the expressive capabilities of working with technology accelerated personal and community knowledge.

This digital sharing of information, I suggest, is a primary means of communicating, especially as access to the tools and techniques becomes more quotidian. I find digital storytelling appealing for its ability to engage traditional storytelling, critical thinking, creative practices and computational technologies so as to prompt multiplatform, interactive and immersive narratives. 

LEISURE IS HARD WORK

For all these reasons (and more), stories play a valuable role in your learning. With access to a range of media tools, people around the world are remixing, appropriating and sampling texts to create new forms of expression. Kirsten Drotner (2008) suggests “young people’s digital practices promote the formation of competencies that are absolutely vital to their future, in an economic, social, and cultural sense” (167). Drotner considers the relationship between these digital practices and your learning and education.

Media educators have long called for and understood the educational uses of tools that produce media messages. You may already use media production tools for leisure or pleasure or for the sake of playing with tools in and of itself. This course asks you to engage in this technical play with an intention of applying critical thinking and symbolic work.

Here is the challenge: use the tools of production to critique, explore, examine and analyze media texts of all kinds. Digital storytelling, with its potential for layering multiple modes of expression (words, images, sound, movement), invites you to play with media tools as the creator. YOU have the POWER!

Usually, you are situated within media messages and media systems as a passive consumer. In fact, despite the amounts of time we spend with our digital devices, as Darrin Barney (2005) explains, for some people access to the internet is a source of empowerment, autonomy and agency, for many it simply means connection to a technological infrastructure in relation to which they remain significantly disadvantaged and powerless (pp. 155-156).

As we learn about media, you are encouraged to work with and through media so as to redress this imbalance; an objective is to seek greater understanding of the terms “empowerment,” autonomy” and “agency.”

These terms are most clearly visible within the context of Canada’s digital divide. between those who have access to media tools and those without. Of course, there are many ways to divide people when it comes to media. At this point, regardless of your background, your experience, your expertise, your access to digital tools or any other situation, you are asked to create a short digital story.

Using the camera of one’s choice (bring your own device!), learners express the essence of their self and share a unique personal story in less than 3 minutes. These digital essays invite you to reflect upon core values, strengths and passions, while illustrating the complexity of self, identity and what it means to be human.

QUESTIONS:

Do you know how much time you dedicate to personal and social media uses?

Consider how you spend your day? Track your media use.

What helps you pay attention?

What digital skills have you mastered?

What are your questions?

YOUR CREATIVE OPTIONS

Learners are invited to engage in a digital media, arts-based practice. Digital tools now make the oldest form of storytelling—oral narrative—easy to create and circulate.

digital storytelling can be as simple as you might imagine; five pictures in a sequence, shot on any video platform with a voice over. And by no means are you limited to video.

Storytelling with digital tools, in my memory, dates to a time when word processing machines included networking capabilities. The era of personal computers

and dial-up networks, gosh, I can still hear the sound of my first computer as it connected to the network. It was slow and very noisy.

The first book I had ‘digital’ access to were Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. When hypertext was introduced the meaning of narrative exploded! Hypertext is the ability to link one text to another. Linked lexia (specific hypertext links) invited me into digital worlds of co-creation, I chose the path a story would take. Reading was like playing a game.

Many of you were born into worlds where hypertext is common—it’s how you experience the internet. But thirty or so years ago, I witnessed the digital world discover new ways of creating and experiencing stories. Using a rich combination of media tools, narratives could be nonlinear. My world changed forever. KaBoom!

MADNESS OR METHOD?

Tzvetan Todorov’s (1969) ideas about narrative highlight the importance of applying rigour to your approach or method. We ask about your creative process because, ultimately, we are looking to see “the exactness of the method” – that is, your method and much of this takes place “prior to the establishment” of your story.

When we ask about your “preproduction” we want to know what language, thoughts and actions took place before you finalized your digital story. Take us on your journey of digital creation. How you structure this journey is up to you & there are at least three ingredients to your stories and your journeys: a beginning, middle and end.

Digital storytelling offers creative people (like you) opportunities to reflect on themselves and their ideas while expanding digital literacy skills. These skills are powerful tools to explain points of view, visualize evidence and frame arguments—and dissemination can occur across multiple platforms.

Why do you tell stories? Do you have a purpose other than completing a required assignment? Is this a possible way to transfer knowledge, make sense of human experience, teach values and beliefs? Beyond your purpose, consider this collection of a half-dozen elements of digital stories; then, organize your story by adopting or adapting five basic and standard elements of narrative structure. First – some creative considerations:

HEROS, CHARACTERS, VOICES

Are you planning to tell a story about yourself? You are a complex human with a unique perspective on the world. It’s almost impossible to tell your audience everything about yourself. Instead, you have to identify some key aspects that can represent the larger set of values you and/or your character strive for. To really define the character, many creative writing practices encourage that you design short character profiles, for you/your hero and everyone else—every other body included within the frame of your production.

What key questions might you put to all characters? Why kinds of questions reveal those details you hope to exploit. For example, consider the words, ideas or language your hero avoids at all cost. What limitations would this exercise place on a character? Writing a brief character sketch helps the actors, directors and editors stay focused and on message. You can design profound questions for organizing your characters (Appendix I includes links to resources, if you need inspiration) or look to resources that help guide your work.

POINT OF VIEW IN STORYTELLING

With these brief character profiles, you can now bring characters to life by consistently recognizing their worldviews, that is, how they see the world. Highly focused creative work can provide a single point of view. Chris Milk’s (2009) digital story accomplishes this task; in Last Day Dream, a man watches his life pass before him. Produced for a festival that specified topic and time, the 42 Second Dream Film Festival archives the best of these short digital stories. In Milk’s short film, we see the world through a single point of view. This success is more challenging when you are given more time and a broader topic—as with this assignment.

A reason we ask for a digital story with a clear time stamp [you are limited to 2.5 minutes] is to give you an opportunity to include other points of view. Multiple points of view (POVs) often lead to richer and deeper experiences. Sharing another point of view with your audience helps verify and clarify their symbolic interactions with your work. Calling for multiple truths is akin to checking multiple sources.

Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009) observes the danger of a single point of view; inherent in the power of stories, she argues, is a danger: “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”

Inspired by Nigerian history mostly forgotten by or invisible to westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s stories, like jewels, lend sparkle to her creative process and diasporic storytelling.

WATCH Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The danger of a single story.   In our era of fake news, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie powerful words highlight an impending threat: “Our lives and our cultures are composed of a series of overlapping stories, if we hear only a single story about another person, culture or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.” Many agree that today we live in times of multiple critical misunderstandings. In the arena of social media and digital technologies, critical misunderstandings mean that others are able to seize control over our digital information with implications far reaching and beyond current popular discourse. [oh dear, I fear I’m sounding all doom and gloom again.]

PATHETIC FALLACY FORSHADOWS

Here it comes. Now may be the best time to tell you about that perfect storm at the end of summer, when trees shed their first leaves to a brutal wind, whispering low as it hurls through trees. Heavy rain begins and windows around the neighbourhood are sealed, holding the secrets taking place insider. What could possibly happen next?

Pathetic fallacy refers to the creative attribution of human feelings and responses to aspects of nature – like weather. It was a dark and stormy night . . . Figures of speech enliven writing and enrich the experience for audiences. Weather, for example, can evoke your desired resolution without giving away the end.

SHOW DON’T TELL

If find this idea confusing: A picture is worth a thousand words. Have you heard that idea before? Imagery can replace a lot of unnecessary verbiage. And there are other times when a single word can conjure thousands and thousands of pictures.

When ideas are concrete, a picture makes sense. Why tell you about my greying hair or my sweet dog-child BettyRu, when I could show you pictures? Verbiage. However, abstract ideas, words that might represent our core values like democracy, freedom, love –these words lead to thousands of different images. Knowing when your ideas are more concrete and/or more abstract help you make decisions about your use of words and pictures.

What powerful images can help convey your story? You are asked to apply other figures of speech like metaphor and metonymy to your work. Here is where you make the best use of concrete imagery to stand for more abstract concepts, idea and goals. A good story uses imagery and evocative language to show audiences what’s at stake rather than tell the audience what to think.

EMBRACE CONFLICT

I’m not a fan of melodrama. Like when my fussy parents make a scene in a restaurant because the music is too loud, the chair too hard, the food too salty. This happens every time our family eats at a restaurant. At first, I would blush, step back or look away from embarrassment. Now, it’s a game I play with my brother and sister; at what point will mum call over a server with a complaint, instigating a dispute? Like my mum at a restaurant, a good storyteller cannot shy away from conflict.

The art of a good story includes the crafting of narratives with obstacles and hardships strewn in the path of their protagonists. When characters struggle to achieve their goals, you strengthen your connection with audiences; for an audience to enjoy your work to the very end, compelling experiences of overcoming obstacles help audiences accept your resolutions with a sense of satisfaction.

Conflict in are acts of kindness for audiences. Any cruelty makes for a compelling narrative. What is the problem or conflict in your story? How is conflict framed; what does that frame omit? Conflict also helps create action and motion in your story. ACTION is necessary. The medium of digital video invites action to move a story forward. How else can you move audiences from your beginning, to your middle, to your ending?

Typically, the ACTION in a story looks something like this:

This image depicts the traditional narrative arc: from beginning, through middle, to the end. Here are standard plot points, to the various points of crisis as the action rises; the traditional climax marks the beginning of the end, which fall to an ultimate resolution. To map your story, these indicators are the elements of traditional narrative structures.

ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

Here is another way to map your structure. Think of your beginning as the opportunity to engage your audience; your middle is when you show the challenge; and a satisfying end that shows a change.

Remember your purpose for telling your story. Begin with a problem or challenge that required a decision. The story really begins when a character confronts an unexpected challenge. Both the character and your audience feel an urgent need to pay attention. Every choice yields an outcome. Every outcome teaches some kind of lesson.

A good story is drawn from a series of choice points that have structured the

“plot” of your life; the challenges you faced, choices you made and outcomes you

experienced. The story of your protagonist and the efforts to make choices encourages audiences to think about their own values and challenges, and inspires them with new ways of thinking about how to make choices in their own lives.

When audiences can empathetically identify with the character, they are open to your storytelling triggers that actually make them feel. Visceral sensations experienced in the body, in response to a story, means you’ve been triggered. Storytelling is a very powerful tool; storytelling can move humans in emotional and instinctual ways.

TRAUMA & COMPASSION

TRAUMA is an urgent public health issue, and we have the knowledge to respond effectively. The choice is ours to act on what we know. I stumbled on a study while doing some research about violence prevention. This study, released by the Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), looked at child abuse and trauma. It’s called the ACE study to refer “Adverse Childhood Experiences.” Even before COVID, isolation and this week’s anxiety, children are living in conditions that make me sick.

To quickly summarize some of the study’s findings:

10% lived with a parent or other adult in home often or very often swore at them, insulted them or put them down; 25% said a parent often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped or threw something at them; 28% of women and 16% of men experienced some sexual misconduct and abuse; 12.5% witnessed their mother sometimes, often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped or had something thrown at her; 12.5% of children witness their mother sometimes, often or very often get kicked, beaten, hit with a fist or with something hard.

Writing these words to you—I feel queasy. Child abuse and neglect, as defined within the ACE study, is identified as the gravest and most costly public health issue.

The CDC explains that the three-year study began twenty-five years ago, in two waves of data collection, with over 17,000 participants. An ACE scores account for types of abuse, neglect and other hallmarks of a rough childhood. The rougher your childhood, the higher your score, and an increased risk for health problems later in life. Take the test. Or just take a look at the questions.

You can also look at the original study “Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults; The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study” and review related research.

Trauma is often lost in time, shame, blame, secrecy, silence, social taboo, chronic depression, alcoholism, drug use, addiction, suicide attempts; trauma increases the probability of other health concerns like cancers. Trauma isn’t simply something that happens to you; the shock of each event lives in your bearing and body, further impacting your mind and your world.

In other words, early abuse devastates health and social functioning. Can you imagine all children having equitable access to high quality day care? Imagine a school that cultivated cooperation, self-regulation, perseverance and concentration (not focusing on passing tests, stilted curiosity, anxiety to excel or complete shutdown from hopelessness, fear and/or hyper arousal).

TWO RELATED DETOURS

BEFORE I invite you to play with explosives, I want to honour the art storytelling and the arts-based-practice of media art by taking two important detours.

I would be remiss if I did not provide an exemplar performance. To this, I invite you to attend to a PERFORMANCE; watch and listen to MacArthur “genius” Anna Deavere Smith share her story “On the Road: A Search for American Character.”

WELTSCHMERZ

And first: let me be honest, I’m having a hard day. How about you? In fact, I can’t make it one day without some trigger setting off my reactive inclinations— whether the physical isolation or forced screen-time, daily death-toll and reports that rate infection like some cheap game of battleship; with my survival senses readied, I can’t dial down my hyper-arousal and acute awareness of what’s going on in my immediate vicinity.

It’s not a constant state of anxiety or depression—besides those are diagnoses and I promised to bracket any medical pathologies in place of detailed descriptions of what my body senses, whether externally or from the inside, like fog brain and muscle strain.

To this end, I ask for patience and more of your time and attention because it is important to acknowledge that our world is in crisis. We are all experiencing our own crises. Things are not working “as usual.”

We all struggle.

We are living in collective TRAUMA.

These are curious times. The world seems steely and calm. Neighbours are friendly. At the same time, I’m trapped in a boisterous amusement park, billions of people reach for my attention. All media messages push and jar me to access very important information, ostensibly without wanting anything in return.

Of course, attention is money for those in power. I don’t want to amplify anyone’s self-serving messages. The textures of life, less predictable, provoke my restlessness. Will the sun rise again tomorrow? Aren’t you exhausted from the current state of the world? This is what my grandmother would call “weltschmerz.”

Her voice is prominently in my head, “markie, come here. Don’t be sad. You know the world will never be perfect.” My grandmother’s oral expressions are rich in both prosody and meaning.

“tdis ‘is weltschmerz,” she sighs, turning away from the window. “V’we know weltschmerz.”

Weltschmerz [pronounced: velt-schmer-itze], my grandmother taught me, refers to the pain I experienced at the unlikely state of the world. World weary was her Yiddish translation. Are all the people of the world, like me, in a state of weltschmerz? I wouldn’t be surprised. Can you identify with this physical state of world-weariness?

Grandmother would pull me closer, “markie. Time for a story.” And so, it would begin, a story she or I would share about our day or a memory. Grandmother taught me to turn from the pain and use my imagination to generate new feelings.

I now encourage learners to create their own media messages. And I don’t ask you to do anything I am not willing to do myself. I spent part of the summer creating some video work. I dance on camera. Ha! Take that weltschmerz. My work is available for you to review on vimeo, if you are interested. I felt a need to express my vulnerability.

I am always off in my own world, thinking, reflecting. The last thing I want to do is add to the mountains of information available. And, at the same time, I discovered there is always someone who resonates with my work. There is always someone who can relate to your story, who needs to hear your words in that moment.

Let’s participate in the global networked conversation. Isn’t this better than another hamburger? I mean, I know that’s probably easier or something. But it’s time for new. Time to put yourself out there.

I know what it feels like to not believe in yourself; you doubt yourself; you stop your creative work; and later, you feel some sense of regret; the unfinished work. Here is my secret at the root of my insecurities: I live among collections of incomplete projects, scattered at my feet.

“Look markie, what a mess. And oh my, haven’t you been busy.” Other than my grandmother, who wants to experience my work? Do I even want to? My voice trails off in an archive of fragmentary stories. WELTSCHMERZ.

The collective trauma challenges me further. Yet, I know I have a voice. I know my voice can make a difference. And maybe, one of you will connect with my recent outpouring of short video art. The sum of my discoveries leads me to tell you this:

THE WORLD NEEDS YOUR VOICE.

YOU ARE ESSENTIAL.

There a lot of ways humans experience and embody past trauma. I see childhood trauma as another pandemic. More children in the world live in situations of isolation, exclusion, abuse, pain, violence and worse. I invite you to learn a little more about trauma and, in tandem, I invite your compassion. For yourself and for others.

WATCH “TEDTalks: Nadine Burke Harris—How Childhood Trauma Affects Health across a Lifetime.” (16:02). Films On Demand, Films Media Group, 2015.

QUESTIONS

Have you or someone you know experienced this kind of high level of trauma?

Do you think Nadine Burke Harris is exaggerating or under-reporting?

Regardless of you past experiences, are you able to bring a sense of self compassion to your own and others’ experiences with trauma?

Can you explain the difference between compassion and empathy?

Is it best to try addressing any past trauma or to try forgetting past trauma?

GUIDED COMPASSION MEDITATION AND VISUALIZATION

I highly recommend the guided audio and video materials at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, Center for Mindfulness in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health. A number of different practices have been prepared and are available on SoundCloud.

The Short Mindfulness and Compassion meditations are a good place to begin. They also have mediations that help you visualize your body so as to reduce tension and pain and promote relaxation and inner peace. These are call Body Scans and can really help all of us connect with our physical bodies in peaceful and meaningful ways. All meditations aim to help rewire your mindset so as to experience life without any hectic frenzied distractions.

Imagine if you dedicated part of every day to (what they call) non-doing; imagine if your life was led by a sense of non-striving, setting aside all your determined efforts and ruthless ambition. How do you think this subversive attitude and value could impact your life? The lives of your family? The rest of the world?

MARK LIPTON’S TIP OF THE DAY!

FOLLOW WONDER & CURIOSITY

When did you start asking why? WHY? Curiosity is usually followed by interesting questions.

Sincerely, I am not interested in your abilities to recall ‘the correct answer.’ I am fascinated by the questions people ask. Other people’s questions can lead me to wonder. And wonder. And wonder. I can be slow. I something think I must seem unusually forceful (if not downright peculiar) by replying to your question with another question—by inviting wonder.

Good stories answer questions. Are you interested in something? Do you find yourself wondering about the details? You cannot be wrong. This is YOUR creativity. I try to create the conditions for you and your creativity to flourish—to take flight. The mind soars.

I know the sage wisdom, storytellers must mine their own memories and life experiences.

Are there events in your life that you believe will make for a great story? Are there moments that represent your experiences building resilience? Recall the details of a moment when an absolute disaster led to some new knowledge or other success.

YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS: PLAUSIBLE LIVES, POSSIBLE WORLDS

When you hear the word “story” what comes to mind? What is a story? Character, plot and setting. I recall a moment in high school when that was my answer. I wasn’t as clever as you.

Consider story as a sequence of action, details arranged in an order according to time or some other measure. Then what? A conclusion? What does that really mean? Some new realization? An AH HA moment? And ending or moment of reflection?

How do you begin YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS? Is this very question manageable in your mind? Awe-inspiring? Soul crushing? Whatever your answer, that’s where you begin.

HONEST AS THE DAY IS LONG

Embrace your fear or anxiety. These are very normal emotional reactions. IF you are excited and think you’re ready to go, consider the next few key ideas as cues or prompts. We know “you got this” and we are always improving with practice. I know the first time I was asked to create a video – a digital story, I was not pumped. I felt terror. Do I share a true story? I barely speak to other people; I am an introvert. I cannot tell the world my secrets. Do I even have a story? There is usually a natural tendency to resist sharing personal details.

Anecdotes that illustrate struggle or failure or stories about overcoming obstacles are what make people appear authentic and accessible. How comfortable are you showing vulnerability? Elsewhere I have written, and I will repeat, I share my vulnerability with you – so you don’t have to. No one is suggesting you cross personal boundary lines and surrender to the authority of the professor. PERSONAL SHARING IS NOT A REQUIREMENT. Honest! –as the day is long.

I am always one to push the limits. Again, risk-taking is one of the learning outcomes in this course. You may have a low risk-taking threshold. Think of our teaching team as YOUR TESTING THE LIMITS COLLECTIVE. It’s our job to push. It is not your job to reply, “how hard should I push, sir?” Ha. That makes me laugh. . . It’s your task to experiment, engage in symbolic play, touch technologies of storytelling and try to create work with intention and artistry.

Failure is an option; failure builds your resilience. As a team, we aren’t interested in how professional your work appears. We are preparing to assess your creative process: from preproduction; storyboarding; script writing; project planning, camera use, experimentation with editing; finalizing a product; uploading an .mp4 file to DROPBOX (interoperable standardization); writing about your intentions; and writing your metacognitive reflections.

Whether you share a real personal experience or something totally different, it’s always useful to look to your life for inspiration. Sharing stories may reveal hidden fears, emotions or dreams. Putting your everyday life under a microscope is both frightening and enlightening.

COURAGE MY LOVE

Everyone knows it’s easier to talk about what’s on the surface, like sharing your best selfies or those optimal posts of your amazing life. Collect Likes. Like. Thumbs Up. Smiley face. Big heart. These are surface-level communicative acts. And it’s much easier to stay on the surface of your life: The sun is hot; Neat; Great hair day; Be my valentine?

To dive below the surface takes courage. It takes courage to raise unfamiliar topics. We support your courageous storytelling! Applying courage to this task can help improve your storytelling skills. Remember, we are not judging you—our job is to assess your output. These are not the same thing—by a longshot.

Honesty can hurt. The worst thing a bully can say is something true; the truth stings!

Truthfully, there are enough judgmental people in the world. Resist taking the path of instant judgments. These reactions do not and will not serve you! Here’s where I ask you to be honest (as the day is long): is the invisible voice in your head extremely self-critical? Are we not our own worst critics? Your reflective efforts can describe efforts at supressing (or overcoming) this self-critical voice.

GIVE VOICE TO AUTHENTICITY

It is too easy to take other people’s words and create pretty cards (I have a few of them in this curriculum—it’s super easy). Don’t let someone else speak for you; don’t let someone else’s words speak for you. They don’t showcase your unique identity, sense of self or authentic voice.

Look, I enjoy referring to the words of others for inspiration or when those words led me to new visions or perceptual hitches. You are allowed to cite others—as long as the greater part of your content (5:95) is yours. Find a voice that show audiences who you are and what makes you, YOU.

Finding an authentic voice is like dressing for a “smart casual” party. I see this expression and I begin to panic. I like dressing up. What is casual? What is smart? Simply put, the party invites you to use languages to sound smart, as long as your language can work in informal settings.

If you met me at a cocktail party (is that a thing?), I’d probably talk about a book I’m reading; would you rather hear about the latest murder mystery like Murder on the Orient Express? or might you prefer to learn about the Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind? Let’s say you’ve had a long day and already finished your first drink.

I am always confused by wordy jargon. Tell a story with words everyone can understand and follow. Encourage your audience to listen and engage. If your audience doesn’t understand your language, you’ve lost their interest. Manipulate your words so people consider you relatable and your information relevant. When you’re able to engage and stay relevant to your audience, storytelling transforms into the kind of meaningful experience all introverts crave.

The truth of this matter is consistent: not everyone is going to love you. HATE-ERS GONNA HATE. Don’t feed a hateful public. & Let’s say you did everything perfectly (whatever that looks like), there will still be people who do not like you. Why spend time and energy on haters? Focus your time, energy and love on the people already cheering you on. Pay attention to the people who like you. It’s pretty simple (in theory).

In the end, what matters most is that you like yourself. When you like yourself, it doesn’t matter what you wear (smart-casual-my-ass). Your people will find you. Keep showing up with your authentic voice and find joy in your community and the stories their lives tell.