Once upon a time I got into a boat that took me through the tunnel of darkness into the underworld.

Jim’s been digging in to the history of the internet during the Internet Course, and one of the groups is looking specifically at ARPANET for their project. I thought it might be interesting to see what kind of official documents … Continue reading →

So the nag was on! And yes, I will do anything to stop that video being played again :)

So here is my story of open in the shape of an iMovie Trailer and if you would like to hear the back story then knock yourself out. I made a special podcast ‘The DS106 Shrink Story of open’ where you can hear the details. But the trailer above may be all you need.

Does spelling count? For today’s Daily Create at DS106, the prompt is to write a story riddled with spelling errors.  (That’s harder than it seems, particular for a teacher). Here’s what I came up with: Peace (in the storie), Kevin

Tom Woodward’s remix of an amazing talk! **The Bag of Gold** talk! Gardner Campbell, ideas and ideals! Monsterful indeed.

A daughter follows her father's war time footsteps to a foxhole in France.

My being inspired to write a story on cowbird is a likely correlation with spending last week visiting Barbara Ganley. Because I urge my students to share the story behind a story, the one I wrote last night A Stranger Rummaged Through My Suitcase came from my unpacking experience. It was hardly the first time I found the TSA paper in my suitcase cc licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Like usually I shrugged it off, tossed the paper, and put the pile of dirty clothes in the basket to be washed. That’s when “it” happened- that diffifult to describe itch when an idea bubbles up. Part of it is how normal this seems, how matter of fact. We just accept the fact that when traveling by airplane, our checked baggage is inspected for Things That Do Not Belong in the Air. Less then that odd realization […]

Well, I have posted my new Work Friends index and it is a list of all the Friends that I am going to be making in the The DS106 Workplace DS106 Goes to Work digital storytelling course sessions that are on the Internet right now. I did a bit of a detective work and made […]

We took some chances with the way we set up The Internet Course. The skeletal syllabus in particular was a big risk. It meant that the whole course hinged upon the students putting the effort into finding, analyzing, synthesizing and … Continue reading →

I have been desperate to try week 2 assignment to break down a commercial in 5 seconds increments - I did not even look at the list we were provided as I had a commercial in mind. 

I used Vialogues to break it down and make notes. As Christina Hendricks says in her post about this activity, it is not only fun but really revealing. if you want to join me in Vialogues and make your own notes on the commercial you are welcome. I made it public so anyone can comment. 

I have seen this advert/commercial many times and it is an all time favourite. I never stopped to ask why or what was the shape of the story. In week one I explored the story spine technique through a video I made. A series of unconnected images that seemed to come alive in a story just by the addition of the story spine structure. This was fascinating to me. How humans add stuff that is not there, just to make a story even when there isn’t one. 

Here is the story spine for my advert:

Once upon a time there was a cat that saw life as ‘meh!’
Every day passed with cat just lying there whilst the world passed him by
But one day whilst lying bored on the sofa he had a thought that changed his life. Why be so cat?
Because of that he ran outside in the sunshine
Because of that he started to do all the things that dogs do
Because of that he felt full of life and ready to Carpe Diem
Until finally he was accepted by a pack of dogs as one of their own
And ever since then he lived happily ever after!

Is this what you want for you own boring life? Then join the O2 cell phone network.

Is it a contagious story?

Mystery? 
Empathy?
Surprise?
Revelation?
Admiration?
Astonishment?
Contagious Awe?

Yes, to all the above. It opens with a usual enough sight, a cat lying down in a kitchen. The voiceover soon tells us that it is ‘the cat thinking’. We cannot hear cats thinking normally so this is mysterious. We pay attention. 

Who has not experienced the feelings cat is describing? Boom we have empathy.

It all seems to be going downhill to clinical cat depression and then the surprise. Cat gets an idea. 

The idea reveals to him that life could be different if only he could be more dog! As Flash Gordon music starts to play and he flies out of the cat flap, we want to be Cat, we admire his courage and feel more and more astonished at what Cat can do, culminating with Cat ‘becoming’ a dog represented by him running with the pack and then in the back of the car. 

Contagious awe turns out to be a key emotion that makes stuff goes viral. I do not think it is far fetched to say we (I imagine only if we like animals and can empathise with protagonists) as viewers are awestruck by this clever little cat that decides to carpe diem - it must get the oxytocin and the cortisol going. The cortisol when we see his dead end life at the start, and the oxytocin when we see it grab life by the Frisbee. 

If you want a non-animal version of this same advert, you can watch the film below. The video has the same pattern: compares boredom with awe and tells us why humans will do anything for a bit of awe!

Make a slooow video, so I blew up the world...

For week 2 of the GMU #ds106 course  being taught this Spring by Alan Levine, one of the headings...

The Daily create today asked us to write a poem about our birthplace. I felt I could not write one as the tango sung by Carlos Gardel is the definitive ode to my birthplace. I love it. So I entered the lyrics at the website and felt like I was cheating…so I made a video about it all! It has been so cool, to visit my place of birth, listen to a favourite tango and even found a photo online of the hospital I was born in and (unbelievably) the door of the neonatal unit in that hospital. Ah, this web of ours.  

Searched for photos, clips in YT, found best recording I could of the song, used new iMovie to put it together - detach audio on clips, add my audio, mess around with the clips, transitions, etc. and upload to YT. Used a few new filters and I am getting to know the new iMovie and it is not bad.

I still struggle with credits - I cannot find a smooth workflow for those. 

I wanted to have the lyrics in English dancing on the screen…but I did not know how to even try to do that. 

"Daily Create: Make a video of something moving that doesn't usually move."

There is the very famous “stay calm” poster that you see variations of just about everywhere. Yesterday’s Daily Create via DS106 was to remix that poster’s saying. I went into Mozilla’s Webmaker tool and did my own version. What’s cool about Webmaker is that you can remix my project or you can go to the […]

Last night my family and I ate at Olive Garden. Not necessarily a fact one needs to share publicly, even if it is a partiular outing for our family. The chain mentality for Italian food is literally anathema to our … Continue reading →

itscolossal:

The World’s Smallest Sandcastles Built on Individual Grains of Sand by Vik Muniz and Marcelo Coelho

Well, this sent me down a rabbit hole…

and then I learnt about the camera lucida and after learning about the praxinoscope from Jim Groom i am spoilt for choice of gadgets to play with. I think the camera lucida wins - it undermines notions of original artwork and what it means to copy, it shows us that artists through time have used devices that help the process, it speaks to the relationship between art and technology and can buy me a portable one today! I do not need to invest in an antique:

Wow! History and me have not always been best friends…could it be that as well as challenging my preconceptions on art and artefacts DS106 will also teach me to love history? 

I am ordering me a camera lucida and playing with it…I know, I can do that with layers. But a tool that was used to build a sandcastle in a grain of sand? How can I say no?

colinpods:

Every Sunday at 8.00 UK time ( check here for your local time) 

The DS106 Good Spell in 106 Bullets -  John Johnston and Mariana Funes talking DS106 learning, community and creativity.

On DS106 Radio: http://ds106rad.io/listen/

A radio programme based on my 106th post for DS106, read it here. And episodes will be archived at EduTalk. Episode 0 is already up!