Re-murmring about Murmur...
Food for thought - I thought we might consider a previous inner-city oral history project - Murmur. Instigated by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority as part of of the 2007 Bealtaine Festival, we saw a series of metal green ears add to the fabric of Dublin's inner-city streets. The project concept was simple - record locals who would in their own voice recount stories and histories of the local area. Passers-by could ring the number on the green ear and key in a code in order to have the recording played.
Today the green ears remain a residue of the installation, and the recordings are still available online at the project website.
What I wanted to reflect on was the difficulty in designing local story-telling projects using new media while foregrounding issues of accessibility. Granted, many people today do have mobile phones - so it is understandable that this could be used as a component of the project. It is a playful idea to have the voices of the 'past' recounted through new and emerging media often personally associated with contemporary or future plans.
But that these local phone calls would cost credit I think is a flaw in the design. It is unfortunate that a freephone number could not have been used to provide more easily - less costly access. However, a counter argument would be that the phone credit/call cost would be something of a ticket price for the performance. However, the costs do not support the project, they support the corporations that own the phone companies.
I do not mean to fault Murmur directly, but I feel that with inner-city storytelling projects, care must be taken in designing the access to the stories. It is not enough merely to put the stories of local communities on display for those who can afford to access them.
(Disclaimer - if anyone has further information about the project and whether they did indeed provide for some gifting over of outcomes to the communities involved, please leave a comment)
Labels: Digital Storytelling
posted by Ian Alden Russell @ Monday, October 13, 2008
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home