Author: trauman

“Storytelling through Marginalia, a Radical Dance Workshop, and Creative Processes as Research Methodologies.” (Podcast s01e08)

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In this episode, we offer two segments and spotlight three excellent texts.

In our first segment, we continue our discussion of S., the experimental novel by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. As we reflect on reading chapters 7,8,9, and an “interlude,” we return to some of the main themes of the book: scholarship, love, identity, documentation, and collaboration. It’s such an amazing book. You should really get yourself a copy, start reading it, and keep listening to us talk about it.

In the second half of the episode, Ames and her frequent collaborator, Phil Bratta have a conversation about participating in a radical dance workshop with Guillermo Gomez Pena and Sara Shelton Mann this past summer.

And between these two segments, we want to point your attention to three excellent texts we’ve been reading and thinking about lately:

This episode is available for direct download here.

Check out the podcast on iTunes and subscribe here.

More Links:

Do have other relevant links or resources to contribute? Please tweet them at us: @trauman or @amesthehawk or with the hashtag #MastersOfText.

“Vox Fabri, Vox Dea, and Adventures in Microcasting” (Podcast s01e07)

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In our first segment, “Vox Fabri, Vox Dea,” Ames remixes the responses of 45 participants of the Tenth Biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference. Organized around patterns of answers to two questions–“What’s your favorite FemRhet moment?” and “What’s you’re way of making? This vox populi piece makes clear the magic and magnificence of this conference, one celebrating twenty years.

Our second segment recounts a local “microcasting” experiment produced at Columbia College Chicago’s Parents Weekend. Ames and Trauman organized a participatory “making” session in which students and parents recorded different portions of a common audio text, which were then immediately combined into a short podcast for the participants to listen to and to take with them. Although the session didn’t run perfectly, it was a fascinating (and largely successful) experiment engaging an audience as co-producers of a real-time microcasting.

This episode is available for direct download here.

Check out the podcast on iTunes and subscribe here.

“The New Work of Reading; More S. Project Chatter” (Podcast s01e06)

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In episode 6 of Masters of Text, Ames presents the first part of a three-section piece called “The New Work of Reading,” an experimental audio-autoethnographic piece in which she examines her own process of learning to read multimodal scholarship. This episode also features the third segment of our S. Project, a dialogue that focuses on what we thought about Chapters 4, 5, and 6 of S.. by J.J. Abrahams and Doug Dorst. As an interlude, Trauman offers a spotlight on a couple of texts he recommends our listeners check out.

“Audio Editing Software and New Media Design Strategies” (Podcast s01e05)

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Episode 5 begins with a segment in which Trauman reflects on how he employs an historical understanding of technologies as a central part of his textual design process. It’s pretty much the theoretical background for his design approach for conceptualizing the table of contents of the edited collection: The New Work of Composing. In the second half of the episode, Ames and Trauman discuss a couple of audio editors that are absolutely outstanding for producing audio texts, soundwriting,  or podcast episodes. The episodes wraps up by encouraging listeners to attend the Computers & Writing conference this summer in Rochester, NY. The proposal deadline is this Friday, October 23rd!

Other Resources Relevant to this Episode:

Computers and Composition Digital Press

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Podcast Episode 04: “The Making of Gurlesque; More of the S. Project”

img-credit: https://d2npbuaakacvlz.cloudfront.net/images/uploaded/large-present/2013/12/12/ahh-im-so-excited-s-by-jj-abrams-doug-dorst-1386865085.jpg
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In this segment, Trauman interviews Ames about how and why it was she turned her written piece, “An Open Letter to Gurlesque” (which you can hear in Episode 3) into an audio text. Conversation ranges from discussion of the ways that two fonts on the page come alive through the voices of Ames and Arielle Greenberg, to Ames’s attempt at writing queer theory, to the ways that visual aspects of text such as footnotes become invisible in a recording. Ames ends by imagining at least one future iteration for the piece as an ASL video.

This episode is available for direct download here.

Check out the podcast on iTunes and subscribe here.

Panel Resources: “Activist Affordance of Digital Storytelling in the Academy”

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Ames and I, along with our friend and colleague, Phil Bratta, recently presented some of our work at the 6th International Digital Storytelling Conference and Exhibition. Our panel was titled: “Activist Affordance of Digital Storytelling in the Academy.” Here is a description of the panel and a summary of what each of us talked about (from our submitted panel proposal):

This session explores various ways digital storytelling can be understood as a form of activism relevant to the academy. Through specific examples of ways digital storytelling has influenced their pedagogy and scholarship, the presenters–an Associate Professor, Lecturer, and Doctoral Graduate Student–explore a range of affordances inherent in the activist power of digital storytelling, and provide tangible take-aways for anyone who desires a better understanding of this critical/creative form. The audience will learn how digital storytelling enables activist connections between communities and the academy, through the production of digital storytelling as an accessible form of creative scholarship.

The presenters will offer: 1) a list of digital storytelling principles for activist intentions; 2) guidelines for providing generative feedback as advocacy; 3) an opportunity to experiment with mobile media to create mini-autoethnographic projects.

Trauman: My presentation recounts how I employed digital storytelling principles as the foundations of a first-year writing course. I also offer alternative ways of understanding “reading” assignments, responsible multimedia collaboration, and digital storytelling assignments in the tradition of Studs Terkel, “This I Believe,” and RadioLab.

Ames: My presentation argues for digital storytelling as a rich form for art activism pedagogy. I also explain that student work from my course inspired me to want to make my own film–one that has activist qualities as a digital piece reflecting a genderqueer/transgenre story, and as scholarship itself.

Phil: I examine the potentials of digital writing/images with mobile media as an opportunity for critical autoethnography for students. As students work with familiar modes of writing and technology “at-their-hand,” they have opportunities for self-reflection and self-discovery. Such reflections and discoveries, as I delineate, may also offer students opportunities to address and engage with social issues that matter to them. I conclude by having attendees briefly work with their own mobile media to create their own autoethnographic digital project.

Resources for Trauman’s Presentation

Assignment Examples

“Another’s Work” (Audio Interview Text)

“Remediating Your Work” (digital story: script, voice narration, and moving images)

Resources for Ames’s Presentation

(resources to be posted soon)

Resources for Phil’s Presentation

Bratta_Digital Storytelling Presentation

(resources to be posted soon)

“Going Gurlesque; Learning to Read Again; and more of Abrams and Dorst’s S.” (Podcast s01e03)

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In this episode, Ames and Trauman continue their conversation about Abrams and Dorst’s novel, S. after reading the first quarter of the book. They find that’s is fascinating. And damn difficult reading. And totally worth it. The second half of the show is Ames’s text: “An Open Letter to Gurlesque.” It’s smart, racy, and beautiful. No doubt a “must-listen.”

This episode is available for direct download here.

Check out the podcast on iTunes and subscribe here.

“Digital Storytelling; Art Activism; Audio Text Birthday Present for Ames’ Mom” (Podcast s01e02)

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In this episode, Ames and Trauman discuss a course they taught together this year. It combined writing, digital storytelling, and art activism. Also, Ames reflects on making an audio text as a present for her mom’s 70th birthday.

This episode is available for direct download here.

Check out the podcast on iTunes and subscribe here.

 

“Welcome; Meet Ames and Trauman; Encountering S. a novel by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst.” (Podcast s01e01)

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In this episode, you meet us, the two hosts of the show, Ames Hawkins and Ryan Trauman. We talk a little about our backgrounds, how we met, and how this podcast came into being. In the second half of the episode, we discuss our first encounter with S., a novel by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. But the book is also a fascinating experiment with storytelling and “book-ness.”

This episode is available for direct download here.

Check out the podcast on iTunes and subscribe here.

 

S. by Abrams & Dorst: Some Background Resources

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In Episode S01E01, we begin our discussion of S., a literary project produced by J.J. Abrams and written by Doug Dorst. Just in case you wanted some background reading, we thought we’d put together a starter-list of resources you might want to checkout to familiarize yourself with their project. Of course, the best thing you could do would be to buy the book. But in lieu of that, check out the videos and links below if you want a slightly better sense of what the hell we’re babbling on about.