The Story Dweller: Horses & Houses

This week was all about meeting. I met teachers, children, friends, strangers, and horses. It started out with a trip to Detroit. Along with a fantastic group of people, I went to Bennett elementary school to teach about photography. Though I don't know a lot about the subject, I was perfectly comfortable with this first exercise of visualizing what the kids might want to photograph. The kids I sat with talked about home, about having nicer neighborhoods, and the importance of family. Some shared their dreams of designing video games or owning a big house of their own someday. They drew their futures and their pasts. It was fantastic getting to meet the teacher and all of the students. Hopefully I will get to visit with them again, and possibly meet their families. Over the weekend I was able to meet with my friend again to re-record her story. It was interesting to have two takes of the same story, and I was able to use pieces from both when putting together my tape. I began looking into buying a house in the wayne county auction. I did a lot of research an visited some potential properties. I'm not sure if it will work out, but it would be nice to have my own space to work with. Towards the beginning of the week, I visited some horse stables to record sounds for my friend's story. The woman I met there, Dee, was so helpful and even helped rile up the horses to get me some great variety. I managed to capture a little bit of a conversation I had with a girl I met at the stables who rides her horses out in the woodlands while she isn't at class at EMU. The rest of my week was spent dissecting hours of tape to come up with three ways to tell a story. I transcribed all of my friend's words to pick out what I liked best. And I wrote some narration around it to try out a new technique. Overall a very productive week! For clips see my discovery post.