To the Students of Zachary Chase in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (Or any other class whose teacher came across this post and wants to participate.)
A few days ago I shared, on my blog, the fact that I had finished the first month of a yearlong project in which I would take a photo everyday for a year. Why did I feel the need to broadcast this information with what we affectionately call the World Wide Web? Not sure. I tend to share anything and everything that leaks from my life. The photos the songs, the tweets, the insights, the rubbish, the random thoughts trickle out and dribble into a vast abyss I am old ends somewhere with you. Well in this case your teacher Mr. Chase.
You see, Mr. Chase commented on my blog:
Do you mind if I use some of these as journal prompts?
To which I responded
Yes, please feel free to use them as prompts, would love to read what kids write. Maybe if they post on blogs, they can leave their links as comments on Flickr. Would love to follow the stories of these photos. Could be a fun project.
Hmmm….brain turning for new ideas.
Mr. Chase:
Alright. Just posted the journal assignment to moodle. I’m curious to see how this turns out.
Me:
Cool. Sounds great. Would be cool to have a small collection of short stories or poems based on these images. Would love the interaction.
Sounds simple enough right? No big whoop. We are, after all, mired in the age of the social web, where people are connecting and creating all over the world. My question, however, is are they? Are you? Is this an everyday thing for you? Because while we all talk about collaboration, I am always floored when it happens to me. I was very moved by your words, your poems, your creativity and your engagement. I stayed up passed midnight watching your comments as they came pouring in. I had goosebumps and at times nearly cried. Take a look the comments for this blog post for a deeper look at why I find your action so important.
I just wanted to let you know that while, quickly typing a few words on some random Flickr set may not have been much more than a class assignment for you, your actions meant a lot to me. So what of it now? What happens next? Well that is up to you. I hope that this introduction can be a way that we continue to explore the power of art and words and connections. I was a born teacher and student, I would love to continue to teach and learn from you. Are you up for it?
I know teachers tend to throw out mixed messages, “Be open, share. Be careful, be scared.” I hope you use your judgment and the experiences which you have been taught by the more than capable teachers at SLA to move this project to the next level. This could be an authentic real world experience to create something beautiful with a larger group of people than those within our immediate community. (I invite other teachers to share this Flickr set and this post to see where it can go. Ask your class to leave poems, stories, haikus, comments anything. Maybe we can write a book, record an album…)
There are many things we can do with the images, the words, the connection. I hope that at least a few of you will share a few ideas in the comments below. I don’t know who will respond, but that is the beauty of sharing in whim, if you throw enough out there, occasionally something beautiful will come floating back.
After receiving your words, here is what I will do: I will scour your words mining for verses to a song, which I will sing and record. I will contact you soon about maybe singing a collaborative chorus. What else can we do with the words, the images? Who else is on board?
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To continue we should take a picture of our own to add to your Flickr and get other people to post comments/ poems/ flash fiction. When they’re done, we challenge them to take a photo that someone else will comment on etc.
I like Julia’s idea a lot. Maybe we could make some kind of web that connects photos and fiction. We could pick someone’s piece of writing and take a photo or write something for a picture and, in that way, we could create a larger and larger web. Like Julia said, we could challenge others to add to the piece and see how big we can get it. I suppose we’d need a different format… I don’t know if Flickr is the best thing to use. Maybe we could build our own website/wiki type thing for it. I like the idea of mind mapping it afterwards and seeing the web spin out.
I third that. I really like Julia’s idea. I’m also doing the everyday one photo for a year with a friend of mine. We’ve just started but anyways, we can make a flickr account as a classroom and each of us can take a picture and can either write a short poem, comment, story, any type of writing depending on the individual or whatever they feel most comfortable doing with what they’ve shot.
This is great that there is interest. I was afraid that perhaps you would think I as crazy. Now that we are here and interested the question is how can we move forward to create something/somethings without crushing the open, fluid, organic vibe of this thing with too many rules and too much structure.
I hope regardless of what happens you all take this idea of imagery and poetry and run with it. I also hope that you share what you create with me. These random connections are difficult to come by and I hope that this initial handshake leads to deeper connections based on photography and poetry.
I agree that it would be great to see some images on your Flickr pages as well. Start looking at the world click away. If you want to do a daily prompt you can find them at The Daily Shoot. (http://dailyshoot.com/)
Then you decided whether you need a class flickr page as well. Once you start getting images posted we can always create a group that would combine all of our work.
I hope that you will explore the tools at our disposable and find the right ones. Let me know what you find. I know that Mr.Chase has created a Google Doc and that may be a better place to brainstorm.
I like this idea i think we he should post a picture and we post other pictures of ours that we have and post that same day that has to do with what the pictures is of.
I think that it would be interesting to do a collaborative 365 with a role-reversal. For example, after February, we stop writing stories and begin taking pictures. Then, your students can write stories about our photos. We could reverse every two months and complete with a set of international photos and international stories (from many different perspectives). Thoughts?
This is a great idea, only thing is that I teach middle school students with limited English skills, so I am not sure their language is up to the level and sophistication that you guys are using. But , maybe there is another class in the world that can take that up.
I like all of these ideas. By starting with a small poem and allow people to edit and add to it to see what the final out come would be interesting. It would be a poem not from a single author but from a multitude. It would be a “melting pot” of different peoples writings strung together.
I agree with Julia and Luna about taking pictures and posting them, then challenging others to do the same. I think it could really grow and it would be interesting to see the photos taken by different people around the world. Another way we could make this grow is possibly incorporating some videos into this some how, maybe a slide show of some of the pictures or even a documentary of what we are doing.
I agree alot with what Luna and Julia said as well. Not only could we take pictures and post them, then challenging others to follow and keep the chain going, but we could even make a whole slideshow/blog of them all, bring some interest and creativity in the art of just looking at a picture and finding ways to express emotion or understanding based on just what you feel or believe the picture means or symbolizes to you. Combining the two ideas would be great; not only would it be creative and artsy, but it would be fun at the same time. Writing poems not only expresses emotion and such, but it also brings a new perspective on symbolization of pictures. Great pictures by the way, thank you!
Video, documentary, yes yes yes. I like where this is going.
Along with this, creating a book with all of our pieces from our school and yours would be really interesting.
Video documentary would be really interesting as well.
I like all of your ideas, except that I feel like this would be a really, really good way to show progression (of every aspect of your life.) Maybe, every two weeks (possibly every fourth week?) write a story/ poem/ flash fiction that incorporates all of the stories we’ve written and see where we started and where we are now. Your growth as a photographer, will undoubtedly help us with our growth as artists. Thank you.
I really like the idea of taking and storing individual photos, sharing and writing across the albums, then mashing it all together for collaborative poems, songs, videos, slideshows…you name it.
We could get a person to start with a picture, and then get someone else to find the theme in that picture and to make a picture of their own somehow connecting to the first one, and then get another person to find the theme in the second person’s picture and to create a picture with their own theme connecting to the second person’s picture, and so on. I think it would be pretty interesting to see what connections people find on their own, and it would be really fun to compare the first pic to the very last, sort of like “whisper down the lane.” We could just start as our own group, but invite others to join too.
Love this. Make it happen.
Just to give you an idea, I am mining through your words to create song lyrics, which I hope to sing and record. Maybe then we could create a video or something?
Anyway here is what I have so far:
sometimes I wonder how many stones there are in the world.
i found the light in your simple “Hello”
in the way grass praise dances in the breeze
Choosing between clashing vibrancies
hoped that you would dance
at anytime i can erase what i choose to forget
I fear the pen because it leaves a stain
The lives of rocks and flower,
Tell the story of the world.
These are the years in which life is beautiful.
Each and every day a miracle.
A small person in a large world
filled with intrigue and wonder.
a warm orange flower resting against my skin
sweet serenity full and wide
I grab the spoon of your smile and dig
it’s in these moments
where you and I forget ourselves
and breathe the ecstasy of golden silence
heaven has not been far after all
we just had to open our eyes and find it
These are the years in which life is beautiful.
Each and every day a miracle.
A small person in a large world
filled with intrigue and wonder.
I don’t watch television much anymore
but whenever I do I can feel on my hands the dusty residue
from carrying fistfuls of quarter-sized stones.
lonely I lay flat
Among dull gray stones
I want to go home
we become beautiful in the world.
I wonder what it feels like to be beautiful…
This might be weird but I think that you should take a picture of yourself everyday and then when you are done the entire project you can see the progress of yourself and how you grew. I also like the idea of people making up their own stories to the wonderful pictures you have up and maybe there could be a sad story, a happy story, or a funny story to go along with the objects in your pictures
Take a look at this site:
http://www.dailymugshot.com/
thats really cool and kinda funny 😀
I like the ideas of all that. I write poetry for fun a lot. So I would love to contribute to a book or compilation of pictures to be published. 😀
Good to have you on board Douglas.
Here you go guys. Here is the song: Do with it what you will:
http://www.jabizraisdana.com/blog/2011/02/stones/
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We should have our own pictures or some kind of art and do the same thing, but with teachers and kids from other parts of the world.
We can make post cards out of these pictures, and have a quote on each post card from students. It would be great if we could sell them for a fundraise cause.
This is a cool idea. What if we made digital postcards and put them on this website where they could be viewed all over the world 😀
That works, too. 😀
A story of pictures that all lead from one to another in a book or online would be awesome as well.
I really want to do this on guitar, maybe change it and use my own music. But i also think it’d be cool to get the whole class to sing it and then make a cool videos. I have some awesome video ideas…
I think we should make a collaborative “music video” / documentary in order to have the students voices who wrote the poetic comments in the video.
Did anyone ever play that game where one person draws something, another person captions it, someone else draws a picture based on the caption, etc.? We could do something like that. One person takes a picture, another person writes something inspired by it, a third person finds/takes an image that reminds them of the writing, and on and on.
Whisper down the lane type idea
picture
comment
picture based on comment
comment on new picture
picture on new comment
so on so forth
it would be interesting to see where the themes and pictures end compared to how they started
How about making a world record out of this activities? We can keep comment by writing poems, stories…on these picture. In the end, compose all of them together into one album. That’s be a cool world record!
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