Locative Narrative Practice

To start, I don't know where my mind has been this past week and a half. I am falling apart at the seams in one way or another. Time to snap out of it.

I've been working on a lot of projects recently, many of them being at my internship. Program ads, catalogs, and one-sheeter handouts seem to be running my life now. But I'm happy with that. I've been feeling really important with I'm doing. As for classes, a subject I'm dipping my feet in is Locative Narrative Writing.

I teamed up with a classmate (Rachel Addoms) and tested out some Locative Narrative methods by mixing photography, storytelling, and social media. It was a simple recipe: take pictures around campus, geotag them, and tweet a little story pertaining to the photo. We were of course using daily life at UPJ to demonstrate this.

We didn't post them in the best order possible, but I've arranged them into the narrative we were after here:

In the crisp morning air, I make my daily trek to one of my writing classes. pic.twitter.com/P0yiJigq50

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

My morning fix of caramel and cream. I don't know how I'd get through the fall chill without it. pic.twitter.com/XxtF2Lc0D7

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

I take breaks where I can find them. Today I had the luxury of silence and a room to myself. pic.twitter.com/HHPXkoodJh

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

"Can I have the 1/2 Sandwich and Cup of Soup Combo, please?" Tomato Bisque warms my soul. pic.twitter.com/iqdsJ0l8N7

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

As I watch the sun set, it reminds me that I'll be returning here for my night shift in only a few hours. pic.twitter.com/9bCzeLQMje

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

A bed to myself. A nap until 11. It's the little things that keep me going before my night shift. pic.twitter.com/txg7q4LmeZ

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

Looking at what we came up with, I'd say we have it sweet here. Despite a night shift and some noise (we couldn't capture hustle and bustle so late in the afternoon), our campus is easy going. Of course I wanted to include food. How can it not be someone's favorite thing?

Mambo No. 5 Disney Mashup

This project was based off of the idea of "remixing" and appropriative narratives. That can consist of taking pre-existing ideas or products and shaping them in a different way (through editing chronology or audio, overlaying different artifacts, or in some cases just changing authorship).

With three other classmates (Rachel Addoms, Kayla Stockdale, and Kylie Truscello), I was able to do not only a collaborative project, but an appropriative one. Two of these classmates, Kayla and Kylie, worked with me on my recent Pinterest project, so don't forget to check that out!

Our main goal in mind was to create something light-hearted that appealed to nostalgia and humor. We are all "90's babies" and that meant having some iconic entertainment in our childhoods. With that in mind, we chose to appropriate different dancing clips from both new and old animated Disney movies. The result in mind being a dance sequence, we needed a song that almost every person our age has heard a million times and still hasn't tired of it. We chose Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5" (I know, basically the best dance song ever made).

Overlaying this song lined up perfectly with our video montage and it was actually a fun experience to polish our project up to make certain clips match the beat. We mostly used various YouTube videos and cut them to our liking on iMovie. A lot of our footage was from Tarzan's "Trashing the Camp" scene because of just how much their movements went with the song.

All in all, I could not be more pleased with the result and how easy it was working with my group. The video turned out cute, clean, and fulfilled our goal of nostalgic entertainment from our childhoods.

Let's Talk About It

Collaborative writing is a great way to expand on ideas or create really interactive dialogue. What's even better about it is that you really don't have a set template for what makes collaborative writing or projects. Twitter threads, image storytelling, google docs, the possibilities are limitless.

I collaborated with two classmates of mine, Kayla Stockdale and Kylie Truscello, by using a Pinterest account. We came together with a common academic interest in communications. Both Kayla and Kylie have communication majors and I have a communication minor (though I'm always tempted to dual major). We decided Pinterest was a great medium for collaborative writing in that we can use shared pins and talk about them individually through captions, but organize them into a bigger idea through boards.

With this Pinterest account, the three of us all pinned different topics, tips, and infographics of why communication is important in our daily lives. Our topics include communication in the workplace, in relationships (both plutonic and romantic), when resolving conflict, and other methods like intercultural or non-verbal communication. Our goal was to demonstrate the importance of different communication strategies using Pinterest to organize our information. The project itself was actually very fun and I was impressed with just how many informative pins were available on this topic. Check out our Pinterest board and see if you learn something new!

Visit Let's Talk About's profile on Pinterest.