I’m checking into the Village with my official Village information card.
Every village needs a little HGTV influence and attention to budget. As I will be using Dr. M.’s transporter between the Bovine County Fairy Tale Festival and Prisoner106 along with some others – it will be necessary for total relaxation in an environment that makes one happy. I am happy when I am creating not only digitally, but in whatever environment I am occupying. Residents of the village are welcome to stop by my room for any interior update planning.
As with most projects – there will be some surprises, delays, and innovations. I am not sure if I will come out on schedule, behind or if all will go according to design – we shall see!
Process for Info Card:
I downloaded the .psd file from the village office. With the base, I cropped myself out of a picture from a painting party night just less than one year ago. I thought the apron would work as my photo. I did use Photoshop as I have the program. I did a magic wandselection and resized my photo to fit in the file. I then realized I should be wearing the issued black jacket and had to lose my apron! While a prisoner – it is a happy village I am told, so I decided to alter my issue jacket with a splash of color which is just a photo of paint splatter that is skewed and scaled (look under Edit when the photo is in an active layer). I did the same with adding an artist’s beret so that other residents could easily spot me if they wanted some interior design consultation.
Info: I am only sure that I resigned while in an exhausted state from a recent home renovation spree and hope that when I begin to relax I find it is just that – relaxing. I have never been one to pick sides and am not ready to do so. While I may end up leaning in one direction over another – I have always liked hopping back and forth as well as finding the best in every side to focus on instead of wasting time in worrying about things that have already happened. What has happened? I do expect moving about the Internet forgetting if I am in Bovine Texas weeding fairy gardens, Prisoner Village redesigning rooms, Wisconsin or anywhere else.
I already resigned and forgot to make sure my posts were picked up by a category!! I will need to contact number 2 soon!
It will be an exciting summer. I look forward to meeting you – and just let me know when you need your room painted or updated.
One of the lessons learned with#ds106 is creating art is good for heart, soul and mind! When you don’t know what else to do, when you feel like you can’t carry out anything, when things are just AHHHHHHH!! Create a GIF! Instant relief.
I followed the suggested process (thanks @jimgroom)- no frills, no deep or complicated tricks, just fast and dirty good GIFs. Good for heart, soul, and tension! TRY IT!
Probably a few more to made tonight…… 🙂
Cheers!
The above are from a Farmer’s Insurance Commercial.
After starting my ds106 journey, I soon realized I was going to be #4Life. The ds106 community network has many nodes which grow from the main hub. One node I follow along is the #ds106 Google Community of people who love to create and share their talents.
Through this community a summer theme developed for any and all who are interested in building new creations. I am now trying to absorb all the wonderful and intricate story lines created and figuring out how to jump in. The Burgeron Family was established and family members created as well as location, family histories and linkage. A summer event at the family trailer was held in 2014 for the 100th birthday of the family matriarch – Nana Lou. Workshops and classes held by Sappho, time travel trips by Cousin Ron as the story of Ron Burgeron tells his secret is told. Many adventures told by Anna Cow. Dr. M’s Treehouse, music created, and so much more!
I have discovered Bernie Burgeron, although her exact place in the family tree is still in the research stage. As Bernie’s story unfolds I find myself needing a flow chart of
who is who,
when is it a family member (character) when is it a ds106 #4life person,
what art is created by family?
what art is created by a ds106 person for family?
am I communicating with family or ds106?
who am I when communicating – KOnarheim or Bernie?
how far can I build on another’s story?
in an asynchronous environment how do you communicate creative direction with enough info to not cause undo stress for self and others?
How do you share your own work for other’s use and use other’s work in your creations with respect and creativity?
Many of the above are self-imposed. It is ds106. You are respectful of others – but you create and build. Different tangents others may grab hold of and expand, or sometimes they just sit out there on their own and don’t connect in as complex way. Just as each contributor sees things in different ways – so will any audience that finds the information.
It is grand! I love how there is no right direction but MANY right directions to follow the story. This format includes the audience in an open story and engages one to fill in what they think is needed and not passively view in a linear path. Even if you are not creating products to continue story lines – just viewing requires one to engage in reflection, imagination and creating an understanding unique to your own thoughts. It is active story telling and active story viewing.
I still have to figure out Bernie and her story and work on an actual Fairy tale. There is plenty of summer for that to take place. I just need some simmering time to figure it out.
In the meantime, I have looked, or at least tried to see the Burgeron Family – (is it Burgeron or Burgerons – I find it both ways – but have stuck with Burgeron as that is how the name is listed in the family tree and descriptions), Bovine TX, and the Fairy Tale Festival from entering as a new viewer and the 100,000 foot level.
It seemed to me that the bi-annual story telling festival focusing on Fairy Tales needed some PR boosts.
I started with an answer to a daily create and used one of Nana Lou’s Puffin fairies:
Nana Lou jumped on it and identified me and the fledging Bovine County Burgeron PR department. From there I realized I had a job to do.
The Burgeron Family works hard at their creations and they are some of the best things out there for enjoying by others – but in a world of so much media not often found. So I began to create the Bovine County Fairy Tale Festival website.
I had wanted to try WIX as a tool to decide its usefulness as a marketing tool and if it was something others might be able to use and what the criteria might be to make it a tool of choice for specific endeavors. More on the tool in a future post, but I do love the bells and whistles of the HTML5 in a WYSIWYG when you are focusing on messaging over technical focus for a project.
I began to pull info together to promote the event – NOT replicate the content or give it a new home – but highlight and attract interest.
Bovine Count Fairy Tale Festival Home page
I had started and let the other family members know by sharing a link to a start-up via Google Community. And by gosh – it got some notice! I was faced with the place of now having shared my work, it is open to others and that brings questions, feedback and expectations. Attributions being a critical piece, I also found that is sometimes easier said than accomplished. It also has helped me realize how organizing and sharing my work in different ways makes it easier for others to use and to attribute.
As I have travelled my ds106 path, most of the work to date was assignments and sharing, but assignments were not connected to others. I missed the timing on group work in spring 2015 with radio show creation. I now have realization of the power of collaboration vs community support. Up until now, I have had great interaction, feedback, and support for personal creations. Now I was in the realm of creating collaboratively. WOW – the power in that and wealth. It does bring with it many dynamics and expectations from self and others. I can say however that the ds106 community is open and accepting and a model of how collaboration by a group is accomplished, yet very personal. Something not often found in our life chosen professions as easily.
I have taken the web site and started to inject some building blocks for more creations by myself as well as an open opportunity for others.
Since the festival is virtual and in Bovine County, I thought it was necessary to help festival goers know what kinds of activities and events would take place over the summer. Below is the overview page and suggestions.
Click to view page
The activities list allows for creations in several media creation paths to tell the story around the festival and the family in addition to writing fairy tales and their media tangents. I have several of my own visions for each of these areas, but not sharing at this time to keep possibilities open for others who might see a path they want to build.
Artist In Residence Breakfasts
Childrens’ Theater
Behind the Scenes Tours
Concert Series
Fairy Garden Tour
Out of This World
Fairy Tales From Around the World
To stay with the PR Marketing theme, I created a News/Info and Where to Stay page. Bovine is a remote area and not highly populated. It in some ways is like the Sturgis South Dakota of Texas as its population exponentially increases during the festival. This offshoot also has potential for some building and content creation in the story around the story.
Added Note 6/14/2015: Seems the Bovine Arts Council according to the Bovine Daily paper and some town folk were concerned about the festival overpopulating the area and requiring resources. Still a bit of a political controversy and topic at the diner each day. Pluses and minuses on each – we will see what develops.Read about it in Aunt Sappy’s post.
All this just percolates in my head and is mushrooming into so many paths of possible creation. It is the synergy of connectivity to others and collaboration vs collaborative support. I hope that others may find some inspiration and share their creations as they build or connect. I also hope that I can build and connect from the work of others and do so in a respectful and creative way to take things to new dimensions in my learning. The greatness of building is the beauty of using the strength and quality of pieces to create new iterations and dimensions – which in turn should spur yet more creativity.
Ds106 touches individuals differently depending upon where in their life path they may be traveling. It has pulses and energy for all paths and directions and the beauty is that no one way is right. Even for an individual, it will change and morph and circle, or tangent over time and projects.
I found the midwest winter, the first year of retirement from daily job responsibilities, and the kizmet of starting ds106 at the same time a UMW class was in session brought a high level of activity for me. I loved it! As the UMW session finished up it was almost like going cold turkey. The twitter feed was almost non-existent and interactions dropped dramatically. The individuals I had seen grow over 14 weeks were now off to their other life needs. A few are still around and it is good to see them in a non-traditional student role as a community member.
every post deserves a random GIF! inserted. 🙂
One of the safety nets I had put in place for myself was joining the Google+ Community of open course participants. One of the first open/headless courses seemed to bond and gather some #4life folks who are still active almost daily. Their energy and passion seems to keep others afloat and offer reality checks of how to make a lifestyle vs overwhelming expectations. There are some true ambassadors and shepherds of ds106 in this community who are totally giving. A random comment or post every now and again keep the ds106 life breathing. In the community, I can see the acceptance of diversity and how the culture has embraced the Heckyl and Jeckyl tendencies of people who find a passion and go full speed ahead for a while, but then may also drop back and out of sight for a time. And why shouldn’t that be all right? It is life isn’t it? When re-entering it is almost as if one never left. And creativity and ideas are always embraced.
So summer brings a time for those with otherwise professional responsibilities and those who do ds106 to stay human, whole and creative, and maybe have made some extra time to create together in creative strands.
Traditional education institutions still see summer as down time. Funny how education systems still need to be reminded that learning is 24×7 and 365 and most learning doesn’t happen in a classroom. I can only imagine how K12 students and even post secondary might be different if we didn’t have the systems we have – but I digress – that is another deep topic for another conversation!
Summer means PLAYTIME in ds106! It really knows no calendar.
It is THE example of 24x7x365 anytime, anywhere learning in which the learner is responsible for learning and creating their customized path.
A summer 2015 focus is Prisoner106 – a TV show as the topic for creating. This storyline has organized more as a group and is creating in the ds106 format and is listed as Summer 2015 Open DS106. It has brought together #4life and new to #ds106 artists. A great opportunity to stretch your own skills and creativity.
Another open group is the working on the next in the series of the Bugeron Family and the Summer Trailer. This year the family is producing the bi-annual story telling festival with the theme of Fairy Tales. Anyone who lives ds106 is invited to join the family and create. There is family history to catch up on with lots of open paths for creating your own character. It is a complex web of characters, storylines, and real people with many layers. At first it can be intimidating – but as you look closer you realize it is just full of opportunities for creations. After following #noir106 and it’s case files(see the archive created by Maggie Stough), agencies and characters, I see a similarity in approach. More on this in a future post.
Then of course the option of following the headless course in your own context or taking on the suggested learning assignments. Always a good choice that seems to stand the test of time (so far) in filling the learning passion for the many who embark on the journey.
But yet then more!!! UMW has a few sections running thru the summer in which one can follow along with traditional students. These sections are fun for some of us more travelled people. The different look at life from a different station is a real boost for creativity and an opportunity to learn and to give.
And – yet more – a graduate course in CU Denver Learning with Digital Stories is using ds106 as their learning for this summer and have jumped in the deep end right off the mark. So another burst of creative minds inspired and challenged by for one’s own learning.
And – ds106radio!!! #ds106spell, RockyLou Radio, @cogdog vinyl spins, @dkernohan sessions – TUNE IN! It will get your juices flowing!
http://ds106ra.dio/listen
and of course we have @cogdog and @jimgroom, @mdvfunes, @johnjohnston, @rockylou, @talkytina – and so many others (no offense – so many I can’t list!) who continue to keep the ds106 life running.
And this is only what I have stumbled upon – as you watch the Twitter tags – so many more flavors of ds106 to sample. Share what you find.
It is summer recess for education – but recess means PLAY TIME and CREATING. Go forth and make art! ds106 #4life
