listen closely: stories of a lifetime.

May 9, 2011

coat here take one silence, please have a seat face me dining roomwear there sit here_pink

this weekend marked the culmination of a project my friends and i have been working on since september. in 2007, 100 pairs of rhode islanders sat down to record stories with the national storycorps project. the center where we do our graduate work houses the collection of interviews and we were tasked with finding a new way to present these stories to the public. over the past eight months we’ve listened to stories, edited sound clips, strategized our choreography, wrestled with wireless speakers and ultimately, we successfully planned a guided audio tour to feature stories from the rhode island collection. we staged our performances in the historic nightingale-brown house and stamped out instructions for our intrepid participants on manila tags. the most important instruction? just to sit back and listen. {more photos from the performances to come}!

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15 Comments

  • Reply Taylor Yves May 9, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    i love those manila labels. now i'm thinking about adding some around my house …

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  • Reply lynette May 9, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    Sounds tres cool…..wish I could check it out.

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  • Reply Maggie May 9, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    Oh wow… I'm so excited to hear more about this project! Just my speed. How fantastic that you've been at the helm of it!

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  • Reply Rhianne May 9, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    I love these labels, they look so great. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

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  • Reply caroline May 9, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    so neat.

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  • Reply Deb May 9, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    very cool…looking forward to reading more.

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  • Reply Denise | Chez Danisse May 9, 2011 at 9:08 pm

    Intriguing. I would have liked to have been there. Lovely images of the space.

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  • Reply MICHELLE May 10, 2011 at 5:38 am

    What a neat project. I like it already.

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  • Reply Lu @ A Mix of it All May 11, 2011 at 3:02 am

    I can't wait to hear more about this. I love Storycorps. Most of the stories bring me to tears.

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  • Reply Cindy May 11, 2011 at 10:36 pm

    i love the tags and storycorps. i tried to get scott's father to make a recording because he has so many interesting stories being born in nyc, but he didn't really want to. we have a local commercial for storycorps and someone says 'if you don't want to work a day in your life do something you love'. i love that advice and look forward to more of your photos. these are wonderful!

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  • Reply Elena May 13, 2011 at 8:38 pm

    Having heard about this project while you were working on it, I was concerned about how the visitors might respond to the choreographed nature of it. Now, seeing the utterly inviting feeling of the instructions, I understand I had nothing to worry about. Somehow, this design makes imperatives sound and feel like personal invitations. Nice!

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  • Reply Anika May 19, 2011 at 12:32 am

    This sounds like such fun…what a great project the storycorps is. Like the presentation!

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  • Reply Sum May 23, 2011 at 3:33 am

    This is amazing! Looking through these photos tell a story in itself.

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  • Reply sonya June 1, 2011 at 2:34 am

    this was you?!? the boy and I were walking down brook street on…sunday? and spotted one of these in a tree. I tried snapping a picture because I thought it was neat, but I was too short for a good angle.

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  • Reply bigBANG studio June 20, 2011 at 6:44 pm

    What an inspiring project. And what a wonderful way to bid adieu to RI and hello to Brooklyn! Just catching up on posts here and am now fully armed with inspiration.

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