Materials needed
|
|
One copy of the cd-rom I mailed out to you. We have included a
free installer for Quicktime, which is the media player best suited
for viewing these clips. Macintoshes come with Quicktime automatically,
but not all Windows machines do. You should install Quicktime and
make sure the cd-rom works before starting the exercise with your
small group.
A computer equipped with audio output and a cd-rom drive.
Enough copies of this handout
for each person to have one.
A blackboard, whiteboard, or newsprint sheets large enough for
you to write on so that other people can see.
Markers that are fresh enough to use, to write on the board with.
|
Who should participate?
|
|
This exercise works best with at least five people participating
(and I've done it with up to 50), but I realize that that may be
unrealistic for you to accomplish at short notice. Try to find at
least two people, in addition to yourself, who can do this exercise
with you.
This is an exercise geared towards late adolescents and beyond.
I have never tried it with kids younger than 13, although I suppose
you could do that if you'd like to experiment. There is nothing
in the video clips that would be likely to be problematic for younger
children, but I'm not sure that they would find the exercise all
that interesting. Feel free to invite friends, family members, and
so on to be a part of the process.
|
|
How to do it
|
|
Start by explaining to people that this is meant to be an exploration,
a fun exercise, and that there are no "right" answers.
You might mention that it is also a chance for you to explore a
kind of pedagogy as part of a class you're currently taking. The
whole experience will likely take about an hour to accomplish.
Next, give people copies of the handout and explain that it is
a spectrum line upon which you will ask them to write where they
would place each of the short video clips you will show them. Each
of the video clips is under three minutes in length, and each has
been taken from some popular form of television.
Next, draw a similar line on the board and explain that before
showing each clip, you will invite someone to volunteer. Once you've
shown the clip, that volunteer will mark on the group board where
they would place the clip.
At this point someone will likely want to know what is at the opposite
end of the spectrum. Point out that that is something they'll have
to think about as they do this exercise. They can decide what to
put there.
Find a volunteer, and then show the clip labelled "one.mpg"
by inserting the cd-rom into your computer and double-clicking on
the title of the clip.
When the clip is finished, allow everyone time to mark their spectrum,
and then invite the volunteer to mark it on the board. You can also
ask them if they would like to offer any comments as to why they
placed it there (but also note that this is not necessary). As the
exercise gets going, tell people that they don't need to place their
marks in relation to where other people placed theirs, but instead
should mark the spectrum as they did on their own handout.
Follow this procedure for each of the clips.
|
Processing the exercise
|
|
When you've shown all of the clips, try to process the experience
with people in at least the following ways (I'm sure that more ideas
will occur to you, but do at least these). This tends to work best
if you use a brainstorming kind of process, where you ask questions
and people give you ideas to place on the board.
(1) Ask what criteria they found emerging for their placement as
they did it (some examples: the genre of the clip, whether it felt
authentic or manipulative, their own personal or previous experience
with something similar production values, content, etc.)
(2) Ask them what word they would put at the opposite end of the
spectrum (some examples: unreal, surreal, hyperreal, fake, fantasy,
false, etc.)
(3) Push people to clarify what "real" might mean for
them in this context; in what ways is "true" part of "real"?
in what ways is biblical content a category, or not? etc.
Keep track of the questions you engage and the ideas people come
up with, and be sure to thank them for their participation.
|
|