Stories surround us

The world we see today is the legacy of people noticing the world and commenting on it in forms that have been preserved. Art & Fear

Story is how we make sense of the world. Each piece of art we create tells a story. Each story we share contributes to the meaning that shapes our world.

Story was the theme of PAB 2011, a gathering of artists who spent the weekend exploring storytelling across all forms of new media. 

After struggling to summarize my experience, I decided adding a constraint would be the perfect way to push through my writer’s block. I’ve captured my reflections in 4 sets of 5.

Five takeaways from PAB

• Stories surround you. Listen for them. Capture them. Share them. Risks if we don’t? Voices lost from history. Explosions from people whose stories aren’t heard (great JOLT @RobinBrowne!).
• Be naked. Reveal yourself. Take risks. @scarboroughdude was the most naked presenter, lounging in an armchair sharing his stories in the spirit of the original PAB as if participating in a fireside chat. Although @JohnMeadows vied for the title in a different way, pushing his limits with his photography.
• Just hit publish. It’s hard to hit publish if you’re forever worrying about whether you have anything interesting to say or whether it’s good enough. If you don’t hit publish, you’ll never know what your audience finds interesting or valuable. I admire the mindset of my son who created and published his first 3 tutorial videos in 3 hours, sharing his learnings with each video published.
• See the moments. Why use a film or view camera for photography when digital is available? Because it forces you to focus in on the moment. On the story you want to capture. This resonated with me as I’d just finished the book Zen of Seeing by Frederick Franck, who describes seeing this way: “Open your eyes and focus on whatever you observed before – that plant or leaf or dandelion. Look it in the eye, until you feel it looking back at you. Feel that you are alone with it on Earth! That it is the most important thing in the universe, that it contains all the riddle of life and death. It does! You are no longer looking, you are SEEING…” By learning to see the moments, you’ll discover stories everywhere.
• Treat a conference as a conversation. Intimate. Safe to be naked. Open space for conversation and forming new friendships. @markblevis and @bobgoyetche did a phenomenal job curating and facilitating PAB. It was forged seven years ago with a campfire in mind and they’ve stuck with that format, the current fireside being Stage 4 of the National Arts Centre. There was far more conversation than at other conferences I’ve attended, and it was during those conversations that meaning was shared and new relationships were begun.

Five things I learned by presenting at PAB

We learn by creating, sharing our creations, and then listening to the feedback shared by our audience. Here are a few things I learned about how I can improve future presentations, thanks to the opportunity to present at PAB.

• Cut. Cut. Then cut even more. Even though stories resonate more powerfully than facts, I still have a tendency to sprinkle too many supporting facts (references to studies) into a presentation. Too many facts distract the audience and dilute your core message.
• Ground yourself to reassure your lizard brain. Presenting triggers the flight, fright, flee response of the lizard brain for most of us. Someone shared with me a centering technique from yoga I’ll use in the future to reassure my lizard brain that it’s safe. Stand with your legs shoulder width apart. Lift your toes, spread them out, then anchor them to the floor. Imagine yourself as a tree, sending roots deep into the soil. Take a deep, yogic breath (inflating your belly). Exhale forcefully through an open mouth (making sure your mike is off).
• Slow down. Give people time to absorb each slide. Each visual, each slide, is part of the story you’re telling. Hurrying through slides leaves people wondering what they’ve missed.
• Invite your audience in. This was one of the tips @acedtect shared in his top 5 ways to engage the audience. How could I have done this better at PAB? Kept my presentation shorter. Then I could have facilitated an autobiography exercise, asking a few people to stand up and share. Then if there was time, followed that with an Inciting Incident exercise, again asking people to stand up and share. Story brings the audience in. Leaving space gives more opportunities for their stories to emerge.
• Reveal the meaning. It’s not what something is about (the facts). It’s about what it means to you (the story). This is related to presenting naked. Someone mentioned their surprise at how interested people seemed in some of the books I mentioned. He reflected that maybe this was because I referred to what the books meant to me, how they changed my thinking, rather than simply saying what they were about (his usual approach). In his wrap @markblevis said the creators aren’t the people who decide what the benefit is of their creation to others. Rather, it’s about what it means to your audience. I was surprised by the variety of conversations I had with people about what my presentation meant to them. The meaning and what resonated varied widely (from finding personal meaning to organizational applications). That’s the power of story. It provides space for conversation. It provides space for meaning to emerge.

I’ll be uploading my presentation, It’s All Invented, to slideshare next week.

Five things I’m going to do as result of attending PAB

The best conferences spark ideas and inspire action. As a result of my experience at PAB 2011, I’m going to do the following five things:

• Capture stories with video and audio. I confess my lizard brain has hindered me from reaching out to people and asking them whether I can record conversations. And yet unless I get over this fear I can’t share their stories. I’m going to bring my video camera and audio recorder to Content World 2011 and ask people to share their stories, featuring them in the Adoption Community.  
• Write a book on life lessons I’ve learned through gardening.  During my talk, I teased the audience with a few slides featuring my garden. Gardening has taught me so much about design, experimentation, persistence, emergence, serendipity… the list could go on. The number of stories it holds is huge. I started Ktown Gardener in January to capture thoughts and images of my garden, but didn’t stick with it. Thanks to PAB I’m reviving Ktown Gardener. I’ll post several times a week, using the blog as a garden journal to capture stories and images that resonate with me along with mistakes, successes, and learnings. I’ll also use it as a vehicle to help me develop my skills in drawing, photography, and video. And Ktown Gardener will become the  shitty first draft of the book.
• Seek out Kingston creatives. Artists (creators, designers) need other artists for inspiration and support. PAB has a wonderfully supportive atmosphere. While it’s awesome to travel to an event like PAB (and I plan on attending again next year) I’d like to connect with artists in the Kingston area. If you’re interested, send me an email or a tweet.
• Capture family stories. @zedcaster shared the story of Ada, his great grandmother, mother of 15 and lifelong swimmer. A cassette of her stories was almost lost. Someone discovered it at a garage sale, recognized its value, and tracked down her family so they could return it. Much to my regret, I have no stories of my great grandmother. But I still have the opportunity to capture the stories of my parents for future generations.
• Haul one or both of my kids off on an adventure. One of our family highlights is the month we spent exploring China when the kids were 12 and 14. We took Mandarin lessons together, then set off on our adventure. Since then I’ve assumed the kids are too old to head out with us again (they’re 17 and 19 now). But inspired by @scarboroughdude’s story of his cross Canada bonding trips with each of his sons and Christopher Griffin‘s tale of his family’s trip to India and his experience casting bronze elephants, I’ll be seeking out an adventure to share with my kids.

Five phrases from PAB that captured my imagination

• Fruitful incompletion
• Story showers
• Dead time between mistakes gives space for better ideas to emerge
• We’re not channels, we’re tubes
• Shiver moment

What images do these phrases evoke for you?

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