austraLasia #3012
The dreams
ROME: 8 February 2012 --
Settle down now, in front of
a monitor, and be prepared for an interesting half hour or so.
Responses
are coming in to the question posed two issues ago:
"I
would like to know how others may be working to:
- create Salesian social media
- that prompt youth reflection, authentic questioning,
prayer and
sharing.
There were other questions too, but let's just take this one,
and begin
to share some of the responses coming in - and particular the
examples
being offered.
First of all watch 'The
Dream'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRDV7XxsqaE. Here you
see an extraordinary 'mashup' by a young digital
native, and as Fr Patrick Sherlock commented, on sharing it:
"It's about 12 minutes long
and
includes 'live action', video and still images, background
music and
graphic effects, and a very clearly delivered narrative - a
lot of hard
work and initiative. The Salesian message is very much alive
in
Chertsey!"
He's not wrong. This is one of the better Youtube efforts on
the 'Don
Bosco' theme. It would be appropriate, at this point, to
bring in
the comments of another respondent to 'the question', since a
number of
readers took up the invitation, a week or two ago, to watch
the Doug
Barry 'dynamic strolling' episode. In the light of this,
now
watch another of these, 'The snake and the Rosary' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXLy_bG9K70
).
"Remember Negroponte
predicting the
convergence of media devices? Those devices definitely need
content
right? So we are at a period when the convergence of audio
and video
has started to pour in abundance. And many times we are so
drowned with
it and could not critically evaluate its quality because of
the
quantity it is "bombing" us with (cfr "youtube
sensationalism"). That's
the reason too for your digital spaces in the religious life
and in
spirituality, right? (Quality and effective content)
Now this media here
(Dream of Don Bosco - the reference is to the first
of these,
which we offered you on 24 January in #2997), I feel, is actually
more of an
invitation to listen. We all know that nowadays people are
impatient
listeners. Unless you have flashy presentations(ppt) and
smashing movie
clips to accompany what your are saying, people's span of
attention are
more limited now that before.
But this one here
is different. Doug Barry comes up with this ingenious
"dynamic
storytelling" and gives a stunningly effective visual to
accompany the
audio. This is another medium we could explore in our
ministry and
another idea for lessons in soc com. If we do our homilies
like this,
like most probably the way Don Bosco did it, wow, I'm at a
loss for
words.
Listening to this
is not limited to "watching the dvd." It's worthwhile
burning it on
mp3, placing it in your table, your i-pod, or even your
cellphone and
listen to while driving, jogging or working out, or even to
lull
yourself to sleep (instead of reading a book). Hmmm
that last
thing before going to bed reminded me of Matthew Kelly's:
""The actions
of our lives are determined by our last most dominant
thought."
(Rediscovering Catholicism) Beautiful book about our
spiritual north
star, but that's for another time".
Now, just about everything this commentator has to say about
watching
the Doug Barry series (or at last jut one or two of them)
could
probably be said about our young Chertsey lad's effort - why,
he must
be all of 13 years of age! That's why it is so wonderful!
Another person wrote in - this one was not from our region but
an
interested reader nonetheless - and his reflection was not so
much on
practical content of the kind we see here, but on who9 might,
in a
Province, be responsible for doing this kind of thing:
"I think the fundamental
question is
who should implement... and maybe (Fr) Fabio's and
Filiberto's last
joint letter answers very well that question. (This
reference is
to a letter that many may not have seen - a Euroclip Don Bosco
short
film festival being organised by the SC and YM Departments,
for 2013). The only real
suggestion that comes to
mind on the how (and maybe it is very obvious) is:
1) Have clear objectives and what will be done to arrive
there; this
will help to clarify part of the second question
2) the means (on a more technical level) - which media will
be used,
and whether a more general approach with future expansion in
mind will
be better than a specific approach. I would easily add,
knowing the
internet: think it through well and think big!!"
So, it is getting exciting! Do you have
some ideas or examples you would like to contribute to this
debate?
