TED : Jonathan Harris: The art of collecting stories

Wow! What an amazing, thought-provoking presentation. Thank you so much for the link!

thank you for the link - will head over there soon - loved yesterdays pictures , such fun !!!

Thanks for such a great link. There is just so much wonderfulness out there that I have yet to discover. Excited about this site.

I watched the entire compelling thing. What a sublime use of technology to document and share stories of different cultures in a truly personal/relate-able way. So much to consider. Thanks for sharing this, Ali.

counting down the days they ship my stash of your new books to me!!! I can hardly wait to read it and get to work on a new mini!!! Have a beautiful week!!
Stacey

How about a more interesting way to collect and pass stories-Dreaming art, not scrapbooks, but paintings.
Dreaming was an 'Age of Heroes' when the ancestors did marvelous things that men can no longer do. This was a period when certain ancestral heroes or totemic spirits came to a world devoid of features, where life was in a state of transformation. Their actions resulted in the creation of the landscape as we see it today. Laws were laid down and the 'plan of life' established. These beings came from various locations - including across the sea, from the sky and out of the ground. They had many of the failings common to mere mortals, and their greed, lust, hate, and violence are recorded graphically in mythological tales of murder, theft, adultery, rape and incest. The travels of these ancestors are marked by Dreaming trails and their activities (which created the landscape features) were recorded in song, ceremony, myth and rock art. During this period celestial bodies such as the sun, moon and stars were organised in the heavens.
Fauna and flora species were created by the ancestral heroes. The shape and characteristics of many species were established during this period. Humans too were given their present form and were provided with the basic rules of social organisation and behavior.
The creative activities of these ancestral beings has created complex relationships, not just among Aboriginal people themselves, but between people and various natural phenomena - plants, animals, climate, illness and things impinging on the human condition. These sets of relationships are referred to as totemism.
After completing their activities the ancestral spirits went into the rock, the ground, waterholes or sea, rose to the sky, or continued their travels to distant lands. In many parts of Australia there are 'sacred' locations where they came to rest forever, but remained capable of exerting their powers.
Almost every mountain, waterhole, river, range, rock shelter were in some way associated with creative activities of The Dreaming, a period no living Aboriginal had experienced. Myths passed on by elders to initiates not only provided them with the laws by which they must abide, but also explained the significance of each part of their territory. Through ancestral ties originating in the Dreaming, each Aboriginal became part of the interwoven matrix of the physical and spiritual worlds.
The Dreaming is thus a major and important dimension for Aboriginal culture today, and incorporates many more complexities than this summary can convey. From the European point of view it may be useful to consider it an ongoing event (past, present, and future) with the land, creatures and Aboriginal people all playing their role.
http://www.artbank.ch/videos.html

There are no rules with scrapbooking!! I am taking a traveling kit and recording everyday events while not leaving our city. It will be called "Traveling Through Summer".

I love TEDTalks -- when I am working, slugging through headlines that are pretty bleek -- a visit to TED always bring light and makes me feel hope. Thankful for hope.

Thanks for sharing the link. Enjoyed watching Jonathan and his travels. I can't even imagine how many lives he has touched on his adventures.

What an interesting guy! Thanks for sharing!

simply fascinating, thanks for the link!

I think you have the key, just paying attention to others, our families and the world around us is the key to memory recording.

Ooo---great talk/ideas! Love TED. This is another great one: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/amy_tan_on_creativity.html
Thanks for the tip, Ali!

Yay for this link. Love this guide to collecting stories. So much easier(on me & the planet) to store than supplies. I feel happy and grateful. Sure hope that his web crawler picks up that feeling!

Thanks so much for this today Ali. These moments change things dont they? Loved the video

Thank you so much for the link. Awesome!

It took me a while to get to this presentation, but wow, this was great. It encouraged me to think outside the box - love it!