Digital Story
Connections to Class
When creating my digital story, I was not actively thinking of how the class influenced my story. Rather, now that I have created a finished product and taken an objective look at the story, I can see many connections between the readings and my own story. Early in the semester, I remember watching some examples from Intercultural Tales, namely Isabel’s story “Mixed.” While her story and experience is very different from mine, I enjoyed seeing a mixed race story like myself. Dr. Muñoz and Dr. Lizarazo’s article on Intercultural Tales further expanded my interpretation of that story and helped develop my vision for my digital story. The goal of digital storytelling in Intercultural Tales to provide “students with an alternative mode of expression to writing, an outlet for their creativity, and a potential connection with audiences beyond the classroom (Muñoz & Lizarazo, 2022, p. 43)” really resonated with me as a student whose value has thus far solely resided in writing papers. This story forced me to expand my technological and creative skills. I also found the classroom to be a welcoming community of storytellers–whether we were discussing the readings or our own stories, I learned a lot from the interactions with other members of the class.
Focusing outside of the more technical aspects of the seven steps to define digital storytelling, my story was self-revelatory, experiential, and was created with the ‘intent’ of making a story that fits into these definitions while still giving me full authorship over my story (Lambert & Hessler, 2018, p. 37-38). Until I finished the first draft of the script, I had no idea what the story would be about. I was able to put a name to some of the internal struggles that I have been experiencing, and learned a lot about myself and how I view myself throughout the process of creating this story. I talked about my own experiences and tried very hard not to talk about the experiences of the few other people mentioned in the story, especially trying not to cast judgment on my family members. Finally, throughout the whole process, I was doing my best to ensure that the story wasn’t being created to tell a specific abstract idea or happy ending, but rather to reflect on my experiences as a whole. I tried not to think about anyone else’s opinions about what the story should be, instead telling my own story, to the point where during the screening I realized how vulnerable I have to be in showing it to other people.
As I discovered with the story map project, I am very interested in how migration and location play a role in identity–which was reflected in this digital story. While the main focus was on my definitions for myself and struggles with identity, it cannot be understood without the context of the role of migration and location. By not being physically close to my Chinese side, I feel as though a piece of me is missing. Maylei Blackwell’s article “Geographies of indigeneity: Indigenous migrant women’s organizing and translocal politics of place” discussed the importance of physical location and identity. One of the focuses was on how contemporary (colonialist) borders do not fully capture the relationship that location has with identity. While colonialism has a lesser influence on my divided location, traditional borders still do not explain the full story of my identity struggles. I discussed how having nothing physical linking me to China, not even a connection to the diaspora that is present in Maryland, has affected the way I view myself. On a semi-unrelated note, I also seek to continue to support digital stories of mixed race people through story maps that explore the relationship between identity and location.
References
Blackwell, M. (2017). Geographies of Indigeneity: Indigenous Migrant Women’s Organizing and Translocal Politics of Place. Macmillan Publishers.
Lambert, J., & Hessler, B. (2018). 4. The World of Digital Storytelling. Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community (pp. 37-52). Routledge.
Muñoz, T., & Lizarazo, T. (2022). Learning with Maryland’s Immigrant Communities: Digital Storytelling as Community Engagement. Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education, 14(1). 41-56.
Poletti, A. (2011). Coaxing an intimate public: Life narrative in digitalstorytelling. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 25(1), 73-83.
Rodriguez, A. P. (2015). “Entre Mundos/Between Worlds:” Digital Stories of Salvadoran Transnational Migration. Letras Hispanas, 11. 326-336.