Scottsdale Community College Videos

I m always one of the stragglers finishing geology lab. The reward is seeing the occasional burrowing owl outside the lab window, after the bustle of people have gone. No one keeps watch like an owl.

I m always one of the stragglers finishing geology lab. The reward is seeing the occasional burrowing owl outside the lab window, after the bustle of people have gone. No one keeps watch like an owl.

Behind the Scottsdale Community College Performing Arts Center there are five or six towering mulberry trees, old ones. When I leave campus at dusk, there is an absolute riot of birds hanging out in all of these huge trees. Their chattering echoes back and forth between to brick buildings. It s like the last great gossip session before bedtime. I can t decide whether they remind me of a gang of news channel pundits run amok, or of the slumber parties attended by girls in their confusing and hyper-emotional teen years. Some days I think one way, some days another. And some days, my brain goes to The Birds, and I hurry to my car and drive quietly away before they notice me nearby.

Behind the Scottsdale Community College Performing Arts Center there are five or six towering mulberry trees, old ones. When I leave campus at dusk, there is an absolute riot of birds hanging out in all of these huge trees. Their chattering echoes back and forth between to brick buildings. It s like the last great gossip session before bedtime. I can t decide whether they remind me of a gang of news channel pundits run amok, or of the slumber parties attended by girls in their confusing and hyper-emotional teen years. Some days I think one way, some days another. And some days, my brain goes to The Birds, and I hurry to my car and drive quietly away before they notice me nearby.

A digital story by Cheryl Colan and Rachel Woodburn, on the occasion of Linda Hick s Retirement Celebration, May 16, 2009 My friend Linda is retiring from full-time teaching this year. To help celebrate, my friend Rachel and I made a digital story for Linda. We were asked to create a video about Linda s impact on the Australia/New Zealand Study Abroad program, which Linda and Rachel created as a result of their work with Digital Storytelling. Rachel and I realized the story could not just be about the international cultural exchange program, that it needed to encompass the power of storytelling as well. To get a look at the big picture, so we could distill it, we tried to map out, on a whiteboard, the entire series of events that culminated with an international exchange focused on indigenous culture. There were too many events, though, so we mapped what felt like the truly essential pieces. We could easily have made an hour-long documentary film with all the material collected over the last ten years or so. Linda went on a sabbatical where she traveled the world interviewing storytellers. Linda and Rachel have taught Digital Storytelling classes for several years, impacting the lives of hundreds of students. They also teach the process to faculty, sometimes with my help. And the international exchange has been ongoing for the last four summers. We ve also hosted at least four return visits. The metaphor of ripples helped us distill this material, and the impact of Linda in particular, to its utter essence, and into this 5-minute story. We both felt it would be inappropriate to narrate, and instead we chose to let the stories do the talking. We excerpted them, but did not edit them, which means we left the voices and visuals intact. We added a bit of text, and some beautiful photos to accompany our words. We connected the dots of aha moments and experiences. We chose not to worry if anyone else gets it. This video is for Linda, and she gets it. If you feel it as a summation of years, instead of a linear narrative, you ll get it.

A digital story by Cheryl Colan and Rachel Woodburn, on the occasion of Linda Hick s Retirement Celebration, May 16, 2009 My friend Linda is retiring from full-time teaching this year. To help celebrate, my friend Rachel and I made a digital story for Linda. We were asked to create a video about Linda s impact on the Australia/New Zealand Study Abroad program, which Linda and Rachel created as a result of their work with Digital Storytelling. Rachel and I realized the story could not just be about the international cultural exchange program, that it needed to encompass the power of storytelling as well. To get a look at the big picture, so we could distill it, we tried to map out, on a whiteboard, the entire series of events that culminated with an international exchange focused on indigenous culture. There were too many events, though, so we mapped what felt like the truly essential pieces. We could easily have made an hour-long documentary film with all the material collected over the last ten years or so. Linda went on a sabbatical where she traveled the world interviewing storytellers. Linda and Rachel have taught Digital Storytelling classes for several years, impacting the lives of hundreds of students. They also teach the process to faculty, sometimes with my help. And the international exchange has been ongoing for the last four summers. We ve also hosted at least four return visits. The metaphor of ripples helped us distill this material, and the impact of Linda in particular, to its utter essence, and into this 5-minute story. We both felt it would be inappropriate to narrate, and instead we chose to let the stories do the talking. We excerpted them, but did not edit them, which means we left the voices and visuals intact. We added a bit of text, and some beautiful photos to accompany our words. We connected the dots of aha moments and experiences. We chose not to worry if anyone else gets it. This video is for Linda, and she gets it. If you feel it as a summation of years, instead of a linear narrative, you ll get it.

David Lobdell, who teaches at New Mexico Highlands University, came out to Scottsdale for the iron pour we just hosted. He brought an installation of his own sculpture, which is currently on display in the Scottsdale Community College Art Building Lobby. Here is a mini-tour of the work. Just before I shot this, an elderly man who was examining the artwork closely asked me if the zeroes and ones etched into one of the pieces represented computers. He had some great comments on the work and what he thought it might mean, but he didn t want to be on camera.

comment & view show notes at hummingcrow.com

comment & view show notes at hummingcrow.com

Sometimes I post video of student shows in the Scottsdale Community College art building where I teach computer graphics classes. Last year, Ted Uran, a full-time faculty member who teaches sculpture, wondered why I didn t come document the iron pour. And I suggested he tell me when the next one was (I never knew in advance). So this year, Ted gave me plenty of notice and I showed up an hour before they expected to have pourable iron. I brought the hubby and we both bought scratch blocks for $10, and t-shirts for $15, because they help the sculpture students raise money for cool stuff they want to do. Several local schools pool resources and talent to pull this off - it looked like we had people from Arizona State and Northern Arizona Universities in addition to Scottsdale Community College folks. A whole bunch of people show up to see the students pour their iron, and in the darkening evening it s really quite a show, all flame and sparks and glowing molten metal. Anticipation ran high, and the supportive crowd burst into applause when the first ladle was charged. But of course, the audience doesn t always understand what s really going on, as you ll see.

This video compresses about six hours into three minutes. The sculptors were back at it at 5:30 AM. They had to chisel out the spout, re-line the furnace, and stoke it up again. This time they had an oxygen lance on hand, a piece of equipment that could have salvaged the pour the night before. Pouring started somewhere between 11:30 AM - noon, and went for about four hours. Afterward I got to take a group photo for these artists, and they were all smiles. Deservedly so, too. This was about the coolest thing I ve seen in a long, long time. Bravo! When they exhibit their pieces later this semester, I ll be sure and let you know, with video of course, so you can see what came out after the molds cooled. Update: I found an article about last year s pour in which Ted Uran describes the process. Check it out: Iron Pour turns scrap metal into art at SCC.