MDOCS: Behind the Scenes of a Campus Resource
The MDOCS Newsletter frequently brings updates on the programming, classes, community partnerships and projects connected to the three pillars of the program: DocLab, Storytellers’ Institute and Skidmore-Saratoga Memory Project (SSMP).
Behind the scenes, the program works to build capacity integration into activities and to serve as a campus resource. Below you will find just a few examples of the development activities that happen out of the spotlight all year long.
In addition to offering courses and DocLab workshops led by the program’s talented student assistants, MDOCS promotes documentary storytelling and technical know-how geared at faculty (and open to staff, students, and community partners) during the academic year and summer. Since the research and stories come from all corners, why shouldn't an interested faculty member from anthropology or dance build assignments or research segments into their practice? As Skidmore's academic departments are working now to develop assignments and courses to deliver the General Education curriculum adopted in 2017, which includes information, technology and visual literacy in each major, MDOCS anticipates continued interest in the coming years.
Over the past four years, MDOCS and Project Vis (a multi-year Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant) have offered hands-on master classes that build competencies and connect across all three MDOCS programs. Topics have included storyboarding, the art of the interview, archive and documentary, video interview setup, photography when traveling, sound design for film, photographs as documentary evidence, using the web for academic projects, map storytelling, audio guides for walking tours and site specific events, and interviewing for social justice. It's quite a list!
Behind the scenes, each semester, DocLab reaches out to faculty to let them know about DocLab resources and development opportunities, including scheduled workshops and masterclasses. Many respond directly, letting us know what projects they have in mind. This spring, MDOCS also surveyed faculty and staff to ask what types of skills they wanted the Collaborative to support. The answer was – everything. The most requested workshops continue to be video recording and editing basics, interviewing for oral history, photography, and integrating media assignments into courses. Coming in close behind were requests for guidance on legal and ethics in media production and distribution, map storytelling, and audio storytelling (podcasts), with growing interest for more advanced skill building and storytelling support.
To meet needs, we had a two-stage approach. First, MDOCS partnered for a May planning conversation with FYE director Janet Casey to host a conversation with examples from two recent courses that integrated media and public storytelling; not surprisingly, many faculty first dip into interactive assignments with this interdisciplinary first-semester course. Colleagues Erika Schielke (Biology) and Jenny Huangfu Day (History) shared assignments and lessons learned from recent courses. Schielke discussed courses which developed science communication skills through poster design, exhibition and a website project with a community partner, and Day described how history students presented .
Adam Tinkle presents assignment pyramid to faculty
DocLab directors Adam Tinkle and Jesse O’Connell provided a conceptual framework and planning game plan. Tinkle’s presentation asked faculty to consider objectives for their own and student projects, starting with ‘sandbox’ experimentation and familiarity and reaching up to public-facing and publishable work. By identifying learning goals, he suggested, faculty could identify the type of support needed as well as how to allocate resources, including assignment materials and stages as well as plan appropriate class time for workshops and project support on storytelling, research and technical aspects. O'Connell provided an overview of resources and suggested a timeline of planning (working at least a semester ahead of time) to match goals and outcomes.
Summer workshops work on multiple levels to deliver the MDOCS mission. They offer a hands-on learning opportunity for ‘students’ from many different parts of our community, forging ties and enhancing appreciation for different learning styles and levels of experience. They bring new and expert voices to campus, and expand the program network. Plus, the workshops support skill building and professional development for faculty and staff on campus during the regular business day, all while providing an opportunity for everyone to connect and bond over first projects.
MDOCS also runs master classes during the academic year. Some provide the Media Services staff member Ron Taylor demonstrated methods for effective video interview lighting. Skidmore alum and photographer Eric Jenks led a two-part workshop targeted to students headed overseas with Off Campus Studies and Exchanges to help them frame better images with any camera (including their phones) and then do some basic editing. From tips in the classroom, participants headed outdoors to testing approaches in and around campus. We hope to see some photos in OCSE’s fall photography contest!
INDIVIDUALIZED SUPPORT
We’ve never believed in a one-size-fits-all model. Workshops and master classes are wonderful opportunities to build competencies – and improve non-expert appreciate for the research, production, and post-production work and time it takes to create effective documentary projects. But no two individuals will work those techniques into projects or classes in the same way.
So MDOCS leadership and staff provide individualized support to faculty developing research or pedagogical projects. In some cases, a single meeting to review the workings of an audio recorder or DSLR camera before a research trip, or provide a handout for faculty who lead their own workshops is all it takes. Or experienced faculty just may schedule use of equipment for an assignment. That work may happen far from home. The program’s walking tour audio headsets went to London for first year students to learn to lead on site learning experiences.
At other times, holding a brainstorming session to help set expectations for and identify skilled student interns or assistants for complex media projects, leads to a plan including in-class sessions and a DocLab student assigned to provide follow up. When MDOCS isn’t the only home for a project, a consultation can lead to an introduction to campus experts and resources, including archive and cataloguing experts in Scribner Library’s special collections, the curatorial staff at the Tang, the staff of Media Services and Academic Technologies, or an academic program such as Arts Administration, Management and Business or Sociology. Skidmore-Saratoga Memory Project approaches to working in documentary, for example, frequently lead to collaborations with Special Collections, whether as an introduction to working with archival materials or for a workshop on organizing and preserving documents and material objects.
Throughout the year, MDOCS also offers direct and indirect support for faculty to develop assignments connecting student research to creative storytelling and staff members to skill up, and for staff working with media. Communications staff were inspired by an early interviewing and podcasting workshop to launch This is Skidmore. One-on-one consultations this year led to some creative collaborations from introductory courses to seminar projects. First Year Experience classes received design support for posters presenting research on the costs of incarceration, a booklet for writing on human/machine relations, and a podcast inspired by the voyages of Captain Cook to the South Pacific. Anthropology students working with the Tang Teaching Museum’s This Place exhibit learned the art of writing (and recording) for the ear for a set of audio guides, an experimental Idea Lab course drew on DocLab as a production hub for a semester-long documentary film project, and an international affairs methods class headed to Scribner Library's Special Collections for an introduction to finding stories in original documents and material objects.
And students also take skills honed in classes and workshops to the next level. When graduating seniors take on big projects, we tend to hear about it. But sometimes it takes a grapevine to share the news that a student in a science literacy course applied audio doc skills to complete the soundscape for an immersive model of space, or MDOCS gear can head off campus with a student who is using media as part of an ongoing research project.
Thinking about multi-media exhibition at the Schick Gallery
What’s next? We're always looking for ways to bring in new communities, and make sure this resource is accessible and welcoming to all constituencies. In spring, DocLab joined an Opportunities Program lunch and introduced students to the resources of our workspace, gear and student tutors.
This summer, DocLab assistants plan to offer the first MDOCS SCOOP opportunity, a week-long experience for incoming students, that will focus in its inaugural year on shaping personal narratives. The program is a lead up to the first signature event coordinated by incoming director Tinkle, a storytelling workshop and presentation with The Moth Radio Hour. DocLab, Storytellers' Institute and SSMP are reviewing our past workshops that highlight storytelling as well as technical skills as we plot the programming for the future.