Kole Ade Odutola from the University of Florida sent us this very heartfelt poem about participatory video called “Participatory Use of Video in Verse: A Prodigal Child”.  I’ve actually never seen a poem about participatory video, so I was excited to include this in a blog!

Participatory use of video in verse: A prodigal child?

I will arise

and go to the people

I will say on to them

here is a video camera,

which can be used like a pencil

write your story in images with the aid

of a few mind visualization techniques.

Let us together re-enter your past by

representing your life in the present

On the third day after our meeting

The story of the street will no more be fleeting

neither will the street of stories strange to our feet

Our objective is to lift

the minds of our participants not with planks

or pranks children play but with role plays

that probe deep into their lives.

The transect walk will show us where

and how they live

Without leaving any aspect untouched.

Just before the cross from the old to the new

A show-back as feedback will be arranged

With the video camera at the back of the hall;

recording both the images on screen and

the reactions of those around.

Stuart Hall may be absent but his

theories can be heard so loud.

Just before it is done

The question like a dark night will pop

“where do you want this message taken”

“Who do you want as audience?”

Now that a part of the real is encoded,

it is now in reel-form.

It needs to be decoded with the context

of its production.

It has become a text that can be read, analyzed

and interpreted on the path to action.

This is not an extractive academic exercise

but a performative, life transforming engagement

meant to bring a little change.

I will arise

and go back to the editing room

with voices of the poor

and poor images shot with hand-held

video cameras without tri-pods.

At the table, fingers would say to the buttons

wipe out ambiguity but ensure

the poverty on the streets is preserved

as a re-presentation of the lives of the participants

whose lives the video camera facilitated

their transformation by creating a forum

for introspection and reflection.

Once the funders are fed

with images and sounds of the unfed,

this project must return to the

home of the street children

who are still waiting for answers

that brought new questions

about the role of technology

in community story construction.

© Kole Ade Odutola

University of Florida

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Book/Article Review.