SECRETS OF BLACK: making the unknown visible through documentation and oral storytelling
My thesis subject is about Making the unknown evident through documentation and oral storytelling, by using an auto-ethnographic approach.
For the transportation to begin, a Magic Circle must first be cast. (Copier,2007, as cited in (Cassidy, 2019) “the magic circle refers to a pre-existing artificial game space which creates a dichotomy between the real and imaginary”.
The Magic Circle: as a Boundary Gamespace (Juul, J. 2011).
Humanity has been using this Magic Circle through practicing Oral tradition. Oral traditions take many forms, from proverbs and myths to chants and performances. They serve as a means of passing down knowledge, values, and collective memory, ensuring the survival of cultural identity. (UNESCO, “Oral Traditions and Expressions,” kein Datum)
Creating this Circle through words, the storyteller uses their presence as a way of retelling, thus
shifting the storyteller’s presence from that of an observer/experiencer, to that of narration, retelling of the untold or unheard information, conveying a piece of information and sharing it.
This format will be presented as a four-part audio-visual storytelling performance of “I”, Myself, communicating the struggle of trying to find clarity in it.
Video: SECRETS OF BLACK
Places of Solace is the 1st part, a visual documentation of places of comfort for a Kenyan immigrant. Using a LiDAR scanner, I scanned locations in Bremen that I explored over the last 14 years, transforming them into 3D objects presented as a volume of poems. The exploration tells a story of places that offer solace, meditation, and strength. Exhibited at the Jahresaustellung : Von der Idee zum Ergebnis – Wie funktioniert Forschung? @ Haus der Wissenschaft bremen.
Followed by the 2nd part, BLACK, “We are children of the darkness and should accept our true calling and be engulfed by the black void.”
Video: BLACK
a short poem in audio and visual format. I try to impose the matter of Identity, in an attempt to bring this state into the poem itself, questioning my entire being better yet what came before myself, what came before everything.
The 3rd part continues with a break time / Tea ceremony, where I invite the guests to drinking my Grandmothers Black Tea which was plucked from her tea farm and processed abroad for export.
As a storyteller, I am presenting another way of immersing the listeners through their senses. Their Imagination begins to visualize the said tea farm or a similar memory or moment tied to the act of drinking tea as a community together, conveying the unspoken connectivity that resides in all of us. This Tea ceremony is to indicate to the Audience the next place we will be heading to, which is my Grandmother’s Tea farm.
This 4th part ends the performance with Mathe’s1 wisdom. This abstract documentary on the theme of “endurance” explores the tangible nature of endurance through the life of an 80-year-old Kenyan farmer.
Video: Siri ya Urembo
As the storyteller I give the stage to a new outward presence that was already hinted and discussed during the Tea ceremony. A snippet of the film is showcased, where the search for clarity unfold through conversation, held while drinking Black Tea.
This Concludes my thesis focus on oral storytelling and how to find intersections between fantasy and reality, through incorporating methods of documentation that existed far before the beginning of time itself.
Seeking to mold storytelling into a tangible object that can be grasped and experienced by others who were there and those who weren ́t there. The latter ones will experience a retelling by the former ones, thus the cycle of Retelling may be different each time but the message itself still holds strong. This will happen until it becomes engulfed into our reality that we find ourselves in.
1Mathe = my grandmother’s (nicknamed “Mathe”, Kikuyu for saying of Mother)
Cassidy, M. (2019). An Analysis of the Role/Impact of the: Magic Circle in Video Games. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/:
UNESCO. (n.d.). Oral traditions and expressions including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage. Retrieved from UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage : https://ich.unesco.org/en/oral-traditions-and-expressions-00053