MULTIMEDIA COMPARATIVE FOLKLORE ASSIGNMENT a.k.a.

MaCaFA Assignment Overview The MaCaFA is designed to give you practice in observation, analysis, and synthesis skills. Comparing the familiar to the unfamiliar comes as naturally as breathing. To dig deeper than surface comparison and really interrogate our own point of view while experiencing folklore from another culturethat takes some work. As I mentioned when discussing the fieldwork project, it is very possible to create a MaCaFA project that somehow connects to your fieldwork. This is not required, but Id like you to consider it. I will explain more below. Whatever you do, you will pick some aspect of your home culture, however you define it (and you will explicitly define it as part of this assignment) and compare it to a partner aspect of folklore from another culture. It goes without saying that the level of intercultural experience you can have within any course is going to be limited by time and energy. These projects will almost necessarily be a bit touristic1 in their approachi.e., but the goal is for you will connect something unfamiliar to something familiar and analyze your response to the unfamiliar in with an eye to understanding it and your own folklore just a little bit better. The other important aspect of this assignment is the multimedia requirement. I provide you with several options, described below. My goal is for you to create a project that will lead your audience to actively engage with it. Learning Outcomes o Implement one or more modes of folklore analysis/interpretation to reveal insights into the significance of some aspect of your own folklore as compared with a similar aspect of folklore from another culture. Your emphasis should be on synthesis (you draw a larger point based on your analysis of the two pieces of folklore2) as opposed to evaluation (where you would compare and determine which folklore is better or more important or whatever the case may be). o Identify and make use of appropriate secondary source material to provide context for your analysis. o Explore the concepts of culture and positionality in such a way that you both learn a bit about some limited aspect of another culture and deepen your understanding of your own. o Demonstrate an understanding of how culture shapes the production of folklore and the ways in which outsiders respond to and interpret that folklore.
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For our purposes, touristic reading is a process that occurs when a reader assumes a . . . text is an authentic and complete representation of its source culture (Hathaway, The Unbearable Weight of Authenticity). 2 For example, you might compare your cultures celebration of Halloween to the Teng Chieh festival in China with the purpose of highlighting the spirituality of that festival vs. the secularity or your own and what that means to you as a participant in this celebration.

o Draw on two or more media to create a project that actively engages your target audience. o Reflect meaningfully upon the process of working with media for this project, noting the benefits, challenges, and limitations of creating a product of this type (versus the more traditional text-based essay or research paper). Possible Topics I recommend you start by thinking about whether theres a way to explore some aspect of your fieldwork project through a comparative folklore lens. For example, if your fieldwork will investigate the celebration of Halloween in your home culture, why not identify another culture whose folklore includes a comparable celebration? Or if you are researching the way we play humans vs. zombies here, why not look at how it or other variations of adult tag3 are played elsewhere? If you absolutely do not want to pursue a topic that overlaps with your fieldwork for some reason, Ive posted some things on Weebly that might help you think of another promising topic. One perennial favorite is a comparative fairytale/folktale project, which we will actually work with in class. Let me know if youre stuck and Ill be happy to help you think of something fabulous. IMPORTANT: As with the fieldwork project, you will get credit for degree of difficulty. Generally, heavily relying on secondary sources4 doing the analysis for you and just synthesizing their ideas is going to be at the lower end of difficulty, while doing most of the analysis yourself will be at the higher end. Making obvious connections or drawing obvious conclusions that someone who hasnt studied folklore could arrive at will be at the lower end of difficulty, while really digging and coming up with a fresh perspective will be at the higher end. If want to discuss specifics with me, just holler. Product Possibilities Whats the multi- in multimedia refer to for this assignment? You will make use of at least one form of media other than or in addition to written text for the primary submission (can be video, Prezi, screencast, podcast, etceterabut remember that your product must actively engage your audience.)5 Everyone will also produce a short (two-three page double-spaced) reflective piece that is written text (see below). The final product must demonstrate the learning outcomes outlined above and cover everything on the checklist below, but beyond these features you are free to create whatever you think best as the result of your analysis and research. Depending on your own strengths, desired take-away knowledge or experience, time and other constraints, and so on, you may want to stick with familiar media. If you want to learn some new media and have the time, go for it! Ive included links to some examples at the end of this handout.
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Credit to Bobby Williamson for pointing out to me that humans vs. zombies is basically tag. This is not to say you shouldnt use secondary sources because you will absolutely need to in order to provide a meaningful context for your analysis. 5 I recommend you avoid PowerPoint for this reason but Im willing to consider exceptions.

Whatever you decide, your product should take your audience approximately FIVE MINUTES and NO MORE THAN EIGHT MINUTES to experience. This is easy to control if you create a video, screencast, or podcast, which are the most likely forms the product will take. If you have questions about what youre producing along the way, dont hesitate to check in with me, and dont forget we have resources on campus for assistance with the technology. Required Reflective Piece This is submitted separate from the primary product (see below). I want you to minimally address the following topics, though not necessarily in this order: o How the creative process went (what was difficult, what was fun and/or easy, what was unexpected). o What media tools you worked with and your thoughts about them. o How you defined culture for the purpose of this assignment. o How your positionality shapes your response to the other cultures folklore you worked with as well as your own. o What you would have liked to have learned more about if youd had limitless time and resources. Checklist for Submissionthese are MUST dos: o Have you made good use of secondary source material for background context without overly relying upon it to do the analysis for you? o Have you proofread and done a final edit for both content (especially sufficient illustration/example of any main idea you want to present) and presentation (including organization/packaging, editing, documentation of source material, and so on)? o Have you included each of the following items? your 5-8 minute final product (see above): an engaging media project that implements at least one other form of media in addition to any written text you might include submitted in the form of a link (preferred) or a CD/DVD a minimum of 2-3 double-spaced pages of reflective writing (see above), submitted through the Weebly assignment submission tab a properly formatted Works Cited page for both primary and secondary sources Important Datessee syllabus

Flip over for some of the tools I found by googling free multimedia tools Note: I havent tried all of these by any means, so check them out at your own risk.

free tools http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/7-essential-multimedia-tools-and-their_b376 http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/30-free-online-multimedia-photo-audio-video-editors/ http://adamwestbrook.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/10-free-and-totally-legal-programsevery-multimedia-journalist-should-have/ http://libregraphicsworld.org/articles.php?article_id=26 making a podcast itunes podcast http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html and free screencasting apps http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-free-screencasting-apps-for-creating-video-tutorials/ (I use Jing, but thats mostly because it was the first free app I found and I liked it)

samples of multimedia pieces [NOT necessarily folklore projects, but more to give you an idea of technical possibilities] http://www.multimediashooter.com/wp/linksresources/8-multimedia-projects-yo/ A FAVORITE OF MINE http://youtu.be/dGCJ46vyR9o A Vision of Students Today (combines simple amateur video with handwritten text on notebooks, laptop screens, etc.) http://teachmix.com/litcraft/screencasts student screencast projects