An audio slideshow, telling a digital story.

I’m stretching the boundaries of journaling a bit here… or am I?

This is a form of photo-journal or audio-journal capturing part of a journey to London for a training course in digital storytelling.

As you’ll see it also captures the more universal feelings of uncertainty and fear that emerge when we venture into the unknown…

In the interests of creativity and experimentation I wanted to share my first digital story here, created in a bit of a rush on the afternoon of the training.

It’s not edited as much as it would have beenwith more time, and goes on a little bit longer at the start than I’d like… but I get into my stride as it goes on (and I get closer to the tea stand )

You can watch / listen to the slideshow here:

Aldgate East: Journey to the Unknown from Joanna Young on Vimeo.

The (stream of consciousness) transcript runs like this:

Out of the underground. Aldgate East.

I know I’m in kind of the right place because that was roughly the address I got, but which way to go now?

I remember, too late, how many exits there are from underground stations, and I remember, too late, that I don’t know my way around here, I don’t know where the interesting things are in relation to each other, so I’m left wondering, which exit, which way to go, 12 hours from home, a long way from home, and I’m suddenly wondering am I in the right place at all?

Is this the right exit?  I don’t know.  I’ll just have to take it. Pick an option. Go for it. You can work it out when you get there.

TRAFFIC NOISE.

Out, up on street level, out, away from the underground, traffic assails my senses.  It’s busy, loud, unfamiliar, and yes, I want to go home. But, come this far, 12 hour journey, so far, can’t stop now, pick an exit, walk, get up on to street level, get your bearings, look for signs, will these signs help?

well, they might, but I don’t know what they’re pointing to, could that man on the horse help?  Maybe, but he’s a long way up in the sky.

Look! There’s a sign, a big green sign, simple, clear, straightforward, the kind of sign that I like, but what’s it pointing to? Hmm. Stratford.  I think that’s east.Do I want to go east?  I can’t remember.

It’s not unknown for me to come out of an underground or come out of a shop or a doorway and go in totally the opposite direction and walk for miles before I realise that I’ve done that and I don’t want to do that today, I haven’t really got time, so I’d better stop, check, am I supposed to be going east?

I look at the map. It’s a bit scrawled, it’s a bit scrunched, it’s just a print out from google, but yes, I’m sure I’m supposed to be going east, north, south, east, west, I’m tired, I haven’t had all that much sleep, can’t work out which direction I’m supposed to be going in but I’m pretty sure I’m heading east from Aldgate East,

I stop, get my bearings, look over the road, ha! Alder Street, that’s it, not Alder Street, Adler Street, Adler Street, that’s it, that’s what I’m looking for, I cross the road, I’m sure I’m nearly there, now here’s the building,

I think this is the building, I seem to remember the address but I can’t see a sign for Sound Delivery, I’ll try anyway, see what happens, sooo, it’s not Sound Delivery but everyone I ask seems to say ‘yes, this is where you’re supposed to be’, try the 3rd floor,

I get to the third floor and still there’s no sign of Sound Delivery but – the signs are kind of happy, and the people are kind of happy and, I don’t know if I’m in the right place, yet, but I’ve come anyway and it’s worth exploring, this might be the right exit and if it isn’t – doesn’t really matter, because, guess what?  there’s

tea, and wherever there’s tea, that’s always a good place to be.

Thanks to Sound Delivery for taking me this far in a day!