An audio exhibit concerning the EBR Collection

On Tuesday, March 31, we hosted an audio activity concentrating on the formation and contents of the Eugene B. Redmond (EBR) Collection. The audio devices included a recording of Redmond reading a poem about Miles Davis and providing commentary about Maya Angelou. SIUE metadata librarian Mary Z. Rose provided commentary concerning how she developed digital collections related to Redmond's work, and I offered comments about the collection in general.

Unlike many of our mixed media exhibits in the past, this project transmitted almost all the ideas through audio, with no accompanying images and minimum texts. I have been experimenting with the possibility of presenting some materials to students in the form of audio only. I've wondered how presenting more audio and less texts might give folks different orientations to African American subject matter. 

Audio device displaying Mary Z. Rose's file on Drumvoices Revue

Typically, much of what we -- especially literature professors -- present to students comes in the form of written texts -- no images, no audio. Given the value of conventional literacy in our society, that makes sense. But then again, our digital age presents us with so many visual and audio texts, making it necessary for literary scholars perhaps to think about additional modes of literacy.

Our audio exhibit on the EBR Collection this week gave me opportunities to think about the construction and transmission of a project in these alternative directions. 

Related:
• Spring 2015 Programming