I had the idea to base this semester of ds106 around legend, myth and folklore. That’s probably too broad to be called a theme, but whatever. It connects to many previous themes from ds106 – westerns, superheroes, horror, apocalypse. It gives a lot of options as to where we can take it – too many, I’m sure – but it will be interesting to see what kind of focus emerges from what the class does.
I am in no way an expert in the topic. But I’m interested in the way that the stories we tell shape our understanding of the world, ourselves, and our place within it. I’m interested in how stories stick and how they spread. The Slenderman came up in Tales from ds106 discussions a few years ago – someone made a couple images, other people were inspired to provide some backstory, and a story developed across media, and even generated some real-life tragedy. A simple creative challenge led to a new urban legend, of sorts.
What are the legends of #ds106? #thinkingaboutatheme
— paul bond (@phb256) June 16, 2018
I asked Twitter about legends of ds106 over the summer. I had thought of Talky Tina, who went from being a homicidal doll to a ds106 regular, and Dr. Oblivion, who disappeared but has not been forgotten. Sarah Honeychurch mentioned the ds106 socks, another good one. Todd Conaway brought up the ds107 rebellion. Jim added some ds106zone radio shows. I think the Daily Create qualifies as legendary. It is the ds106 community that made all of these what they are. People picking up threads and running with them. People continuing to talk about them. Can we choose to be legendary, making our own myth? I don’t know. But I hope we can inspire each other with our ideas, and build on each other’s ideas. And maybe we’ll come up with stories worth talking about.
