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BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Monday, May 09, 2005Big Conversation
 Colin and I went up to Derby last night. I was asked to go and lead a conversation evening [the second of 3] concerning 'how does church respond to a changiong world'. It was a great opportunity for people to talk together and to be given permission to think. It was very difficult to find a way to induce good conversation. Where are people at? What questions would produce good conversation. I ended up with a selection of slides that where ready for any eventuality [in theory!]. I was trying to get people to think about 'communication' in its broadest sense, and it was supposed to lead through into ideas of church and particularly church community. We seriously ran out of time, but based on peoples questions and comments there was enough that provoked lots of new thoughts. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." SO I guess that is all good. I talked for a little bit about eras of communication - from oral cultures, where communication is done by reenacting a story and from person to person; to print cultures - where the message is disembodied from a person to words on a page and hte individual is the final authority; to Broadcast culture - TV which is low on content and high on stimulus and is based on experience; and now to digital culture - which is network, peer-top-peer, fluid, participative and communal. You'll have to look at the slides to get the idea a bit more. The point is not just means of communication, but what results that means of communication has on how we perceive the world, what we value, how we operate, what is authoritative within the culture. I was watching the Alpha video on Thursday and noticed that Nicky Gumbel was standing in from of a perspex lecturn, had a microphone on, was a big character with and engaging smile and behind him was a big projection screen projecting his image behind him [broadcast culture]. However we was standing in front on old Pulpit halfway up the wall - one of these very ornate things that you have to climb up into [print culture]. I thought "why is Nicky not standing in the pulpit, bit on a lit stage" and "in the alpha videos of 20 years time where will Nicky be standing?" [or will he be standing, or will he be there at all, or would it even make sense to video anything, or...]. Just a thought... Here is the presentation to download if you fancy it [note: it is 2.25 mB] If you are really interested in the communication shift and the affect on culture, listen to this Radio 4 programme on the future of radio. UPDATE: Here is another fascinating interview along the lines of communication transitions Oh and I should thank Jonny Baker for the image. Posted by: Mark | 9:20 am |
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