Title

VideoPoetry: Evocative Representations of Cultural Pioneers in Southern Idaho

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Abstract

In the early 1900s, federal irrigation projects transformed the sagebrush desert of southern Idaho into arable land. This article tells the story of two Idaho cultural pioneers from that era, Clarence E. Bisbee, and Annie Pike Greenwood. The photographer Clarence E. Bisbee spent thirty years documenting the growth of the city of Twin Falls and the surrounding agricultural area. Annie Pike Greenwood, a mother, farmer’s wife, teacher and professional writer, wrote a memoir of her experiences over twenty years of living on a farm near Hazelton. To represent the experiences of Bisbee and Greenwood, the authors used the technique of evocative representations. Evocative representations use the genres of fiction to report research data, to “re-create lived experience and evoke emotional responses” (Richardson 1994, 521). In this case, the authors developed evocative representations of these historical figures in two media: original poetry and subsequently in VideoPoetry, a genre which integrated the poems (as voice-over narration) with historical images, other historical data, and contemporary videography. By making DVDs of this VideoPoetry project available to general and educational audiences, the authors hope to increase public awareness of the region’s cultural heritage.

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