STORIES IN CYBERLAND: In Brief Stories in Cyberland is an online audio archive project that is crafting a shared media landscape across borders. Pilot projects have begun in Cyprus, Lebanon, Turkey, and Greece. The project aims to share stories through the internet in a user-friendly fashion. It also aims to allow users to upload their own media from their own computers, giving the project tremendous horizontal growth potential. Developed over the past few months, we have been in the streets collecting people’s thoughts and feelings. These focused opinion collections are then uploaded to a computer, edited, compiled in categories determined by question, and then broadcast through the Stories in Cyberland website (www.talkoftheisland.org/StoriesInCyberland).
Stories in Cyberland was begun in Cyprus, and the Cyprus branch is most developed. Cyprus Stories in Cyberland is broadcast through the Talk of the Island internet radio station (www.talkoftheisland.org). This is achieved by taking random selections from the Cyprus Stories in Cyberland database through a program that automatically inserts them into live internet broadcasts.
We believe that listening has the power to inspire empathy. The project includes no photographs of faces on its. This decision allows for the listener to hear another’s story without judging their appearance.
WHY?
We like stories. We hope others find the project enjoyable and moving. We think there is power in asking oneself questions that provoke self-reflection. The process of looking inward when responding to questions that are past oriented, future oriented, or change oriented can give one the space to connect with themselves and reconsider their identity in relation to society.
In hopes of creating a future we desire, we also encourage reflection on human consumption and materialism; and awareness of as well as relationship to media and the news. Furthermore, the project has the potential to take new directions and dimensions depending on the interests and creativity of those involved.