Out to Sea

My name is Aylie Baker and I recently graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont with a B.A. in History. In March of 2009, I received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to travel around the world for a year in exploration of a lifelong passion.

Well, for me, it was two passions.

Audio Storytelling and Islands.

My project description reads as follows:

Voices for the Future:

Utilizing Islanders' Stories for Civic Engagement

Islanders are often portrayed as passive bystanders to global threats, their islands, as "paradises in peril." Yet as much as they are written about, the voices of islanders themselves are rarely heard. Audio narratives disarm prejudice by rendering the listener blind. Stripped of all physical attributes, stories become portals into the lives of others. By collecting stories from islanders, I hope to pilot a process of collaboration while exploring the use of audio storytelling as a civic engagement tool that can help insure a sustainable future for island communities.

Here's a video of me describing my project, and a link to a longer news release:

Starting in July 2009 I will be traveling to the following places: The Maldives, Palau, Chiloe, and Lanzarote. If you have contacts on any of these islands, shoot me an email! ayliembaker@gmail.com

This blog shall serve as a means to share my own experience with family and friends, but also, more importantly, as an outlet for sharing the stories of those islanders I meet along my journey. As audio is a central component to my year, a great deal of my postings will be solely audio - based. I will undoubtedly also integrate photo, video, prose, and perhaps even audio boom. As I've told my parents, make sure your computer has sound!

As a disclaimer, I would like to add that the nature of my blog is likely to change over the course of my year. I struggled for a long time deciding whether or not to keep a blog, as undoubtedly it links me to home and that which I already know. However, because my project is in part about exploring different ways to represent people and place, a blog lends itself to my journey. If I fail to update frequently, not to worry (Dad). As I seek to immerse myself in various ports of call, it may be that, due to scant internet access or the nature of my experience, I will post less, while in other instances, who knows, I may post more. If I start to twitter, that's when you can worry.