Working Story Concept:
It’s easy to become disillusioned with the place where you grew up once you get to leave for extended periods of time. It’s especially easy when the only news you get about that place is negative: the school system falling apart, housing becoming critically scarce, beloved small businesses having to close up shop, and so on. After being overwhelmed with information that seem to spell out that the place is doomed, it’s tempting to go, “Screw this town, it was never good in the first place. I’m jumping ship and never coming back!”
After taking some time apart, though, you start to remember things about that place that you might have overlooked before, things that made you happy but it didn’t really click at the time. Maybe it happens when you’re scrolling through your camera roll at night and you find some pictures you forgot about, or a cherished moment crosses your mind randomly when you’re getting your morning coffee. It helps you remember that the place wasn’t all bad, that there was actually a lot to appreciate and enjoy about it.
In my story, I want to explore the little things about Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island that reminded me that I still love them, and that I don’t want to write them off despite the problems they’ve been dealing with these past few years. I’ll mostly explore this concept through photography and writing, but I might add some video if I’m able to go there sometime between now and the date of the final draft.
Sandbox
I kept my ArcGIS sandbox pretty simple, with an express map highlighting Mount Desert Island and a couple sidecar slides featuring photos I’ve taken there.
This is the link to my ArcGIS sandbox story, which I’ll probably use as a jumping-off point for the future rich-media story if that’s the direction the project’s headed toward.