Beyond a modernist and postmodernist yearbook?

The space that I have been in the last 8 weeks has been mad headless chicken mode. Yes, I have been project managing the production of a revolutionary concept of the yearbook for our College. Luckily, before (and now after) that mode I had time to do a little reflecting, or what might have happened would have been less than revolutionary.

Our brief was to bring the yearbook concept into the 21st century and the first response to that
might be looking at the technology ... make it digital... and yes there is a multi-media DVD to go with a print format. But what is different about the 21st century is the sensitivity we now bring - our culture has moved from modernism well and truly into postmodernism and possibly into the beginnings of a more integral view.

Perhaps a modernist yearbook might document student achievement (academic and sport) and have subject reports about what the class did that year. But a postmodernist yearbook is more interested in capturing the essence of experience, giving voice to the participants and celebrating the learning and growth... more interested in the being and becoming, rather than the doing. It captures the mood and the culture. It uses metaphor to tell the story. Through highlighting individual stories it tries to speak to the reader in helping them remember a way of being in order to re-tell their own stories to themselves and each other.

So we have a printed full colour 24 page magazine (instead of the usual 80 - 100 primarily black and white pages) which brings in some of the postmodern sensitivities - consisting of themes and metaphors - the notion of college as a movie, a game, following your passion, meeting challenges, going deep into the heart of you and identity crisis.

Where is the usual stuff? Well some of it is on the DVD... but now the DVD represents far more students and their work with music video clips, videos of the snow trip and the major production, dynamic photostories of classes, events, video class products, podcasts of poetry, radio plays as well as an extensive photo album .... and only a few text based subject stories.

Together they perhaps make an integral yearbook... the doing and the being, the individual and the group. And perhaps in the space in between the soul is to be found!