Advanced Media Lab, College of Design

Different way for us to tell it September 12, 2008

With a collective history bordering on 300 years, New Bern has its share of lively and animated raconteurs. On Friday (Sept. 12th, 2008), just how animated those storytellers are will be on public display and projected for viewing on the side of a downtown building.

“New Bern Stories,” the culmination of an extensive public art video, premieres that day following ArtWalk on the corner of Middle and Broad streets. Best screening is from New Bern Sculpture Park. Take a lawn chair. Also take your imagination. This is a slice of New Bern history as it’s never been cut before.

“What we said was, let’s do something that’s really a wow,” said Mitch Lewis, a sculptor, a member of Craven Arts Council and principal grant writer for the project.

So they did.

With funding from N.C. Arts Council and local sources, Lewis and other members of the council were able to buy and beg the technical expertise of N.C. State professor Patrick Fitzgerald and the team he directs in the advanced media lab of the school’s College of Design.

The result: a 20-minute video that turns New Bern residents into puppet figures and places them in animated environments to illustrate the real stories they tell.

“It took 20 people working for three months to complete it,” Fitzgerald said.

It also took dozens of interviews and stories ranging from New Bern National Cemetery to James City. (more…)