Follow up idea - Architecturally speaking!

So I have been thinking hard about how best to explain cultural identity to someone outside that culture. I came up with storytelling - which is an intrinsic part of all cultures and yet also a very easy format to follow and empathise with. It also links up strongly with the concept of songlines that our group focussed on in the first task. What I saw was an opportunity to make a modern, virtual database of these songlines - input from a huge range of people.

There are several points that this addresses:
Firstly, I wanted a way to record and maintain small cultures in an environment forecasted to have all kinds of people living together. In a sense to not lose a sense of ones cultural identity. I thought about virtual boundaries and the like and decided that was heading down a path of SECOND LIFE, and I did not want that. I then began thinking about it as a database of stories, but less edited and more personal. 

I also considered the way society absorbs new (or other) cultures. Is it assimilation or understanding? Often, while quite scarily, we expect a certain degree of assimilation, however I think understanding is a far better approach to this. Storytelling is a really good way of giving understanding as it personally touches us through shared experience and the power of hearing a first hand account of the matter. I think this was shown really successfully in the SBS series Go Back Where You Came From. 

This took a group of racist narrow minded Australians and sent them to listen to experience the life of a refugee. This program showed the power of hearing a story in changing ones attitude and I believe this project can draw on this aspect. 

I think now I just have to begin defining the way these stories are told and listened to in a way that engages everyday people and undergoes a different mediation to that of politically focused broadcasters and governments.