South by Southwest Source > South by Southwest Source > Archives > 2007 > March > 17 > Entry
Take a turn in the Story Booth
Immortality awaited on Congress Avenue on Saturday afternoon, not in the shape of a recording contract but in the form of the Story Booth, a sort of digital video Photomat on wheels. Proprietor George Morrow, a design student at the University of Texas, said he had been collecting stories on video for two years but just finished building the booth and had towed it to Congress behind his old bicycle. He said he got the trailer under the booth at a farm supply store, “and all these farmers were helping me figure out different ways to hitch it up.” The booth has a black-and-white checkerboard linoleum floor from Home Depot, a stool and a digital video camera.
A group of six twentysomething friends stood on the sidewalk next to the booth, debating whether one of them would be brave enough to tell a story. The guys were all chicken, although one asked, “How long will you be here?” and said he might come by later. “Can we make something up?” another asked. One of the young women decided she’d try it, and her friend joked, “What if he drives off with you in that?” Undaunted, the storyteller entered the booth, pulled the curtain and then emerged about two minutes later.
Morrow said his academic project is exploring the gray area between documentary and fiction, and what he does is select from the stories people tell him, find actors to play the parts and then film them, using the original narration as the audio. In case you have a story for posterity and don’t see him out and about, he said the booth will be displayed at the Creative Research Laboratory on East MLK Boulevard beginning March 31.
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