Jeffrey Cobbold

United States °1984
research interests: Autobiography, contemporary art, digital humanities, digital storytelling, experimental music, (music) education, practical theology, sound, video
affiliation: Independent researcher
en

research

research expositions

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works

  • Becoming a Digital Humanist | An Autobiographical Nonlinear Digital Story (Poster) (04/07/2016)
    Event: Conference, 2016 Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School (DHOxSS), Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School (DHOxSS), artist(s)/author(s): Jeffrey Cobbold
    2020 audio journal link: https://soundcloud.com/jeffreycobbold/sets/becoming-a-digital-humanist-an-autobiographical-nonlinear-digital-story-audio-journal 2016 DHOxSS conference abstract: This forthcoming six episode digital story demonstrates the power and importance of autobiography. It tells the story of my educational journey from Princeton Theological Seminary to Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. Within the story I explore the themes of race, tradition, individuality and my desired place in the academic area of the digital humanities. Through experimental music, conceptual art and basic documentation viewers are invited to decipher my personal sense of becoming and consider their own sense of self-actualization. Interpretation and exploration of this digital story are up to viewers, as they are encouraged to watch all six episodes in any order they would like to, doing this numerous times to discover nuances and connections within my journey. Viewers are asked to consider the following questions in conjunction with this digital story: What do you interpret about my life or personality from watching this digital story? What aspects of my story, if any at all, resemble your own story as you strive toward becoming your most authentic self? Would you share some or all of my digital story with others, especially persons in the process of working towards a particular type of self-actualization? Why or why not? I believe my project poster is a unique symbol of the digital humanities as it explores concerns within the humanities using an innovative digital story format. It is also a reminder to humanists of all kinds that biography and autobiography are necessary tools within humanities research and that their digital versions can positively assist the contemporary general public with the deconstruction of life’s cultural elements. At Berklee’s Valencia campus, I will continue this process during the 2016 - 2017 academic year within my Post-Master’s Graduate Fellowship for Diversity & Inclusion. I will be working within the Student Affairs Office, assisting programing on gender equality, intercultural immersion, analysis of relational micro-aggressions amongst other pertinent topics related to diversity and inclusion. I will continue my artistic research on autobiography and digital storytelling, honing them as dynamic tools for navigating issues of diversity and inclusion. This artistic research will be in effort to design and teach a new course for Berklee Valencia students, which will help them analyze their converging artistic timelines and personal stories as they exist within Berklee’s Diversity & Inclusion initiative. This course will assist students in claiming their various forms of self-actualization and approach musical collaborations within the Berklee Valencia community with deeper understanding of each other’s similarities and differences.
  • METADS | Music Education Through Autobiographical Digital Storytelling: Confronting Fear & Becoming True As Music Students & Teachers (digital poster) (20/10/2018)
    Event: Conference, 2018 African-American History, Culture & Digital Humanities (AADHum) Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, African-American History, Culture & Digital Humanities (AADHum) Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, artist(s)/author(s): Jeffrey Cobbold
    2020 Audio Sermon Album: https://soundcloud.com/jeffreycobbold/sets/metads 2018 African-American History, Culture & Digital Humanities (AADHum), University of Maryland Conference, Digital Poster Link: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1OOpRBwyl8H_fAwcLO7I28ZT7cAu6yOS-EOe1v9JtHbY/edit?usp=sharing 2018 African-American History, Culture & Digital Humanities (AADHum) Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, Digital Poster Abstract: Music Education Through Autobiographical Digital Storytelling: Confronting Fear and Becoming True as Music Students & Teachers is a 37-minute educational message examining the presence of interpersonal fear and truth telling in music education. The driving force of the message is a personalized artistic research method, which I call “autobiographical digital storytelling”. Through this method I share my personal story as a music educator and graduate student intertwined with spiritualized observations of a music education community, which are presented to listeners in the format of a digital audio sermon. Through this message listeners are invited to reflect on important issues of embodiment vs. knowledge, friendship, community leadership, teacher-student relationships, the art of digital storytelling, loneliness and power dynamics in relation to the challenges of participating in a music education community. The goal of the message is to grant listeners (primarily students and teachers in music education) a beginning at noticing their own intersections of autobiography and digital storytelling for addressing interpersonal challenges within their educational journeys. I believe fostering these intersections can help produce healthier and more sincere interpersonal relationships that strive for rare and important truths to be told within a learning community. My digital poster presentation will share audio clips, research notes, concept maps and artistic tools used to create the educational message. Further explanation will be given to the term “autobiographical digital storytelling” and the choice of using the format of a digital audio sermon to highlight its features. I anticipate this message being relevant to AADHum 2018 as it brings forth my identity as an African-American male arts & humanities graduate student who was developing a moral compass on the margins of various learning communities. Within the interactive digital poster presentation I will invite discussion about cultural & racial authenticity, traditional methods of teaching & learning and the business focus of higher education, which all contextualize the artistic research and pastoral theological concerns which influenced this educational message. Viewers of the presentation, especially arts & humanities students, are invited to bring questions and concerns from their own experiences related to the aforementioned themes.