TEDxTombstones: Stories Carved in Stone

I want to preface this by saying that, when I wrote this, TED Talks were still fair game. As per last week, we were told TED works in a very different, more structured, more almost ‘hand-held’ way and it isn’t necessarily a fair expectation to hold regular speakers to.

I disagree.

I hold myself to similar standards – clean PowerPoints. Memorized (at last 90%) script. Good vocal projection. Good stage presence. I work to make my presentations up to similar snuff with perhaps more work given I have no team or projector screen or microphone. So, given that I hold myself to high standard, I don’t think it’s remiss to hold others to the same. I don’t think achieving the clean, polished, professional presentation of a TED speaker is limited to only being held within the walls of a TED room on a red and black TED stage. Thus, it’s fair play to assess a TED Talk, especially given the relevance of it to my own field of work.

The first thing I notice: Katie had no notes. Her face was not stuck in a flip-book of papers or glued to a screen. She followed no set of written words besides those she may have pre-prepared and taken the time to remember. I may be wrong, TED Talks may make use of some sort of projector prompt system, but either way, the thing that stuck out first was her reliance on herself and her own swath of knowledge as opposed to what she could fit on cue cards.

The second a presenter steps up with a stack of papers, I lose interest. If all someone does is read from a paper, they could have printed a copy for everyone and I would have been done reading it halfway through the designated presentation time. We could have all read it before hand and simply come to ask questions.

But what else did she do well? In fifteen quick minutes, Katie summarized what I believe all gravestone fanatics would love the world to know – a burial ground is not scary, stones are the source of a broad set of population and historical data, and every stone can tell its own story or contribute to the construction of a bigger picture.

She talks of how, when she was younger, she saw a gravestone of Sarah Osborne, who was close to her age. She’d wandered graveyards all her life, but this time, something hit her. It sparked her thinking. I believe this is a lot like many of us who find fascination with the markers of the dead – you wander in that place of quite solitude until something catches your eye. You stand there, not only making those connections between stones and broader concepts, but wondering about the life that person, so close under your feet, must have had. You realize you will never know, you will create a small story of them in your own head, part of your work may even be dedicated to them. So, Katie running into Sarah is a welcome way to introduce others into the niche world of gravestone studies. It is not a unique story, but it is one that resonates.

While making the talk personal by relaying her own personal experience and love of the graveyard, Katie also makes sure to emphasize the benefits of graves as data sets and their applicability to answering questions regarding sex, marriage, disease, design, stone type, kinship, life span (and what may contribute to it), and distribution.

She makes clear her thesis question: if she [Sarah Osborne, the grave that began it all] died so young, how many others did too? She further explains her methodology of data collection, her photography and written recording of information on the stone, which she compiles, graphs, and leads her to further research. She explains her train of thought – is survival into older age built upon marriage bonds? Is it disease that kills those who are younger? How does disease change based on the season? Does disease transfer better in towns (where she sees less young deaths) or in cities (where she saw more)? Step by step, she makes her process clear and simple to her audience – with just a little humour mixed in for good measure.

And, if you are more of a visual person, she has clear graphs made. They don’t have a lot of data, so they’re easy for the Average Joe to follow, especially alongside her verbal explanation. The audience isn’t bombarded with changing images, but they flow at a pace that makes complete sense for the data she is trying to show and the story she aims to tell. Clean, void of many words at all, and helpful for comprehension, the slides work in her favour.

If you go into this presentation knowing anything about the area of gravestone studies, you may be underwhelmed. Not because it isn’t good, but because it’s fairly obvious. The wheel is not being reinvented. The slides are nice, but are nothing special (and some may think they lack detail while others may be happy they’re on the simple side). Katie will not be making a huge wave in this area. She isn’t saying much that can be considered innovative or new. Mediating expectations is good in this way, as it isn’t one of those fundamental talks that will be spoken of for decades to come. It’s just entertaining and decently performed – and that is more than many professionals nowadays. If you watch this expecting a nice jaunt through a graveyard, and hoping that there is a point and an answer to her research question, you’ll be happy with what you get. If you expect the world to start spinning in the opposite direction, you’ll be disappointed.

She is a self proclaimed gravestone gal, and as one of her fellows, her talk is perfectly satisfactory to my understanding of the field. It is absolutely how I would want others to see this area of study, explained in a simple and kind way. Her academic purpose is clearly stated with her thesis, methods, conclusions, and further research well articulated. She makes the work we do seem valuable, and yet is able to simplify (while still making it sound important) the ways in which we get to our final product. Her talk has a point and ends with a message to get involved in the preservation of gravestones and the data they hold. She does it all in fifteen minutes whereby attention is a lot less likely to be lost.

It is a simple but highly effective talk, and I can say I am proud to be in a field alongside the likes of Katie Goodsell. Aptly, she is good at selling our field.

Watch the talk yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miTj84K7DSw
Data set in stone: How cemeteries are still very much alive | Katie Goodsell | TEDxTrestleViewPark