Story telling: Where time stands still

In this paper we take the reader with us on our journey, as we `walk the walk¿ of those before us around ancient Pompeii. As a writer and a photographer we experiment with blended narrative forms of image and word, using the metaphor of the still image (photograph) for the moment frozen in time (Pompeii and surrounds). The aim of this paper is to look back in time to see what lessons can be learned from the past to inform the present, in terms of story telling and conversation as knowledge sharing practices. First, we situate our current inter- and transdisciplinary practice as `Mode 2¿ knowledge and use hermeneutics as a lens to the cultural issues discussed. Second, drawing on our experience of Pompeii, we explore the influence of culture and tradition on different forms of story telling. Activity theory is used as a further lens, and we consider the contextual language of visual communication and the role of the `reader¿ in the interpretation. Third, we interrogate excerpts of a conversation about story telling from an online conference in education. We reveal knowledge sharing within the online communication and further lessons learned about visual language, including text and image. Finally, drawing the past and the present together, we suggest some of the factors that may enhance or potentially impede story telling and conversation for knowledge sharing, through contemporary blended narrative of image and word.