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Digital Storytelling

Loosely defined, digital storytelling can be thought of as any narrative which is developed and/or displayed in a digital format. Yet a more narrow definition exists for a certain practice which is descended from The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) in the US. Both large and small organisations have delivered effective digital storytelling programmes with their methods. They have learned the practice directly from the CDS or sister organisations, or from those who have learned from the CDS.

Their 'Cookbook' relays important tips, methods and tools for generating stories generally in local community settings. Many of the tools are not just technical, but are tools that come from community theatre practice for creating a space where people can feel comfortable to share their stories.

These projects result in short (2-5 minute) video peices, where the narrator talks over a montage of still photographs from their scrapbooks or family albums. Other methods exist, for example hypertext (HTML), or audio-only, or mobile phone messaging systems of any type.

Digital Storytelling used in many ways

Digital Storytelling has been employed by a variety of organisations in many different ways.

Commercial enterprises are employing storytelling as a means to captivate their market, which takes the 'testimonials' format one step further by building in layers of context. Except they call it StorySelling.

In education, groups are finding that digital storytelling projects combine various skills- aesthetic, narrative, and technical. For example, 'Digital Storytelling, Inc' a company in the US promotes digital storytelling as an effective tool in either commerical marketing or education; apparently they sell their services to both. As part of their self-promotion, they cite research in arts & education: "Students in arts programs perform 32 percent better on standardized tests."1.

The benefits of such projects are being noticed by policy-makers. They are seeing the benefits of a holistic, project based approach, seeing beyond skills assessment. The Digital Hub in Dublin, Ireland is an initiative to promote high-tech businesses to grow in that region. In addition to providing well-equipped spaces to attract businesses, they have a strong focus in delivering arts programs to their local community. Their digital storytelling program is called Storytelling in the Liberties.

In April 2003 the Irish Parliament debated a bill which would turn the Digital Hub in Dublin into a statutory body2. Mary Hanafin, Minister of State with responsibility for the Information Society, explained the benefits of digital storytelling for the community around the Digital Hub. She referred to the variety of equipment being used, and also the range and number of people involved in delivering the program. She pointed out that these stories were being shown on Den 2, a youth-focused television programme which airs on weekday afternoons in Ireland. "This is real evidence of how an economic development, well rooted in a local community, can have a wider effect on society. This is to be welcomed."

That a digital arts/culture project is being recognised for its contribution to economic development at this level is good evidence that there is a change happening.

Many groups are touting the benefits of this digital storytelling like some magic potion which can sell your products, increase exam scores by 32 percent and promote economic growth. But is it art? Two authors debated this topic in HotWired's Brain Tennis; Digital Storytelling: Is It Art?, 1997 though, six years later it is not apparent that this question has been answered.

Digital Storytelling for communities

The model developed at the Center for Digital Storytelling in the US shows how these methods can be used to enrich and enable a community. A list of case studies includes a project they did with the BBC. 'Capture Wales'. In that project by the BBC, a local arts organisation was able to learn the skills, and now are running their own Digital Storytelling project independent of the BBC.

On the Capture Wales site, stories are grouped by themes, and people read their own short stories or poems over a video which uses both moving and still images. The stories come from their own experiences and use personal photographs, and the outcomes reflect the unique life of each person.

One storyteller, Jim Duckett sent a 'message in a very new bottle' to whoever is listening "I was thinking of you with the same fondness and love I have for my children" he says to the listener supposedly far in the future.

Another storyteller, Sughra Muhammed talks about her experience coming from Pakistan arriving with no English, and until six years ago she could not read. This made her life full of fear. Her education has transformed her life.

With voice and chosen imagery, sometimes even music, these small story moments become like time capsules. A digital archive for the future. One question for the near future is archiving and storing such works. Partnering with libraries would be open many possibilities for a solution.

Read the interview with Barrie Stephenson who works on Telling Lives, a BBC Digital Storytelling project in England. Also read the interview with Helen Simondson of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, which is running a Digital Storytelling programme.

Notes

  1. http://www.digitalstorytelling.org/effectiveness/
  2. The Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002
    http://www.irlgov.ie/debates-03/4Apr/Sect3.htm

Related

The Center for Reflective Community Practice
http://web.mit.edu/crcp/
Their goals of this proramme at MIT include: "improving community practice through reflection and learning, building grounded knowledge from reflection on practice, and developing tools and technology to support this work."
They offered a course on Digital Storytelling for Community Research:
http://web.mit.edu/crcp/digimit.html
Community Arts and Technology:
Confessions of a Quiet Practitioner
http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/restec.php
An overview of the intersection of community art and technology; history, theory and personal perspective by co-director of Center for Digital Storytelling. By Joe Lambert (2002)

International Digital Storytelling Conference

November 28-30, 2003
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/capturewales/

BBC Wales, in association with the Welsh Development Agency, will be holding a Digital Storytelling Conference in November 2003. The conference will be the first of its kind held in Europe, and will be an opportunity for people to gather to discuss this innovative way of working, and to share ideas as to how to develop Digital Storytelling within the United Kingdom and beyond. The conference will be held at BBC Wales Broadcasting House, Cardiff, on 28th, 29th and 30th November. Registration will commence at 17.00 on Friday 28 and the conference will close on Sunday 30th at 14.30. There will be an additional event on Sunday evening, when Cardiff will play host to the UK's first ever Fray Café. This will be an evening of live storytelling, when some members of the audience get a chance to share their real life stories.

Conference speakers will include Joe Lambert and Denise Atchley - Center for Digital Storytelling, Derek Powazek - fray.com, and Daniel Meadows - Creative Director of the BBC's Capture Wales project. Delegates will also be given the opportunity to see Digital Storytelling projects in action within a local community.

The conference is supported by the Center for Digital Storytelling, the Digital Storytelling Association and Cardiff University.
Email: digitalstorytellingconference@bbc.co.uk

The conference is free, although you will need to pay for your own accommodation and travelling expenses.