Three Digital Storytelling Ideas for Museums

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Permalink Reply by Angelina Russo on June 4, 2009 at 1:13pm

Hello Gareth and thank you for your posting! Capture Wales inspired a great deal of digital storytelling here in Australia! Through our research project 'New Literacy New Audiences http://cci.edu.au/projects/new-literacy-new-audiences we developed a process of creating microdocumentaries with museum professionals. These focused on developing skills internally and uncovering the stories behind exhibitions. You can still see some of these stories on YouTube. Here is one example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WyQHwg0_yo
The process of triaining museum professionals in the development of digital content was really interesting and spurred a great deal of interest and advocacy within the organisation!

You may also be interested in the book which was recently launched through the Centre of Excellence: Story Circle: Digital Storytelling Around the World (Hartley and McWIlliam eds) Capture Wales is, as you would expect, featured in the book!

I look forward to seeing how this posting develops as digital storytelling has been an inspiring process for many in the sector!
Cheers

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Permalink Reply by Gareth Morlais on June 4, 2009 at 6:36pm

Thanks for your welcome Angelina. I've worked closely with Daniel Meadows here in Wales and listened with great interest to his experiences of working in Australia and enjoyed watching the stories too. I've read the chapter he contributed with Jenny Kidd to the book you mention and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book. I watched A Tall Story (your YouTube link) and it's a great example of how much can be said in a minute and a half. Interesting to see Jean Burgess's name in the credits; Jean came to observe one of our Capture Wales workshops in Cardiff as part of her research. Thanks again for your message, Gareth

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Permalink Reply by Angelina Russo on June 5, 2009 at 12:48pm

Hi Gareth
Jean is a friend and colleague and was a tremendous facilitator in the first workshops we ran with the Australian Museum! She continues to do wonderful things!

I'm interested in your thoughts about the future of digital storytelling in regards to broader social networking tools - a sort of 'where do we go from here!'

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Permalink Reply by Gareth Morlais on June 5, 2009 at 6:16pm

Angelina,

Re parag 1: Please send my best wishes to Jean. I've followed her work since she came to Wales and especially enjoyed her
article "All your chocolate rain are belong to us?' Viral Video, YouTube and the dynamics of participatory culture." http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18431/

Re parag 2: Let me have a little time to consider and write a reply here please?
Gareth

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Permalink Reply by Gareth Morlais on June 8, 2009 at 10:39pm

Angelina, here's my answer to your question about "the future of digital storytelling in regards to broader social networking tools"....

I'll begin with an editorial approach to applications of digital storytelling in museums, libraries, galleries and other public spaces before addressing technical issues.

The teaching of the activity of digital storytelling in public spaces can form part of a museum's educational program where:
- learners learn about history, area, objects, etc.
- the learning spans curriculum areas
- media literacy is improved
- citizens get their voice 'exhibited' in their spaces

By the way, making a digial story in a workshop offers the best experience with associated community benefits. Kiosks offer a poorer experience but fewer resources are needed.

Here are some themes of digital stories shown in public spaces:
- personal reflection by individuals about object(s) owned by museum (rights permitting)
- personal reflection about people's own treasured objects. This is a good way of injecting meaning when museums present iconic objects like gameboys, Etch-a-Sketch and teddy bears http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/audiovideo/sites/yourvideo/pages/lal_lou...
- personal stories about an era or a past event
- stories about 'now', which will take on different significance when exhibited in the future http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/audiovideo/sites/yourvideo/pages/paula_s...
- content presented won't always be especially commissioned, it'll also be licensed from authors already self-publishing their digital stories and videos on the web

Technical trends include:
- mobile phones being used to capture and increasingly to edit and upload stories
- video clips as well as still images being used as building blocks of digital stories because individuals' personal archives consist increasingly of video clips, often on mobile phones.
- use of social networking tools result in more call and response and 'answer stories', communities of interest (http://www.makingspace.org.uk/home.html), online storage and editing of stories. See http://www.aberth.com/blog/five-ways-to-make-your-digital-storytell... for more.
- a move to high-definition video

I'll be glad to hear your comments or thoughts here on Museum 3.0.
I'll also post a copy of this brief article on my Aberth Digital Storytelling blog.
Thanks for asking such a thought-provoking question Angelina.

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Permalink Reply by Jessica LoMonaco on June 16, 2009 at 3:14am

Hi Gareth,

Also kind of new here, but I find this really interesting! At the museum I work at in NYC, our entire core and most of our special exhibitions are very much based on personal memories and storytelling through objects. We use artifacts to tell the memories of Jewish people from across the world and through time.

The museum has managed to come up with a very beautiful way to weave memories together. We're going to be opening a new part of the museum called the Keeping History Center which will really modernize the memories that are shared. We will be making an interactive 'Voices of Liberty' (we're located on the shore looking out at the Statue of Liberty) section which will contain survivor and immigrant testimony about seeing the Statue for the first time, and then the opportunity to record your own memory. We're hoping to open this new section in the Fall and I for one am super excited about it. I love watching technologies in museums (we have a great deal of survivor testimony but can only fit so much of it into our core and special exhibitions) evolve and become more dynamic. For the 'where do we go from here' question, I'm making a huge push to try to see if we can bring some of this online and see if we can't create something like a twitter feed that people can tweet tow right at the museum in the KHC or something of the sort to help us fund raise.

Glad to see some really interesting stuff on this site and will surely be exploring some more!
-Jessica

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