Is there a form of digital storytelling that can give people a taste of what’s possible in just one hour? That’s the question Nicky Getgood and I wrestled with when we met earlier today. Nicky works with Talk About Local and edits the Digbeth is Good hyperlocal online site. The 1 October 2011 #Storycamp in Ludlow is what Nicky was inspired to organise after she attended DS6. Nicky and I began by looking back at the Capture Wales project, then we wondered about what kinds of video outputs might be produced at the Ludlow #Storycamp. The model we’re considering piloting consists of: – four images, including titles; – half a…
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- citizenship, digital storytelling, DS Cymru, education, inclusion, media literacy, mobile, museums, story, technology, Wales
DS6 digital storytelling conference review 2011
For the UK’s digital storytellers, a trip to Aberystwyth Arts Centre has been something of an annual pilgrimage for some years now. DS6 took place on Friday 16 June 2011. In keeping with previous years, here’s my review of the day. First on the DS6 stage was Angeline Koh of Singapore-based Digital Storytelling Asia. I first became aware of the interest in digital storytelling in Singapore when I wrote this blog post entitled 6,000 Storytellers four years ago. I could tell from hearing Angeline speak just how much of an inspiration Denise Atchley – wife of the late Dana Atchley – had been. Angeline says digital storytelling is still quite…
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From Truprint to Facebook
Up until the 1990s, passing round a Truprint envelope full of 6″ x 4″ photographic prints was the norm; nowadays we publish our own online and ‘Like’ our friends’ photos on Facebook. Increasingly, that’s how we pass round our snapshots. This is a great moment to capture that change in the way we share our personal photos. “From Snapshots to Social Media – The Changing Picture of Domestic Photography” is a new book by Risto Sarvas and David Frohlich from University of Surrey. David has a fascinating history in Digital Storytelling as the pioneer of Audio Photography and one of the people behind the StoryBank digital storytelling sharing project in…
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The best digital storytelling opportunity ever?
Spanning the UK and Cape Town, University of Surrey Digital World Research Centre is advertising a Research Fellowship in Digital Storytelling. This could be the best digital storytelling opportunities I’ve ever heard of because: – you’ll get to model and produce digital story forms that are most suitable for the intended local audiences/producers/participants by working with ethnographers and technologists – you’ll work in the UK and Cape Town, along South Africa’s Wild Coast – you’ll benefit from work already done by the university’s StoryBank project in India – you’ll get to work with Prof David Frohlich, pioneer of Audiophotography and a former HP Labs Europe innovator – it’s a well-funded…
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RTS Innovation Awards 2009
BBC iPlayer won the main Judges’ Award at last night’s RTS Innovation Awards. I was there with Karen Lewis because BBC Digital Storytelling had been nominated in the user generated content category along with Channel 4’s Landshare and The Sex Experience. Landshare won in this category. It was great to see Karen Lewis for the first time since DS4. Since leaving the BBC, she’s set up StoryWorks at the University of Glamorgan and doing some really exciting work with Communities 2.0 and with people who have cancer at Velindre Hospital, Cardiff, and much more. At the RTS, the most interesting award from the point of view of participatory media was…
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Pink fingertip syndrome
This is a new term I just had to invent. We launched a new Welsh-language mobile website yesterday (info). It was fast as anything when I browsed it alone, yet when I needed to show it to Siwan from the press office, it loaded ever so slowly. Why did this happen? Because of pink fingertip syndrome – I pressed the buttons differently when I was demonstrating and the server ‘knew’.
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Storywalks
Hyperaction launches Storywalks tomorrow morning with a walk and picnic in Torfaen, south Wales. On their website you can download a printable PDF routemap (here’s an example) and free mp3 podcasts of the stories to listen to along your way. Loading up your portable device with stories and heading off to the countryside clutching a map is a great idea and Hyperaction’s experience in such community-led projects shines through and is sure to contribute to the success and hopefully the future expansion of the network of Storywalks around Wales.
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Geoff Charles, Welsh documentary photographer
I met Culturenet Cymru’s Sioned Rhys Jones and Hawys Tomos at Eisteddfod yr Urdd, Conwy, last week. As part of the National Library of Wales and funded by Heritage Lottery and Welsh Assembly Government, Culturenet Cymru is working on a project based in Aberystwyth called ‘From Warfare to Welfare’. There’re doing three things: 1. helping people to make digital stories. Young people work with older people to make a digital story of 1939-1959 recollections 2. staging multimedia conferences 3. digitising photos by Geoff Charles I nearly fell off my chair when they told me about the Geoff Charles element. Geoff was a prolific Welsh documentary photographer. He took a photo…
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Longer form personal storytelling on Everest
I watched a recording of On Top of the World this lunchtime. This is the half-hour programme by Tori James, the first Welsh woman and youngest British woman ever to climb Everest. It was shot almost entirely using the kinds of devices anyone can buy in the High St. It’s a gripping, endearing piece of TV. Goes to show what can be done in the longer form, using attainable technology, when the storytelling’s done well. Full credit to producer Melanie Lindsell who worked closely with Tori on the storytelling, editing and post production. If you live in the UK, for the next six days you can watch this programme on…
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On Top of the World
That’s the title for a 30-minute documentary TV programme my colleague Melanie Lindsell has made with young Welsh climber Tori James about her attempt to climb Everest. The programme goes out on BBC Wales on 6 May (see below) Melanie’s an experienced Video Nation producer and she’s also had success with longer-form documentaries using the self-authored ethos of Video Nation. Because I knew the kit would need to be lightweight, durable and able to work under harsh conditions, I asked Mel about the cameras and batteries she gave Tori. Here’s Mel’s reply: BBC Mini DV Camera: Panasonic NV-GS150 · Weighs 400grams – they were able to hang it on a…