When you’re working on storytelling with a group of people in a situation like the Digital Storytelling Storycircle, there’s one game that often really helps people to come up with ‘their story’. It’s the Match Game and it’s Gilly Adams who pioneered its use in Digital Storytelling. Gilly wrote instructions for this game to be inserted into give-away boxes of the long-handled cooks matches you need to play this game when we went on the Digital Storytelling Gathering tour around Wales last month. In the interests of sharing these instructions with people I’ll meet in Japan, I’m reproducing Gilly’s instructions here:
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Alan Thomas plays the match game at BBC Capture Wales Haverfordwest workshop. Photo: Huw Davies.
THE MATCH GAME
1. Ask everyone to think of something about which they feel passionate.
2. The first person strikes a match and talks for as long as the match burns.
3. If the flame goes out, even in the middle of a sentence, the speaker has to stop and passs the box to someone else.
4. The game goes on until everyone has had a turn.
5. Notice how much can be said in a very short time and what stays in your mind afterwards.
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Gilly’s an inspiring expert in personal storytelling and you can hear her speak by attending this year’s DS3 Digital Storytelling conference at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 5 & 6 June 2008.
DS3 is a must-attend for anyone interested in Digital Storytelling. It’s in its third year now and has now grown to two days. It’s a truly international event with people attending from around the world and Alan Hewson and his team do a fantastic job of organising this.
Jason Ohler is coming from Alaska this year to talk about Digital Storytelling in the Classroom. Because Wales -as a country – sets its own educational agenda, I’m really hope Welsh educationalists join us to hear how Wales could really set itself apart as a nation where all children get a chance to learn by making their own Digital Story at school.
P.S. There’s a bit of a flurry of posts this week as this is all info I want to make accessible before heading to Japan tomorrow.
(Originally published 24 April 2008)