Storytelling & Authenticity III - Susie Pratt & Cats

Susie Pratt - Digital Stories & Social Media

Now, I have to apologize for my increasingly sketchy notes, but Susie gave a history of the background to Digital Stories and the current context of social media.
Inspired by project such as the Mass Observation social research organisation, Capture Wales started up before the UGC (User Generated Content) phenomenon. UGC is characterised by giving power back to the individual through easily accessible technology (democratising technology).

Susie talked about the 'Cute cat' theory of the internet and having googled it since this is what I found:

"The Web was invented so physicists could share research papers. Web 2.0 was invented so we could share cute pictures of our cats. The tools of Web 2.0, while designed for mundane uses, can be extremely powerful in the hands of digital activists, especially those in environments where free speech is limited."
ETech blurb for Ethan Zuckerman's presentation.

And there's more info about the cute cat theory talk on Ethan's theory at his blog (where the image below can be found).


Continuing on the furry animal theme, Susie went on talk about the Long Tail, which, again through surreptitious background digging courtesy of Google, I take to refer to Anderson's theory 'The Long Tail' referring to the shift from a hits-based marketplace where limited merchandise (e.g. books, CDs, DVDs) takes physical shelf space (and corresponding shelf cost) to a niche marketplace with unlimited stock lists (think Amazon & iTunes). The Long Tail itself refers to the graph of stocked items against quantity of items sold. The graph tails off pretty quickly. This tail represents the more unusual items which perhaps sell only 3 or 4 copies a year, but putting all these sales together, according to Anderson, amounts to a substantial chunk of profits.
Interestingly though, there seems to be a few parallels between this marketing or economics observation and our shift towards digital storytelling. The Long Tail principle requires that the infrastructure to support virtual shelf space exists (the Internet, postal services) and that people can find the content they want (recommendations, reviews - ie UGC).
And finally, this shift towards niche markets (is it a form of backlash to globalisation?*) is reminiscent of traditional low-technology small communities, defined this time by mutual interests, not geography.
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*Or is it just another marketing ploy? Hmmm...

Storytelling & Authenticity II - Capture Wales

Capture Wales - Lisa Heledd

Lisa defined a digital story as a 'short personal multimedia film'. For me, the key word here is 'personal' (i.e. autobiographical) in so much that it differs from traditional tale telling. In this definition of digital stories the teller uses their own material to illustrate, and is narrated or spoken through the teller's voice.

Digital storytelling has been heavily influenced by the work of American artist Dana Winslow Atchley III who wanted to trigger memories and tried to find a way to bring new media forms and people together. Similarly, photographer Daniel Meadows tries to show that technology can break down barriers and facilitate the sharing of stories. Karen (BBC) & Daniel created a workshop approach and pilot to creating digital stories (Capture Wales) and the 3 year scheme is now almost finished.

Lisa claimed digital stories can have power to affect you emotionally and certainly the examples she played support this (e.g. My two nains and Samiya). She also noted the opportunities digital storytelling gives you to say things that you couldn’t say to family/friends in any other way – normally the things which are most important. This is turn triggers discussion within families/groups (e.g. Lisa sent copies of My Two Nains to her family).

Natural themes emerged in the stories from the Capture Wales workshops, and this let the team direct the story creation process to fit these themes and aided the development of:

• portfolio of technology (cameras, equipment)
• portfolio of story seeds (e.g. genealogy, questions, photographs)

The technology element is important, helping people to engage with technology. Most people who attended the Capture Wales workshops would describe themselves as compute illiterate and this potential fear of technology was addressed through sympathetic facilitation - making people feel comfortable about stories and technology through jokes and anecdotes.

A good digital storytelling experience needs 3 things:

1. Strong story - that is, best version of the story that author can possibly produce
2. Transferable skills – normally 2 days spent on learning technology, gaining the knowledge of what is possible
3. Ownership - storyteller is owner.

One specific project Lisa talked about was working with streetkids - working with groups where the technology was deliberately lo-tech, through using disposable cameras. To me, digital cameras are still a relatively recent phenomenon and I remember (and maybe actually preferred) getting physical photos through the post or picking them up at Boots and the fun of sitting in the local square with friends looking for the one decent photo in 24. But children nowadays don't get to do this and so in terms of this project it was a novelty value. The delayed time it takes to see what the photograph is heightens the excitement and surprise and allows reminiscence of actually making the image.

And finally, last comment on technology, Capture Wales started using video, mobile phone video to be precise. They used mobile phones because they saw the benefit of building on the familiarity of using mobiles. (Although, if you actually think about it, a mobile video phone is actually a lot more complex interface than a camcorder.)

My Thoughts
Following on from discussions after this talk (along the lines of 'but is this really storytelling? Who does it appeal to for an audience?') I think an important thing to keep in mind is the aim of digital storytelling. I mean, what is it's purpose?
It is the process or the output which is more important? I would suggest that for traditional oral storytellers the output is more important. Pleasure in telling the tale comes from a love of the story and engaging the audience directly.
In digital storytelling it seems to me that the process can be more important to the teller than the output - to create a piece that they can be proud of. An achievement in technological competence, creating a rendition of personal feeling/anecdote. It seems a cathartic experience, primarily meaningful to the creator, and of interest to their immediate circle of friends and family in articulating how they feel. A niche product, symptomatic of Web 2.0...
This isn't to say that either traditional or digital storytelling is better or worse than the other in either of these contexts, just that they are different and answer different needs in society.

Storytelling and Authenticity I - Tale Enders

Tale-enders: Gathering the Narrative Heritage of Welsh Cricket
This presentation was the launch of the Tale-enders project to produce narrative reminiscence content to form part of the Museum of Welsh Cricket.
The group are compiling an oral history of cricket in Wales and showed a promo video asking people to donate stories to the project, through various media including recorded stories (video/audio), photographs, letter writing, text messages and email.
They want personal stories; the heritage of the cricketing community; a redefinition of itself through story. Just as Capture Wales is capturing Welsh culture as it is, not stereotypes of what being 'Welsh' is and isn't, so too Tale-enders are trying to re-appropriate heritage in a shift away from museum-led static interpretation panels to real people's stories. This re-appropriation utilises the democratising ability of internet technology to allow people to become storytellers of their own lives.
It was suggested that there is a parallel between the cricket community and storytelling. (Now I don't know about this - I know nothing about cricket:-)) The time quality of cricket was cited; people come and watch, i.e. there is time to watch - it becomes a whole day's outing.

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