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Visual Communication
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The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.1177/1470357211415781
2011 10: 527Visual Communication
Dylan Davis
inner-city residents
Intergenerational digital storytelling: a sustainable community initiative with
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Vol 10(4): 527–540 DOI 10.1177/1470357211415781
A R T I C L E
Intergenerational digital storytelling:
a sustainable community initiative
with inner-city residents
D Y L A N D A V I S
Swinburne University of Technology, Prahran, Australia
A B S T R A C T
Digital storytelling (DST) is being increasingly used in a range of contexts
to exploit current technological capabilities of capturing and reproducing
community stories. Methods of storytelling collection are typically realized
over short time frames of days or weeks, and appropriate visual images
and interview data produce multimodal outputs. A particular stream of
work has developed in community-based DST around intergenerational
storytelling in environments where student researchers may work with
older storytellers in culturally diverse urban settings. DST also emphasizes
the participatory nature of the process and outcomes with respect
to enabling untold but significant stories to emerge, and technical and
storytelling skills to be transferred to participants through the process.
This article addresses the particular concerns of relationship building and
the pedagogical aims of training students to carry out research using this
participatory DST research approach where intergenerational and cultural
issues are foregrounded. In the conclusion, the author reflects on this
particular focus and the shortcomings of the project with regard to the
substantive participatory and democratic benefits exemplified by other
projects; he also provides evidence of the other achievements of this
project in an intergenerational project supported by an inner-city health
organization in Melbourne, Australia.
K E Y W O R D S
design education • digital storytelling • intergenerational • participatory
research
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D I G I T A L S T O R Y T E L L I N G : C O M M U N I T Y - O R I E N T E D
A N D V E R N A C U L A R C R E A T I V I T Y
The practice of digital storytelling (DST) is currently ‘extremely multivalent,
referring variously to hypertext fiction, computer game narratives and various
artist-led forms of narrative presentation’ (Klaebe et al., 2007: 4). In its core
formulation, DST is the process of creating a narrative, driven primarily by a
central narrator or storyteller and supporting that narrative with a combination
of text, still photographs, audio, graphics and animations, often with a
view to creating or supporting community building (Fields, 2008). Digital
stories are produced by combining storytellers’spoken words with memorabilia
from their personal archives, such as photographs, films, certificates, music and
sound. This material is used to create short, e.g. 3-minute, multimedia files that
can be screened on computer, TV or the internet. The interaction and compromises
required by the institutional environment, technological resources and
cultural expectations of storyteller and facilitator inevitably lead to a mediated
construction of identity and community that needs to be acknowledged
(Thumim, 2006). Storytelling is not an unmediated and direct window on life
experience and the compromises of technology,institutional and cross-cultural
mediation influence the success and limitations of the process.
According to Burgess (2006: 207), the popularity and emergence of
digital storytelling, paralleled by the growing significance of YouTube, is a key
example of vernacular creativity,which‘is a productive articulation of consumer
practices and knowledges (of, say, television genre codes) with older popular
traditions and communicative practices (storytelling, family photography,
scrapbooking, collecting)’. Murakami (2008) also points to the potentially beneficial
mediating role of digital storytelling in the context of intergenerational
relationships, e.g. teacher−student relationships. The exploitation of a genre of
vernacular creativity familiar to younger participants and the opportunity for
an older generation of parents and teachers to contribute expertise in the development
of project outcomes can create new opportunities for dialogue; again
such ‘dialogue’ is not an automatic achievement of DST projects.
The original motivation for DST providing a voice for community
groups came from the late 1990s at the University of California at Berkeley’s
Centre for Digital Storytelling (www.storycenter.org), headed by Dana Atchley
and Joe Lambert (see Lambert,2007).In the UK,Daniel Meadows of the School
of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Cardiff, introduced
DST to the UK after visiting the Centre for Digital Storytelling in California.
This developed into the Capture Wales partnership with the BBC (Meadows,
2003), which aimed to ‘capture’ the voices and experiences of communities in
the region (see http://www.bbc.co.k/capturewales/). DST has also been used in
the Australian context in public history projects and in the consultation phase
of urban renewal projects. Klaebe et al. (2007), for example, describe the use
of participatory DST for encouraging input from community residents about
the emergence of a new residential community. In these community-oriented
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projects, time frames for consultation and action must extend over sufficiently
long periods to achieve the relevant aims.The Australian Centre for the Moving
Image (ACMI) in Melbourne has also incorporated digital storytelling into its
exhibits in addition to offering workshop training in the process (Simondson,
2009). These and other examples of DST have helped to formulate a set of
methodological principles which are now discussed.
C U R R E N T D S T M E T H O D S
Different approaches to DST variously stress the technical or human constraints
and processes in the development of such projects. Lambert (2007),
for example, identifies essential features of effective storytelling, including
clear enunciation of a point of view, a dramatic question, emotional content
and, where possible, an accompanying soundtrack (see Figure 1). This data
collection is then fed into a process that integrates technology and sources
through storyboarding and scripting, and ultimately leads to the multimedia
narrative.
In the BBC Capture Wales (Cipolwg ar Gymru) team approach, there is
a four-stage process (see Figure 2), with the various stimulus methods providing
the origin for a scripted production, which can be storyboarded, scripted
and sequenced in the way indicated earlier. This helps storytellers to structure
their story and provides a concrete method for the process.
Although the BBC Capture Wales process makes the actual time frame
for the project rather short (3 to 5 days), this does not necessarily reflect the
overall time commitment for the project. So, for example, the Capture Wales
workshops typically run for 5 days over a 3-week period (Meadows, 2003: 190).
In the BBC Wales Guide to Digital Storytelling, the participatory nature of
the process and its benefits for participants is emphasized. Specifically, facilitators
are encouraged to help storytellers tell their story in the best way possible
with storytelling and technical skills passed on to participants. Those with
direct experience in the project report that the participatory dialogue created
by the project is distinct from that of other more scripted projects (Kidd, 2006).
Ultimately, storytellers must have a sense of ownership of their stories.
Figure 1  Lambert’s (2007) 3-day DST method.
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ACMI in Melbourne has incorporated digital storytelling into its
exhibits and also offers workshop training in the process, which extends the
story collection to a 3-week time frame (see Figure 3) although the technical
support stage remains short (4 days).ACMI has faced some opposition to this,
including the ‘challenge to encourage some members of the wider audience to
accept user generated context as having a legitimate place in a cultural institution’;
the process is also informed by visiting the Centre for Digital Storytelling
(Simondson, 2009: 119).
As described later in this article, these methodological precedents and
principles were reviewed and applied in our project through several iterations.
Although the participatory benefits and processes were also significant for us,
the particular benefits and focus of this article were in the area of student−
participant intergenerational encounter.
P R O J E C T B A C K G R O U N D : A C O M M U N I T Y
P A R T N E R S H I P
Inner South Community Health Service (ISCHS: http://www.ischs.org.au/)
is a government-sponsored organization offering a wide range of health and
Figure 2  BBC Capture Wales process.
Figure 3  ACMI 3-week DST method.
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community services to an urban multicultural region in Victoria, Australia. In
2006, ISCHS commissioned Swinburne University Design Centre (SDC) to
produce a number of digital stories. Although the project was commissioned
and paid for by ISCHS, it was a collaborative project between ISCHS and SDC.
The project team (the Design Centre students and myself) examined
how previous methods for DST would work with our client group (predominantly
tenants aged over 55 from the housing commissions) so that students
could interact with the tenants using these models, and how we could achieve
our outcomes in such a short period of time. We felt we needed an overall
3-month time frame for students and participants to work on the stories,
interact with the tenants and create relationships between the tenants and the
students (see Figure 4).
Following established precedents, we limited the stories to 3 minutes.
We recommended to the students a variety of approaches for developing the
narrative, either through the script or by recording interviews with the tenants,
or a mixture of the two. We avoided video in the creation of these stories
as we felt it would lead to video filming and focus attention excessively on the
present rather than the past.
Intergenerational student−participant relationships
Projects employing DST typically involve multiple partners and the interactions
and relationships that develop are critical to the success or failure of the
project. In addition to the storytelling subjects, those recording the project
may benefit not only in terms of skill development but also from their exposure
to stories and experiences they would otherwise have ignored. This is
particularly the case in relation to students who learn the life stories of participants
who would usually be socially invisible to them and who may be from
culturally distinct backgrounds.
Figure 4  Design Centre ISCHS project 3-month process.
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In the first month of the SDC process, the students attend an initial
meeting with the social workers from each high rise block, the tenants chosen
for the project and myself; each student is assigned a tenant to work with.After
this initial meeting, the students arrange times with the social worker and the
participants to arrange follow-up visits, preferably of an hour each week. The
students are told to report any disturbances, emotional issues, or memories
that come up that might upset the tenants, so that the social workers can support
the tenants.
Some tenants have a large collection of resources to draw on to support
their stories; others who had arrived as immigrants with no possessions
have no resources or photographs that can support their story. In these situations,
the tenants rely on the design and illustration skills of the students to
create resources from scratch. The students have to work through any material
or artefacts they are given, look after and respect them as they originate
from someone’s life and are often the only documentation of important family
memories. The tenants are closely involved in the process, and the students
create artwork that tells the story in a way that makes the tenants happy
with what is produced, ensuring that the final outcome is a product of shared
creative input.
The following images illustrate some of the complexities and aesthetics
of storytelling in such projects. The three images show the range of visual
communication challenges faced by the students. For instance, in Margaret’s
story about her pet monkey that she had as a child in India, there were no photographs
available,so the student created illustrations for each part of the story
and animated the illustration to the story (see Figure 5). With Guillermo’s
story about his life in Chile as a long-distance bus driver, the student had three
or four images of Guillermo from that time, so the student matched illustration
style with the available photographs to ensure the story was graphically
Figure 5  Margaret’s story was about the pet monkey she had as a child in India.
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rich. With Eileen’s story about her childhood and her brother Jack, she had
numerous impressive photographs of this time, so the student blended these
photographs with a constructed landscape in order to present the story in a
way that expanded beyond a traditional slide show (Figure 7).
To formulate the narrative, we recommend a variety of approaches
to the students. One approach is to develop a fully scripted narrative, which
Figure 6  Guillermo’s story was about his life as a bus driver in Chile.
Figure 7  Eileen’s story was about her brother Jack, and how he looked after her as a
child.
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involves interviewing the participants over a number of sessions and creating
and refining a script of their story. Participants would be asked to read
the script and this would be recorded either at home or in a sound studio at
Swinburne University, depending on which option suits them best. Another
way of working is the semi-scripted approach, where the student would have
a number of sessions with the participant to ascertain what the participants
wanted to talk about; from these sessions, the student would devise a series of
questions which lead on to recorded question-and-answer sessions that could
be later edited to the 3-minute length.
An alternative method that we suggest the students might try is to
‘record everything’; this is particularly relevant when the participants are
unsure about what aspect of their lives they want to focus on. Using this
method, the students would record their conversation with the participants,
and from these sessions would emerge the threads of stories that could then be
further refined at later sessions and edited down to the 3-minute limit. At the
end of the first and subsequent months, we hold a group progress meeting to
discuss progress made on each participant’s story.
The second month of this process is used to gather resources to support
the chosen narrative and to record the narrative. This involves scanning tenants’
photographs, with students advised to treat such images with the utmost
respect. The third month is used to produce the digital stories, with students
working on the production of the stories and the tenants reviewing the work in
production during the students’ visits. This involves working with the scanned
material,drawings,voice recordings and any additional music,sound effects and
other material and putting it all together using Adobe After Effects, Final Cut
Pro and Sound Track Pro. At the end of the third month, we have a final group
presentation where the students and participants view the completed stories.
The final stories are compiled on DVD and exhibited at the local gallery
for two weeks, after which they are on show in the community rooms at
local government housing commissions where the tenants that took part in
the project came from. Each of the tenants receive five copies of their own
story on DVD to give to their families as well as a copy of the compilation disc.
If the tenants do not have a DVD player, Inner South Community Health provides
them with one.At the end of each year, we debrief the students about the
process and search for ways in which we can improve the methodology for the
following year. One area that remains a significant weakness is implementing
a true participatory methodology with skills transfer.
R E F L E C T I O N A N D R E F I N I N G M E T H O D
Over the three-year period that the project has been repeated, we have refined
our project methodology to allow for adaptation and evolution. Each year we
have made subtle changes to the program and our approach. At the end of
2006, we had an exhibition of the stories at Swinburne University and invited
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members of the public to view the stories; this was highly successful with over
100 people attending the launch and many more visiting the exhibition over
the 2 weeks it ran. In 2007, we added non-English speakers to the program
and featured both Russian- and Spanish-speaking tenants from the high-rise
blocks.
The second series was built on the pilot, included stories in languages
other than English and brought together the many different nationalities that
live side by side in public housing in the inner south of Melbourne.
In 2008, instead of focusing on individual storytellers, we chose to
work with couples, or pairs of storytellers who shared a bond of friendship;
this included a Russian-speaking couple, as well as two individual indigenous
storytellers. This third series encompasses two themes – the celebration of
friendships and starting to explore the richness of our indigenous community.
Five stories focus on the unique nature of friendships, which are often taken
for granted; our first two indigenous stories provide an insight into the indigenous
community. The stories are very diverse, reflect the varied cultural and
linguistic mix of the tenants, and are important in promoting a more positive
image of older people living in public housing.
In 2009, ISCHS and SDC were approached by the department of housing
to create 20 digital stories around the themes of homelessness, housing
affordability, and employment and training.
We produced six digital stories in 2009 about the lives of tenants from
the SRS (Supported Residential Services) program. The following year, with
the tenants from the high-rise program, rather than producing a digital story,
we are creating a printed publication of the tenants’ stories.
R E S I D E N T B E N E F I T S
At the end of each year of the project, ISCHS have conducted short interviews
with the tenants and the students for use as promotional banners for each
year’s exhibition of the project. The evidence from these short interviews suggests
that participants experience social benefits across a generational and cultural
gap that is often bridged through the more sustained time frame. When
asked what they enjoyed most about the digital storytelling project, the tenants
highlighted a range of personal benefits, particularly in relation to the
intergenerational relationship, as illustrated in the following quotes:
For me it was talking to the student about my recipes and my children.
It brought back happy memories and I also enjoyed the student’s
company.
I have enjoyed being surrounded by young company. It makes me feel
younger and accepted.
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Friendship – it takes a minimum of two to make a friend but to have
friendship you need to be prepared to be one.
Working with a younger person was great. She really listened.
I enjoyed meeting many new and interesting people and working with
the student.
I think I enjoyed the company of the student, which is interesting
considering the generation gap.
The thoughtfulness of the young lady doing the interviews.
Sharing with the student who helped me create the story.
It allowed me to learn about new technology and meet young digital
artists, which has inspired my further studies at school.
Just company and an outing to meet others.
Meeting the other storytellers and the people who did the organizing.
I feel I have overcome some of my shyness.
S T U D E N T B E N E F I T S
Through the project, the students have learned how to be strategic and patient,
as well as being good listeners. For some students, it has been a painstaking
process. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students have encountered people
from many different backgrounds, races and cultures, and of different ages,
and learned how to deal with them on a human and professional level.
Students who had participated in the project over its lifetime have
developed personally and professionally in ways identified by the following
quotes:
As an international student coming to Australia, it never crossed my
mind who or what indigenous or aboriginal means, because I didn’t
read any history of Australia.So it’s my first time coming in contact personally
with them. Since I need to have a bit of knowledge about them,
I went and read up a little bit about Australia’s history. By doing that
I found out there are certain sensitive issues that should not be mentioned
depending on their reactions on the topic, unless they are comfortable
talking about it. The two aboriginals that I’ve met were very
nice and understanding, they were willing to share their past, thoughts
and feelings to me. Both of them actually have very different opinions
and thinking towards their past. To summarize that, depending
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on a person’s upbringing it will affect how they think, how they act and
howtheylivetheirlives.Bylookingatthem,Irealizedthatunderstanding
and accepting your past is what shapes you for the future. Besides that,
because of their past they are trying to make a difference in the society
that they live in by sharing and helping others to understand in a positive
way. They are still living strongly without being forgotten by the
major population. They are proud of their origins. (Kelly Lo, on working
with Indigenous participants of a DST project)
Digital Storytelling has improved me in my people approach skills.
Dealing with old people is not an easy task; listening, understanding
and orienting them to complete the project sure need lots of time and
progress, and this project has really pushed me into it. I learnt how
to be strategic, patience, and be a good listener at the same time. It
has been a painstaking process, but it’s worth it. Digital Diaries on the
opposite way have taught me how to deal with young persons. Dealing
with kids who’ve been living in residential care is also not just a walk in
the park. They’ve undergone a tough life which also eventually affects
their personality. Trying to understand and make them happy is our
goal, and we’re pleased to know that we succeeded.
Design Centre has taught me the most essential aspect of working in
the industry, which is a social based approach, and dealing with clients.
I have learned to encounter people from many different backgrounds,
race, culture, age and learn how to deal with them. It is truly a priceless
experience. (Stefanto Tandyasraya, on working on a range of community
projects)
Working on the Digital Storytelling project provided me with experience
in working collaboratively with people of different demographics.
The project gave me an insight into the lifestyles of these people and
provided me with a challenge. (Alex Zhadan)
I have been involved in the Digital Storytelling project for two consecutive
years and am happy I was given this opportunity. Such community
engagement projects have allowed me to widen my knowledge
about today’s society and to be exposed to the not so‘pretty’ side of the
society as well as communicate with those that are less fortunate. With
this project, I have grown to be more appreciative of what I have and
was given today. Which, in turn, made me more appreciative of my
parents and friends that shared my ups and down and have been there
all along to support and care. My involvement also made me understand
the saying ‘do not judge a book by its cover’ better. P.S. At least
I know that taxes paid are going to good use, being spent on these
elderly. (Jevon Wong, on working with aged people as part of a Digital
Storytelling project)
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My experience doing the visual diaries project was quite different. The
challenging part was on the first meeting where everyone was sort of all
over the place and not sure of what was expected. However, as soon as
the activities started and everyone was being introduced to their project
partners, things got easier and much more fun. The highlight of
the whole project was when everyone sat together telling stories about
their journey in life without any embellishment. The fact that they feel
comfortable enough to be honest in front of us was very touching. The
benefits of this project were way more than just academic achievement
for me. I would love to do it again! (Yuanita So, on working with aged
people as part of a Digital Storytelling project)
Working on the Digital Storytelling project was a learning experience.
Working with someone who passed away made it a challenge, as I only
met him once, but I at least could put a face to his story. By meeting
him, it made me put more effort and passion into the project. In completing
this project I realized that it had more meaning. To share someone’s
story with everyone is a difficult task, but I did my best to show
his story to all. This project was more about the story and experiences
from the person than the final product. As a person I was very lucky to
work on such a project that was involved with people with such deep
and personal stories. (Daniel Maffei, on working with aged people as
part of a Digital Storytelling project. Daniel took over the project when
one of the students had to leave for personal reasons.)
We have not received any negative feedback about the project from
the students or the participants. The common thread running through the
students’ feedback is the nature of the experience between them and the
storyteller. It is a relationship that has touched some of them very deeply. It has
been an eye-opening experience for most of the students. In line with the
project goals, the close working relationship between the students and participants
has removed any negative stereotypes they had about people from housing
commissions.
D I S C U S S I O N
The core of the methodology is driven by the relationship between the student
and the tenant. This is a key strength in creating the collaboration: it provides
the participants and students with one of the most rewarding aspects of the
process. If there is a breakdown in the relationship between student and participant,
it can be detrimental to the final outcome.
We do not rely on a written script for the production of the story, the
students may produce a script if necessary; this is helpful when dealing with
non-English speaking participants who require translation, but we do not feel
the use of a script adds to the project.In fact,a written script can be detrimental
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to the final outcome as the participant’s voice does not sound natural, they
are not trained actors and their reading can sound flat. One of the strengths is
the non reliance on artifacts; with the students’ considerable skills in areas of
multimedia and design, they can create support material for a narrative when
there is no material to hand, either through researching archives, drawing and
animation, photography or other methods of multimedia production.
C O N C L U S I O N
The intergenerational and intercultural benefits of digital storytelling as practised
in SDC are evidenced in student and participant responses. We recognize,
however, that the full benefits of participatory DST are yet to be realized.
Skill transfer from the facilitator to the participant is a key part of the DST
process. Skills transfer from the facilitators to the participants is one of the
central tenants of DST projects, thus increasing participants’ technical literacy
and enabling the participants to ‘do it themselves’ to some extent. This is one
area where our approach has not yet been successful, although this was never
a goal of the project when we initially started work with ISCHS. At the end of
the process, the participants know the process and methods of making a story;
they cannot make the final product themselves. This is, however, an area that
we would like to develop in future iterations.
One of the goals of the projects was to change the stereotypical view
people have of residents of government housing and, through their engagement
with the participants, students’stereotypes are challenged and they learn
about social disadvantage. In terms of ownership, the tenants own their
stories, give input to the graphic direction and have creative control over the
end result but the stories are produced in partnership with the students.At the
exhibition of the stories, the participants have the right to choose whether
their story is included or not. They are given DVDs of their finished story for
themselves and their family and there is a compilation DVD of all the stories
in which participants can choose whether their story is featured. The students
can use the final story as a folio outcome.
The divergence of the SDC method from traditional DST methods
(Hartley and McWilliam, 2009) shows that DST continues to grow and evolve.
SDC has introduced skilled practitioners into the DST process whilst maintaining
the integrity of the participants’ stories; it adheres to some of the principles
of DST that are part of its commercial remit but leaves other roles to
organizations that are best suited to conduct those activities.
F U N D I N G
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public,
commercial, or not-for-profit sectors but the projects undertaken were created
for a commercial client, the Inner South Community Health Service.
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R E F E R E N C E S
Burgess, J. (2006) ‘Hearing Ordinary Voices: Cultural Studies, Vernacular
Creativity and Digital Storytelling’, Continuum: Journal of Media &
Cultural Studies 20(2): 201−14.
Fields, A.M. (2008) Fostering Community through Digital Storytelling: A Guide
for Academic Libraries, Westport libraries unlimited.
Hartley, J. and McWilliam, K. (eds) (2009) Story Circle. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Kidd, J. (2006) ‘Digital Storytelling at the BBC: The Reality of Innovative
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B I O G R A P H I C A L N O T E
DYLAN DAVIS manages mentors and is actively involved in the applied
research and design activities of the multimedia design students in the
Swinburne University of Technology Design Centre. Dylan works to achieve
sound academic and professional standards and to meet agreed commercial
outcomes on a project by project basis. He has created a number of multimedia
artworks outside Swinburne, which have been exhibited around the
world, most notably ACMI Melbourne, File Festival Sao Paulo, Brazil, and
Soundtoys.net exhibition, London, UK.
Address: Faculty of Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Prahran
VIC3181, Australia. [email: ddavis@swin.edu.au]
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