Digital Storytelling Design Learning from Non-Digital Narratives: Two Case Studies in South Africa (original) (raw)
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Situating Digital Storytelling within African Communities 1
2015
We reflect on the methods, activities and perspectives we used to situate digital storytelling in two rural African communities in South Africa and Kenya. We demonstrate how in-depth ethnography in a village in the Eastern Cape of South Africa and a design workshop involving participants from that village allowed us to design a prototype mobile digital storytelling system suited to the needs of rural, oral users. By leveraging our prototype as a probe and observing villagers using it in two villages in South Africa and Kenya, we uncovered implications for situating digital storytelling within those communities. Finally, we distil observations relevant to localizing storytelling and their implications for transferring design into a di↵erent community.
Digital Storytelling and the Production of the Personal in Lwandle, Cape Town
2019
Like any substantial creative effort, this dissertation is the outcome of a lifetime's conversation, reading, observation and chance encounters. The true scope of my intellectual debts is impossible to establish or express, and the people and institutions I name here are only the most immediate influences on and supporters of this work. I am deeply grateful to them, and to many others I have not named. My digital storytelling journey started with Helen Alexander, and was helped along by the technical coaching of Jayne Morgan and Dominique Vandenhout. Andrea Spagat and Joe Lambert held the space for my first story and taught me the rudiments of facilitation; they, along with their colleagues Rob Kershaw and Amy Hill, have been consistently supportive and generous. The worldwide community of digital storytellers has been a source of inspiration and encouragement for the past nine years, especially Pip Hardy, Tony Sumner,
Situating digital storytelling within African communities
2011
We reflect on the methods, activities and perspectives we used to situate digital storytelling in two rural African communities in South Africa and Kenya. We demonstrate how in-depth ethnography in a village in the Eastern Cape of South Africa and a design workshop involving participants from that village allowed us to design a prototype mobile digital storytelling system suited to the needs of rural, oral users.
This research seeks to digitally preserve cultural histories and artifacts, which are practiced/produced in the underserved indigenous spaces of rural eastern India. This paper is a case study of co-developing Sangraksha-a digital humanities application. The application seeks to facilitate the process of writing history from the below by underrepresented populations at the margins. The villages in this research were geographically remote and socioeconomically underdeveloped. The research populations represented individuals who possessed low levels of literacy, limited language proficiency in English and mainstream Indic languages (e.g., Hindi and Bengali), as well as limited familiarity with computers and computing environments. Grounded in long-term ethnographic engagements in the remote Global South, this study explored a range of cultural, aesthetic, and contextual factors that were instrumental in shaping and co-generating digital humanities solutions for under-researched international populations. On one hand, the research initiative sought to co-create a culturally meaningful and welcoming digital environment to make the experience contextually appropriate and user-friendly. On the other hand, grounded in visual and sensory methodologies, this research used community generated imageries and multimedia (audio, photographs and audiovisual) to make the application inclusive and accessible. Moreover, the application-development attempt also paid close attention to intercultural, local-centric, community-driven co-design aspects to make the approach socially-embedded and sustainable in the long term.
Providing a Digital Voice for Storytellers in Africa
treitmaier.dyndns.org
In this paper we examine how digital technology can be used to inspire, record and present oral stories in an African context. In particular we explore how to create technologies that are sympathetic to the cultures of the storytellers, both in the capture of stories and their retelling. Specifically, we look at: inspiring stories in District Six in Cape Town; capturing digital stories from users with low literacy levels and using virtual reality to retell indigenous and personal experience narratives.
Designing with mobile digital storytelling in rural Africa
2010
We reflect on activities to design a mobile application to enable rural people in South Africa's Eastern Cape to record and share their stories, which have implications for 'cross-cultural design,' and the wider use of stories in design. We based our initial concept for generating stories with audio and photos on cell-phones on a scenario informed by abstracting from digital storytelling projects globally and our personal experience. But insights from ethnography, and technology experiments involving storytelling, in a rural village led us to query our grounding assumptions and usability criteria. So, we implemented a method using cell-phones to localise storytelling, involve rural users and probe ways to incorporate visual and audio media. Products from this method helped us to generate design ideas for our current prototype which offers great flexibility. Thus we present a new way to depict stories digitally and a process for improving such software.
“Don’t Keep It To Yourself!”: Digital Storytelling with South African Youth
Seminar.net, 2010
As resources become available, the tools of digital storytelling are being introduced into a wide variety of contexts, with new projects involving youth emerging in increasingly remote areas throughout the developing world. In 2008, the Sonke Gender Justice Network teamed up with the Center for Digital Storytelling’s Silence Speaks initiative to work with a group of rural youth in Eastern Cape, South Africa. The results of this project are eight digital stories by young Xhosa people that capture the challenges they face and the futures they yearn for in post-apartheid South Africa. By exploring the success and challenges of the project, we show the potential that thoughtfully designed digital storytelling efforts offer as both a psychological outlet and a tool for community education and social activism with marginalized youth.
Designing to Restory the Past: Storytelling for Empowerment through a Digital Archive
International Journal of Design, 2023
Storytelling is a frequently used approach to design. Stories and storytelling also have a role in mediating information and contributing to people's understanding of the world around them. Previous research suggests that storytelling can be empowering to marginalized and diverse communities, such as Indigenous peoples, by offering a platform to voice their (hi)stories. In this paper, we present a research through design project in which we explore the design of the living archive. This is a web-based digital archive that encourages a user-based approach to restorying the past by focusing on storytelling for empowerment and involving members of Indigenous People, the Sami. We demonstrate how a digital archive can contribute to (re)storying the past in a manner that preserves Indigenous ways of knowing and ethical archiving of social memory. Through this archive, we provide the digital tools for the communities to take on the role to tell their truth and, in doing so, become central in the design and communication of their own stories. In short, design for storytelling to empower those who need a voice.
NAVIGATING NARRATIVES: DIGITAL INFLUENCES ON TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING IN BATTICALOA
The cultural heritage of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, is deeply rooted in traditional storytelling practices, which have served as vital conduits of cultural heritage, historical narratives, and communal wisdom for generations. However, the advent of digital media has introduced transformative shifts in the storytelling landscape, reshaping how narratives are created, shared, and experienced. This study, "Navigating Narratives: Digital Influences on Traditional Storytelling in Batticaloa," explores the dynamic interplay between digital influences and traditional storytelling, examining the implications of this convergence on cultural preservation, audience engagement, and narrative evolution. The research employs a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing immersive ethnographic fieldwork, content analysis, and collaborative workshops. It investigates the adaptation and evolution of traditional narratives in digital storytelling platforms, the role of digital media in preserving and disseminating traditional stories, audience engagement patterns, and the broader implications for cultural identity, heritage preservation, and community cohesion. Key findings reveal a significant trend towards the hybridization of storytelling practices, where traditional narratives are seamlessly integrated with digital elements. Digital platforms have expanded the reach and accessibility of traditional stories, fostering greater audience participation and community engagement. However, challenges related to cultural authenticity and digital literacy persist. The study underscores the importance of promoting digital literacy, fostering community-led initiatives, and developing ethical storytelling frameworks to navigate the complexities of digital influences on traditional storytelling. By embracing the potentials of digital platforms while honoring cultural authenticity, storytelling in Batticaloa can continue to thrive and evolve in the digital age, preserving its rich heritage for future generations.
Museums and Forms of Digital Storytelling
Aracne Editrice, 2022
The research illustrates multiple experiences and strategies adopted in museums and in the world of cultural heritage in the field of digital storytelling to guide the future design of narrative digital solutions. Its aim is to provide as complete a picture as possible of the different solutions set in this specific sector of the field of cultural communication, their uses, and the accessibility of culture. It identifies and analyzes 14 types of digital storytelling: oral, written, video, visual, animated, interactive, Immersive, Social Media Storytelling, Participative, Generative, Geo–Storytelling, Multimedia Mobile Storytelling, Crossmedia and Transmedial storytelling. Finally, a new vision of the museum is proposed in which, beginning with the antiquarian and nineteenth–century vision of museum collections, develops into what should be defined as a connected museum or museum of connected narration.