The Center for Digital Storytelling
Information and communication technologies are the tools people use to transfer information back and forth, whether that’s via equipment like a telephone or via electrical bits across the Internet superhighway. Without the human communication and creativity, however, those technologies are meaningless. While access to these technologies is crucial for breaking down barriers, people need to be able to apply the tools to their lives to take part in the information exchange.
Digital storytelling is one way that many people are applying ICTs to their everyday lives. Digital storytelling is the practice of using digital technologies to help people tell their personal story. Digital storytellers, who are traditionally without a technical background, often produce their work in an intensive workshop. Digital storytelling can be viewed as a form of therapeutic self-expression.
Berkeley-based nonprofit Center for Digital Storytelling is a national leader in the field of digital storytelling, providing training, project development, and research in this area. The organization focuses on “large-scale projects for community, educational, and business institutions,” but also offers workshops for individuals.
“Corresponding directly to the extension of civil, economic, and political rights in the larger civic society, the community artist imagined the extension of technical and aesthetic training in the arts as a civil right. They focused their efforts in providing access to all sectors of the population that were seen to be underserved by the traditional education and vocational training systems. The art they create with these communities of individuals was a synthesis of their vision as a cultural animator and the unique gifts, voices, and ideas of the participating members in their projects. At times these projects specifically address social conflicts and political issues as the subject of the art making, at other times, the emphasis was on personal voice and the development of identity, esteem, and resilience in the individual.”
The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) began as a gathering of media artists, designers, and practitioners who studied the interaction of narrative with the digital media technologies that were emerging in the early 1990s. Since then, CDS has trained over 10,000 people across the world using the Digital Storytelling Workshop. Their portfolio of projects includes programs in the areas of oral and local history, community building, education, public health, youth services, and cultural identity. In 2002, CDS launched the Digital Storytelling Association, an international association of digital storytellers.
One of the clients/beneficiaries of the Center for Digital Storytelling is The YOUTH Training Project in Oakland. This organization sponsors biannual digital storytelling workshops for current and former foster youth through its Foster Youth Voices initiative. The stories are used to guide child welfare workers in meeting the needs of the youth living in their care. Check out Sade Daniels’ story below:
For more information on digital storytelling and the Center for Digital Storytelling, including how you can get involved, visit the organization’s website at www.storycenter.org.
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