Participatory Storytelling Workshop

The role of place-based participatory storytelling to explore contested stories

Storytelling helps us unfold the ‘bricolage of the here’ and explore the ‘mess’ of human interactions in a specific place. Stories emerge from individual memories and build shared knowledges. As they convey values and emotions, they are very effective in revealing the differences and similarities between people’s experiences (East, Leah et al. 2010). When those experiences are linked to a particular context, stories become a magnifier of people’s sense of place.

This interactive workshop aims at introducing the concept of place-based participatory storytelling and at exploring how to adapt the 5-step Digital Storytelling model to co-create alternative narratives prompted by the places experienced in our everyday life.

The activity will last 2 hours and will include:

• An exploration of various theories and practices within participatory storytelling
• A presentation of StoryCenter Digital Storytelling model
• A reflection of the effectiveness of creative disruptions to the conventional model
• A collaborative storyboarding activity (please, see the preparation notes below)
• A collective reflection on the use of storytelling techniques to magnify people’s sense of place.