Three-D Issue 28: Storymaking symposium
Storymaking was a one-day Symposium held on Friday 11th November 2016, at The Liverpool Screen School, Liverpool John Moores University organized in collaboration with the ICC (Institute of Cultural Capital) and supported by the MeCCSA Practice Network.
The focus of this symposium was making stories with rather than just for the audience.
Presenters came from across the UK and Ireland to share ideas about participatory narrative projects, from the perspective of producers and participants and looking at storytelling practices as vehicles for therapy, discussion, education, sharing, engagement and community building.
This was a lively and entertaining day that built bridges between delegates from diverse backgrounds in radio, writing, filmmaking, theatre, science and the arts. There was story telling, performance, video and audio to illustrate a rich debate about the relationships between producers and consumers of cultural products and participatory culture as a developing area of media practice.
The day was launched with two keynote presentations. Kate Feld discussed working with writers on Rainy City Stories and The Real Story. Jim Hinks presented research conducted on the Coma Press project MacGuffin. The themes introduced were continued through the day in three panels of presentations.
The location based panel featured presentations by:
- Rosamund Davies, University of Greenwich about Location Scout (working title) – a location based mobile game.
- Erin Kavanagh an independent scholar about geomythology and the challenges of facilitating participatory culture in narrative projects.
- Professor Karen Henwood, Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences about using storied data in a project concerning energy consumption.
The participation panel featured presentations by:
- Becky Edwards, University of Chichester, about Just write, a storytelling project for children.
- Dylan Roys, University of Lincoln and Rose Braisby, Rampton Hospital about a project to enhance the treatment of patients with personality disorders through the production of media artefacts.
- Kelly Zarins, Leeds Trinity University, International Research Centre for Interactive Storytelling (IRIS) about building Communities of Practice in the field of interactive documentary.
- Kate Bevan, about I Care, a performative intervention (after Augusto Boal’s: Theatre of the Oppressed) that raises issues around children who care for adults.
The transmedia panel featured presentations by:
- Dr. Bronwin Patrickson, about Playing the Mooc, The Sherlock Holmes Internet of Things (iot), providing the perspective of a participant.
- Katherine May, Canterbury Christ Church University, about her experience of Being Betty, in her presentation, Being Betty: Sex, Lies and Networked Self-Narrative
- Anna Zaluczkowska, Leeds Beckett University, about Red Branch Heroes an interactive transmedia prototype story set in contemporary Northern Ireland.
- Dr Ronan Lynch, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland, about Plunkett’s Pages, the 1916 Easter Rising Alternate Reality Game.
The event attracted an audience of approximately fifty, including academics from a diverse range of subject areas and institutions, students and the wider Liverpool Community.
An outcome from the event is the blog that archives the day, featuring video clips, links to projects discussed and presentations. https://storymakingblog.wordpress.com
The Liverpool Screen School and Institute of Cultural Capital will be holding follow up events. For any further information please contact Sarah Haynes: s.haynes@ljmu.ac.uk