#collaborativestorytelling

[windy-skykicker]

HI:W Q&A Episode 4

[sophielouiselinehan-blog]

Collaborative Storytelling

This week we explored collaborative storytelling with our guest lecturer and creative practitioner Gill White.

We were split into groups and encouraged to create an artificial crime scene. The groups were mixed as we drew items, cut them out, and placed them – along with dialogue notes - on each other’s crime scenes.  Finally, we went back into our groups and, without moving the clues, arranged the clues into a narrative and then presented it to the class.

The process was interesting and enjoyable and reminded me of my days at drama school. According to Gill’s website, the exercise was designed to “tackle creative challenges by harnessing storytelling and interactive play, with design principles to spark a collective imagination.”

Writing is a lonely, isolating job, and the experience of collaboratively and creatively breaking down and building stories is incredibly liberating.

Gill talked about how she applies these techniques to her work, when breaking down digital narratives. I think visually and like to break down story with post it notes before I start writing but until now I’ve never thought of opening up that process into something more collaborative.

I’d like to learn more about Gill’s process in adapting these techniques to real world problems.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures during the class but I downloaded these ones off Gill’s website to illustrate the creative exercise.