When they aren’t busy reading books, adults and children visiting the Central Library in Downtown San Diego now have the chance to record their own unique stories as multi-media movie shorts at the Digital Community Storytelling Station.
At this hands-on kiosk, library visitors can record their own music, photos, videos and speech into three- to five-minute DVDs as part of the San Diego media arts center’s ongoing story-telling project.
Installation of the Story Station at the library was stimulated by a movie-making project involving the youth living in San Diego’s Barrio Logan in 2005.
“Initially [the project] had a community and Latino story focus,” said Ethan van Thillo, executive director and founder of the media arts center, “but now in our second year we’re celebrating all stories of all cultures by inviting people to come in and tell their own stories.”
The goal was to create a project that would bring more community-based stories into the public library to contrast with the myriad of exotic subjects and settings typically broached in library books, according to van Thillo.
Originally, the California State Library funded the Digital Story Station, but today KPBS’s Campaign for Love and Forgiveness funds and promotes the program, thus encouraging the creation of stories that address those themes.
“Promotion of the station is a perfect example of how [the project] can grow and continue with the various partners that we might have,” van Thillo said.
According to van Thillo, a grant recently awarded by the San Diego foundation will soon allow the media arts center to expand this resource into the libraries of South Bay and North County.
He also cites a future initiative that would expand the program to six cities across California.
Since its installation two years ago, the story station has become a permanent library fixture, attracting curious and creative adults and students interested in working in the new, digital medium.
Common story topics have included themes such as family history, forgiveness and memories of loved ones.
So far close to 80 stories have been produced using the iMovie, QuickTime and iPhoto software available to library visitors.
Jady Montgomery, a media arts center representative who helps visitors use the station and assembles mini-movies for them, encourages this ingenuity.
“Everybody has stories to tell in their lives”¦ this is a wonderful opportunity for people to excavate those stories with someone’s help or by themselves, then retell the story for themselves or as a gift, a memoir or just to re-think an event or relationship,” she said.
Even visitors unfamiliar with these computer programs are welcome to create stories.
However, Montgomery, an independent contractor for the media arts center, cautions that the process can be time-consuming and complicated, though ultimately rewarding.
“For people trying to learn about these technologies, it’s great practice and experience,” she said.
According to Montgomery, the Digital Story Station is seeking volunteers to make it more user-friendly.
“My vision is that we would have a cadre of media arts students who want the practice to come and help people do their stories and teach them at whatever level they need,” Montgomery said.
Adults and students who are interested in the media arts and would like to volunteer at the station should contact Montgomery at (858) 554-0482.
Visitors to the library who want to create their own digital stories may bring music files, photographs or video footage on a CD or DVD to include in their stories.
The library will also allow storytellers to scan printed photographs into the Digital Story Station.
The library will provide blank CDs and DVDs for storytellers who want to take their creations home.
The Digital Community Storytelling Station is located in the Arts, Music and Recreation section of the Central Library, 820 E St.
A Media Arts Center San Diego representative will be on site between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and between 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays to instruct visitors.
For information about Media Arts Center San Diego, or to sign up to create a story using the Digital Story Station, visit www.mediaartscenter.org.