Core Project | Storycircle
Storycircle is a project focusing on the social and digital conditions for narrative exchange and knowledge production, led by Goldsmiths, University of London, within the FIRM research consortium funded by the EPSRC. Storycircle’s aim is to facilitate processes of narrative production and exchange, working with its FIRM research partners, Lancaster and Salford ThinkLab, to generate a narrative ecology in collaboration with local actors and stakeholders, that enhances understanding of the digital platforms, user interfaces and social processes through which creativity and knowledge exchange can be stimulated. Our point of departure is the diverse narrative activity already taking place in the region around MediaCityUK and our aim is to design projects collaboratively that meet the needs of our partners.
The background to our project aims and design are the following principles. Existing narrative research tells us that narrative is empowering, and that opportunities for narrative exchange are important ways of recognising people as citizens and as human beings; it also tells us that narratives connect people, and the exchange of narratives can connect people who would not otherwise be linked and so generate new insights and knowledge, to the benefit of those involved.
Storycircle builds on three specific themes and foci for narrative exchange that had emerged through Goldsmiths’ pilot phase fieldwork in 2010 - ‘stories of place’; ‘citizen/local knowledge’ and ‘enthusiasms.’
Partners
Our partners are: Salford City College, People’s Voice Media, Salford Lads’ Club, Oasis Academy MediaCityUK and The Islington Estate Tenants and Residents Association.
Academic Partners
Goldsmiths, University of London lead with Lancaster University and Salford THINKlab
Project Status
14 short films from the ‘Tales from Camp’ film series were broadcast on the BBC ‘big screens’ in the Manchester Arndale Centre and the MediaCityUK site on Salford Quays, and on screens inside the Salford Quays shuttle buses.
