History

Inspiration

The movements of cultural democracy and community arts activism inspired The Digital Storytelling Workshop practice. During the last century, artists and arts educators in virtually all disciplines of the arts expanded their definitions of creative endeavor. They challenged the impermeable aesthetic borders that had developed between notions of the gifted and the mediocre, the professional and the amateur, the master and the novice, the expert and the lay practitioner. In their minds, while these ideas were useful in defining the criteria of criticism in arts practice, these doctrinal definitions of quality also served to silence people, people who were later recognized as providing enormous contributions to the culture.

Corresponding directly to the extension of civil, economic, and political rights in the larger civic society, the community artist imagined the extension of technical and aesthetic training in the arts as a civil right. They focused their efforts in providing access to all sectors of the population that were seen to be underserved by the traditional education and vocational training systems. The art they create with these communities of individuals was a synthesis of their vision as a cultural animator and the unique gifts, voices, and ideas of the participating members in their projects. At times these projects specifically address social conflicts and political issues as the subject of the art making, at other times, the emphasis was on personal voice and the development of identity, esteem, and resilience in the individual

These values and experiences are at the core of our work.

How CDS Came to Be

In the early 1990's, a group of media artists, designers, and practitioners came together to explore how personal stories and storytelling could inform the emergence of a new set of digital media tools. The CDS partnership grew out of the numerous collaborations and shared dialogues of this period in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dana Atchley, a media producer and an artist in numerous disciplines, had developed NEXT EXIT, a multimedia autobiography. Among his many supporters, he attracted local theater producer/dramatic consultant Joe Lambert as a collaborator in developing the piece. In 1994, Joe and Dana were joined by Nina Mullen to found the San Francisco Digital Media Center. The Center was built around a unique training process, the Digital Storytelling Workshop.

Over the last 12 years, the Center for Digital Storytelling has trained more than 10,000 people, in hundreds of workshops. Along with numerous collaborators, we have inspired an international interest in the many applications of the specific methods and principles used in its trainings. For community activists, educators, business professionals, and artists, the Digital Storytelling Workshop has transformed their thinking about story, media, and culture. In the last three years, we have became involved as the key consultant and trainer for a growing number of sizable projects involving series of theme-related workshops to capture stories across entire countries or regions.

In Memory of Dana Atchely
1941-2001

Dana Atchley's pioneering work as a media artist, video producer, and performer was the principle inspiration for our work in Digital Storytelling. Our approach to this work began with Dana's show Next Exit and his educational efforts to encourage people to take personal stories and turn them into media mementos.

CDS Founding Director Joe Lambert worked with Dana for several years on the development of Next Exit. As he points out, "Dana brought a mix of talents to an nearly obsessive connection to collecting memories in the form of media archives. An Ivy League-trained print and graphic designer, a musician, a writer, three decades of video production, and a storyteller, Dana really captured the renaissance personality, a perfect fit for the age of new media. Dana and Next Exit will surely be remembered as the seminal spark of the Digital Storytelling Movement."

Listen to Dana tell a story, Home Movies (2.4 MB QuickTime), a piece about his grandfather's own efforts to capture family memory. Excerpted from nextexit.com, Dana's website.

Dana passed away December 13, 2000 due to complications of a bone marrow transplant. A number of his friends and family created stories in his honor at this online memorial for Dana.