The Australian Centre for Oral History

Abstract

Telling a good story involves using all your senses to communicate the story in such a way that listeners affix their attention to whatever part of the story they wish and yet are led along the narrative. Telling a good story is an art! Good story-tellers lead listeners along the narrative journey embellishing the story as appropriate to suit the story-telling conditions. This means that no two story-tellings are the same.

Yet in this day of digital content, unlimited perfect copies, end users, consuming content, and the sound bite, story-telling competes with the information and communication technology, facing sophisticated listeners who demand more of engagement and are used to be in control. Sequential narrative disappears and is replaced by directed listening. In this increasingly digital world, is it possible to tell stories as engaging and compelling as traditional story telling? Could we do better?

This paper will introduce the concepts behind the Testimony Software architecture and demonstrate its potential through some of the developments to which it has been applied: including museum kiosks, exhibition catalogues, proceedings of workshops and conferences.

By Dr Bob Jansen

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