December 2008 - Issue #4
Tales from the high-rise
Story by Robin Taylor
View articles in related topics: Social Inclusion, Design, Film, Multimedia, Society
Polina and Eva, two older ladies living in Melbourne, were born in the same village in the Ukraine and attended school together before their families were wrenched apart by World War II. Now, more than 60 years later, the two women have found each other, both living as tenants in the same public housing high-rise in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Prahran. Their story is one of a collection told in a digital storytelling project by students from Swinburne University of Technology’s Design Centre.
The three-minute story of Polina and Eva, captured by Ugandan student Anita Birungi, unfolds movingly as it recounts the horrors the women experienced as young girls fleeing the German army with their families, and how the two met again years later. Using a combination of photographs and other artefacts from the women’s lives, and with the help of an interpreter, the digital story records their tales. The digital story-telling project is now in its third year and this year adopted the theme ‘couples’. The first year was a pilot program and last year focused on multiculturalism.
“The project shows the diversity of people living in public housing and the diversity of their stories. It’s been very successful.”
Prue Ingram
The students work with their subjects over a three-month period before condensing their stories into three-minute digital vignettes. Some students tell the stories using animated figures, while others use cut-out photos. They combine elements of spoken word, sound, music and animation with images of the people’s homes to provide a glimpse into their rich lives.
Digital storytelling works in the same way as oral history, supported by the artefacts that people bring from their lives.
The project is a joint initiative between the Swinburne Design Centre and the Inner South Community Health Service.
The program coordinator with the Inner South Community Health Service, Prue Ingram, says one of the aims of the project is to promote a more positive image of people in public housing, who often feel stigmatised.
“These people have interesting lives,” Ms Ingram says. “The project shows the diversity of people living in public housing and the diversity of their stories. It’s been very successful.
“People involved have commented that it’s the first time they have ever had the opportunity to do something like this. They enjoyed meeting the students and it built their confidence. They are now keen to get other tenants involved.”
Ms Ingram says one of the best aspects of the project has been seeing friendships develop between the tenants and the students who are telling their stories.
Most of the participating students are international students so the project has also given them a chance to experience a part of Australia they wouldn’t otherwise have seen. Indonesian student Stefanto Tandyasra recorded a story about Bill and Helen, two people who have been friends for years. He spent a lot of time with them, even going along to bingo.
Stefanto’s interpretation of Bill and Helen’s story uses a combination of animation and 3D. “For me, the most valuable part was the experience of getting to know them – because they have been through a lot in their lives they have many life experiences to share,” he says. “But it was also rewarding academically, using 3D, because I tried a lot of new things.”
All the students at the Design Centre have already completed an undergraduate degree and are doing the project as part of a master’s degree or honours year. Stefanto completed a degree in multimedia design at Swinburne before being accepted into the Design Centre course this year.
The multimedia manager of the Design Centre, Dylan Davis, says the centre works like a design studio and gives students a chance to gain professional experience in a university context.
“They all report it has been a very positive experience,” Mr Davis says. “Meeting people and hearing their personal stories, they learn to gain someone’s trust; they make friendships beyond a normal client relationship. It’s a position of trust where they are telling that person’s story and working with them.”
