Kiera Smith | 2024 I.S. Symposium

Name: Kiera Smith
Title: Expanding the Limits of Storytelling: An Imaginative Exploration of the Interpretive Impact of Stories in Entertainment, Art, Media, and Life
Major: Global Media & Digital Studies
Pathway: Digital & Visual Storytelling
Advisor: Nii Nikoi

This project aims to examine the multifaceted artistry and capabilities of storytelling across media and arts. Storytelling is innately within us as human beings and therefore is reflective and expressive of who we are and where we come from. The literature review of this project details the types, functions, and impacts of storytelling for both the storyteller and the audience as they create their own interpretations. Stories are intrinsically meaningful, and as new media arise, new ways of telling stories emerge. Digital and interactive elements have revolutionarily changed and enhanced storytelling by including multimedia and diverse channels of senses at easy access, yet the same soulful meaning, artistry, and impact is still ingrained within the stories. Within the project, I created a digital interactive magazine or “storybook”, which is a collection of stories curated by semi-structured interviews with artists and storytellers who shared their relationship to storytelling and how their different art forms and media possess narrativity. This method as a representation of my research works to emphasize the importance of diverse stories that together create something beautiful for audiences to connect with through interactive elements. Concluding with my reflection on this project captures what I learned, my hopes for the project to be inspirational for those who engage with it, and ideas for how the project could be carried further by additional research and interviews in other media arts and cultural influences that I did not address.

Posted in Symposium 2024 on April 23, 2024.