California Indian Museum and Cultural Center

The goal of the STORIE project is to preserve, present, and sustain California Indian oral traditions by developing a mobile multimedia storytelling environment coupled with digital storytelling technology training for California Indians. This proposal encompasses phase one of a two-phase project. Phase one involves the design, fabrication, installation, testing, and evaluation of a storytelling environment with a three-channel audiovisual installation. During phase two an ongoing training component will be developed, implemented, and disseminated. The proposed storytelling environment is composed of the following elements: a lightweight, inflatable, 40-foot diameter domelike tent that holds up to 99 people, a storyteller, and a 360-degree, three-channel audiovisual installation. This environment will function as a traveling exhibit/learning lab on California Indian storytelling and a tool for training storytellers, or, when not traveling, as an integral part of the CIMCC’s facility and collections. The STORIE project has four quantifiable objectives: 1) to fabricate and test the storytelling environment, including its audiovisual and operating systems; 2) to produce a three-channel audiovisual installation, staffed by a storyteller from the California Indian Storytelling Association; 3) to develop and test a storytelling technology training workshop with the storyteller and a select group of 10 California Indian youth aged 12 to 17; and 4) to premiere the first installation at the CIMCC for the project’s target audience. The project will produce, test, and evaluate the following products: 1) a specification report on project equipment; 2) a mobile multimedia storytelling environment and user manual; 3) an audiovisual template and workbook for the installation that can be used and adapted at the local level; and 4) a model curriculum for storytelling technology training.