The Digital Decameron

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 12:36:57 -0400
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“In 1348 a party of wealthy young patricians take refuge from the plague that is raging in the city in a villa outside Florence. To pass the time, they tell each other stories…”

(Cover copy. The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio, Penguin Classics, 1972)

As a creative response to the postponement of the DST2020 Conference, the conference organizers are initiating a project we call the “Digital Decameron.” As in Boccaccio’s original, the project will run ten days, with ten stories featured here each day. We will begin on March 30, the original planned start of DST2020.

We welcome your submissions.

We are inviting those who want to create new digital stories to do so, or find one that has inspired you, or look for one, as you might find on the StoryCenter YouTube channel, that you find particularly powerful.

There are no particular rules; it could be a new story or a previously created one; it could be a direct response to the current situation, or simply a story that celebrates humanity in all its imperfection; it could be a personal story, or any story you would like to tell in the circumstances. A length of less that five minutes is suggested.

Upload your new story to YouTube, or find a digital story and copy the URL, and send the link to: digitalstories@umbc.edu. If you are uploading a new story, make sure you add your description as part of your upload process on YouTube.

Stories received before March 30 will be considered for the initial ten days. Beyond this, we hope to grow the collection and keep it available here, so submissions will remain open after the 30th.

“To take pity on people in distress is a human quality which every man and woman should possess, but it is especially requisite in those who have once needed comfort, and found it in others. … in my anguish I have on occasion derived much relief from the agreeable conversation and the admirable expressions of sympathy offered by friends, without which I am firmly convinced that I should have perished.”

(Preface to Decameron)

“The Digital Decameron” and the 9th International Digital Storytelling Conference (DST2020) are organized collaboratively by Loughborough University (UK), StoryCenter (US), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) (US), SCLDA – Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (US), Montgomery College (US), Patient Voices (UK)