Europeana’s Digital Storytelling Festival is an annual event which encourages cultural heritage professionals, educators, creatives, and students from Europe and beyond to boost their storytelling skills and tell stories exploring culture. A key part of the festival is the Online Creative Residency.
Now in its second year, the residency programme brings students or new and developing professionals who want to gain storytelling skills in a professional setting together with experts. Working with their specialist mentors and fellow participants, the group developed stories inspired by and incorporating cultural heritage in different digital formats. Take a look at what they produced.
Storytelling in 3D
This year, the residency included a theme on storytelling in 3D for the first time, led by mentor Matevž Straus from high-performance computing company, Arctur.
Peggy Komvotea created The European Migration Journey Museum - an interactive digital space including photographs and artworks representing a number of migration periods. Also on display are virtual 3D artworks and installations and a space for visitors to upload their own stories.
‘I would like to keep working on this project because it’s an interactive project that calls people to join and upload their stories. It’s very exciting to see how this project succeeds and if people can share their stories and learn about other people’s stories.’ Peggy Komvotea
Janire Goikoetxea’s video essay ‘The Journey Skyward’ brings together 3D models of European architecture and objects (including those from the Twin it! 3D for Europe’s culture campaign) to tell a universal story: humanity's eternal fascination with reaching the sky.
‘The residency has given me the opportunity to share ideas and conversations with industry professionals and to gain a deeper understanding of the technology behind heritage digitisation. During these months, I have been able to explore all the innovations being made in this field and connect them with my artistic, historical and philosophical interests.’ Janire Goikoetxea
Collage art
Collage art was another new format for 2024, mentored by artist Cosmina Berta, who also works for Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek and so is perfectly placed to help participants blend creative art with the considerations of using digital cultural heritage.
Maya Mircheva explored Romani heritage and traditional Romani values - freedom, tradition, family and kin, pride and resilience.
‘For this short animation I was inspired by Icelandic landscapes, colours and textures. Through my trip to Iceland I observed the unique shapes and forms of the island, the contrasts and transitions of the colours of the sky and clouds, and the lines of the rocky masses that disappear into the horizon.’ Liza Anesti
‘I have been using vintage photos as a means to create ironic and whimsical pieces from the ordinary. So when it came time to brainstorm ideas for the residency, it felt natural to me to select family photos and animate them with a twist - as old photos of families always look so fakely perfect and arranged. I created two sets of animations: the first one focuses on one key element of the picture, which then is rotated, distorted, or both. The second set is made of photos animated by juxtaposing a layer of ‘water’ as it is an essential element of any proper vacation.’ Gloria Oddo
Creative writing
The Europeana Foundation’s Beth Daley once again mentored three writing participants, who all took completely different approaches. They were inspired by Europeana.eu material as well as their own family histories and personal relationships with parts of Europe, from the icy north of Sweden, to the warmth and nature of Cyprus, and an interwar journey through central Europe.
‘I wanted to further explore digital cultural heritage storytelling skills and how they are created in a professional setting. For the first time ever, I tried to explore writing inspired by digital cultural heritage.’ Elena Volina
‘What have I got out of the residency? Immense experience, inspiration from all of the creatives I´ve met through this residency, wonderful opportunity to learn and observe, and the fact that I have a small piece of my writing as well as my family’s history published. Their memory will live on.’ Angelina Fors
‘The project was inspired by an album of postcards I found that had belonged to my husband’s grandfather, Anton. He had travelled around Europe as a teenager and young person in the interwar period. The tracks left by this created an image of young people who were much more similar to my generation than I had initially expected.’ Heather Storgaard.
Social media
Our experienced social media mentors Carola Carlino and Marianna Marcucci coached three participants to help them find their own voice and develop their storytelling skills. Lida Anesti created a ‘scrollytelling’ story and social media postcard series that mixes time travel with pop culture, while Farah Almazouni explored the definition of journey through the lens of personal experience in carousels for Instagram and LinkedIn.
‘For me, it is always fun and engaging to learn new ways to craft compelling and impactful stories and to exchange experiences and knowledge with other people sharing the same passion for stories.’ Lida Anesti
‘Aside from gaining first-hand knowledge of how to navigate Europeana’s collections directly from the Europeana pros (thank you!), I've certainly advanced my skills during this residency programme and pushed my limits in bringing a vague idea that I started with into reality with enough planning and mapping of ideas.’ Farah Almazouni
Find out more
We’d like to thank all of the mentors and the residency participants for their contributions, their openness to new ideas and their support of each other. We invite you to explore all of the published stories.