A report on an arts-led emotive experiment in interviewing and storytelling.

Abstract

This paper reports on a two-day experimental workshop in arts-led interviewing technique using ephemera to illicit life stories and then reporting narrative accounts back using creative means of presentation. Academics and students from across Schools at Bournemouth University told each other stories from their pasts based in objects that they presented to each other as gifts. Each partner then reported the shared story to the group using arts-led presentation methods. Narrative research and the qualitative interview are discussed. The conclusion is drawn that academics yearn to express the more emotive connections generated by listening to the stories of strangers. The procedures followed for the two-day workshop are outlined in order that other academics may also organize their own experiments in eliciting story using personal objects and retelling stories creatively.