Unique high-tech storytelling hub at USask receives funding boost

As co-lead Dr. Andrew Denton (PhD) puts it, research is discovery effectively communicated,and the Story Collider is intended to explore all those methods of effectively passing that knowledge on.

“The Story Collider is making connections in research through innovative storytelling, which is underpinned by the most high-end digital technology you can imagine,” Denton said. “The creative technologies can assist us in investigating new ways and new methodologies for exploring the world through story research.”

The proposed Story Collider aims to be a dynamic hub that will be used for creating, collaborating, and innovating storytelling methodologies for USask researchers and the community. The project is one step closer to reality with a substantial investment from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

“This project helps build on USask’s strong tradition of community-focused and community-oriented research, scholarly and artistic works,” said USask Vice-President Research Baljit Singh. “This inclusive new hub will be a boost for USask researchers, scholars and artists in working with communities here Saskatchewan and on the national and international stage.”

Led by Dr. Dawn Wallin (PhD), associate vice-president Research (Engagement) and a professor in the College of Education, and Denton, the director of the USask School for the Arts, the new space aims to be a resource for students, staff and faculty to explore new and varied storytelling methods for research, scholarly and artistic works.

The goal of the collider is to provide a space to bring together scientists, creatives, and community partners for transdisciplinary storytelling research. As Wallin puts it, a core focus of the collider is looking into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of stories, as well as the ethics of storytelling such as questions around who has the authority to tell particular stories, whose knowledges they represent, and how they are created, attributed, shared, and archived.

“This is research on the way we integrate multiple knowledges together to be able to work through stories and on stories in a multiplicity of forms,” Wallin said.

More than that, the collider will also provide the resources for modern storytelling as a high-end digital production research lab.

The hub will host camera and recording tools for creating content in virtual and augmented reality. It will boast a nine cubic-metre cylindrical screen for innovative and interactive video projects, from virtual skills training to explorative experiences. The space will host leading edge technologies but is intended to be much more than a film or audio studio.

Denton, who has experience working with technical institutes in New Zealand, said the kind of resources and technology that will be housed at the collider will be unique in Canada.

The new space will be reflective of other storytelling and digital production hubs around the world, including at universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The project received more than $3 million from the CFI Innovation Fund, designed to support the creation of infrastructure projects that push forward Canadian research and scholarship on the world stage.

Denton said the new hub will not only support innovation research and storytelling at USask, but also build production skills and bolster the creative economy in Saskatchewan and across the Prairies.

“I believe that when you bring creativity and other disciplines together, you come up with new methodologies. And I think that’s really important because we’ve all got a lot of methodologieswe know that work, but if we experiment and play together, we might come up with new ways of seeing and understanding the world,” Denton said.

Wallin, who described herself as a “teacher at heart,” said her career has long focused on trying to find ways to bring people together and create understanding, whether among researchers or out in the community.

She said the new Story Collider will be a huge step forward in that goal, as it will allow for teaching and training opportunities using technologies that are currently not available at USask – and that the support from the CFI meant the Government of Canada believes that as well.

“Getting affirmation from experts in the field, and then national funding ... it’s good for the university, it’s good for Saskatchewan, and it’s good for Canada because it’s supporting potential international opportunities,” Wallin said. “This is pretty amazing and it is affirming the nature of this research.”