On Saturday 17 June 2017, the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH), in partnership with the National Centre for Literature (CNL), held the third edition of its ForumZ series.

The event, which explored the future of storytelling, took place at the CNL in Mersch in the three languages of the country (Luxembourgish, German and French), together with English. It was a great success, attracting more than 80 people from literary, university and cultural circles as well as representatives of the media.

The opening address was given by Dr Claude Conter, Director of the CNL, who gave a general overview of the event and identified some of the major questions that need to be addressed by authors – each via their specific means of creation – in this new narrative age, as well as the new expectations and perceptions of audiences.

Dr Andreas Fickers, Director of the C²DH, then gave an address entitled Realitätseffekte, Dokudramen und Echtzeitsimulationen: Geschichtsnarrative und historische Imagination im digitalen Zeitalter, which highlighted the challenges facing the art of storytelling in the digital era. The traditional means of storytelling – the spoken word, written texts and images – have now been replaced by multimedia approaches that engage all the senses, transporting audiences via virtual immersion to multisensory worlds that are increasingly scripted, while tapping into our emotions and engaging our attention, interest and curiosity both as individuals and as a community.

Examples of innovative approaches to storytelling

The plenary session “Innovative approaches to storytelling” focused on some original examples of historical narration, as explored by members of the C²DH. Dr Florentina Armaselu gave a presentation entitled Scale change and historical storytelling. From print to web; Victoria Mouton spoke on A multimedia piece on “The 21st century gold rush: How the refugee crisis is changing the world economy” (a Huffington Post Highline story); Marco Gabellini explored Le roman graphique interactif “The boat” (une production SBS) and Dr Elena Danescu shared her thoughts on “Welcome to Pine Point, ou comment recréer un lieu qui n’existe plus (National Film Board of Canada)”, before going on to conclude the session.

The plenary session was followed by a series of parallel sessions entitled “New narrative approaches to storytelling with original C²DH projects”. The speakers were as follows: Dr Florentina Armaselu – Scale change and historical storytelling. An experiment in textual zooming; Dr Sandra Camarda – Éischte Weltkrich: Remembering the Great War in Luxembourg (virtual exhibition); Dr Marten Düring (with Dr Lars Wieneke and Daniele Guido) – Histograph. A tool for the free exploration of multimedia archives; Dr Stefan Krebs – Glanz und Elend der Kunstkopf-Stereophonie – (Medien-) Geschichte zum Hören; Anita Lucchesi – Storytelling through a digital shoebox and Benjamin Zenner – “RealtimeWW1” a “Radio Luxembourg: the Virtual Exhibition”. Studentesch Experimenter mat non-linearen Erzielungen.

Creative writing and multimedia approaches in light of the new challenges of storytelling

The morning’s fruitful discussions were brought to a close with a round table on “Creative writing and multimedia approaches in light of the new challenges of storytelling”. Nathalie Ronvaux, an author of historical novels and poems, and Paul Lesch, Director of the National Audiovisual Centre (CNA), shared their views with moderator Claude Conter and compared their ideas on the current forms of discourse in writing and in audiovisual creation/production; how to achieve a balance between style and substance, objective and subjective approaches, expertise and emotion; and new forms of expression.

A full picture report of the event is available on the C²DH website.