Shahrzad Creative Digital Storytelling Center (shahrzadcdsc) is a cultural Institute which is formed in 2012. As the first group of its kind in Iran, and probably in the Middle East as well, we put lots of effort in localizing this medium to our region needs, which is still an ongoing process. This is a short survey on our mission and activities in the last 5 years:
Workshops:
- Holding workshops for young people in collaboration with Aria Gallery-Art classes, Tehran;
2012-2013: for children of age group 11-13 with theme of "Self-expression"
2013-2014: for children of age group 11-14 with theme of "Self- expression"
2015-2016: for children of age group 10-15 with theme of "My Life"
2016-2017: for children of age group 13-16 with theme of "My story through Qajar Photography"
2016: for audience of “Second View “an exhibition by Ulrika Eller-Rueter. We asked audience to tell us how they perceive these art works through Digital Stories (DST).
- Participating in the 18th International Storytelling Festival hold by Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults(Kanoon), Tehran;
2016: A Training Workshop for Kanoon's Pedagogues with theme of "Storytelling as an aesthetic activity via Technology".
The aim of the workshop was providing a chance for children to intervene in their favorite stories, at the same time encourage them to keep their artistic distance from the story.
First children told their stories and explained how they wanted to engage with them. Second, they drew proper backgrounds of their story and as a character performed their role which is record via Green Screen Technique. Then they were trained to edit their story with Adobe-Photoshop software; So, They became part of a pictorial narration. At the end, each of them told his story in front of his Artwork, but this time as a narrator.
2016: Participating in a roundtable on "new horizon in storytelling" and discussed on Digital Storytelling and Multi-literacy.
- Workshops in collaboration with Malek National Library and Museum Institution;
2016: For participants of all age with theme of "old coins, new voice".
2017: With the nineteen afghan teenagers on uncompleted drawing of Kamal Al- Molk (Mohammad Ghaffari 1847-1914 who was the first realist painter in Iran). Named: "A day I was Kamal Al-Molk" This project focuses on interaction between one of the Iranian classical work of Art (as a Hosting Country) and young refugees' culture and their epistemic values.
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2017: A DST Project with Youth on “Lions of Iran “an Art exhibition by Parviz Tanavoli in Contemporary Art Museum of Tehran. They told their aesthetics experience from visiting art works through Digital Stories (DST). Since Persian Lion were extinct in the middle of the 20 century; one of the most important achievement of this project is that young generation have had a chance to understand the environment crisis such as extinction and response to it.
2016-2017: A DST project for Cultural & Art Organization of Tehran with theme of "Reading promotion in the Neighbourhood".
2016: A DST project named "Tajmir, a village for dolls" is a part of "Museum of Culture and traditional Dolls of Khorasan Province" program in collaboration with Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism organization of Khorasan Province, Carbon Sequestration Project (CSP) and Traditional Doll Museum in Tehran.
Who we are?
Marjan Foroughi
A software engineer, a member of children’s book council of Iran/CBC (Iranian National Section of International Board on Books for young people/IBBY) since 2006, a reviewer of electronic publications, member of CBC international committee, member and coordinator of Art group and editor at encyclopedia of young people. She also trains illustrators to create eBook for kids.
Laleh Khosravi
A PhD candidate at TM.University in Tehran. A member of CBC since 2011. She has also worked as a storyteller and as a screenwriter since 2006.
Hossein Rasti
A Photographer, A document Film Maker and a writer. Since 2006, he has hold various workshops with children and young adult in the field of "Philosophy for children" and "Divergent Thinking".
We believe everyone has a story to tell. Our aspiration, in the long term, is to provide people with a deeper insight into the culture of peace. We think digital media can assist in promoting a new perspective and culture by facilitating interaction amongst people. Our target groups are young people and every other community have less of a voice in society. We have been participating in various conferences and professional storytelling roundtables. The following express our main goals. Our mission:
- Sharing stories of our people with the world.
- Providing deeper insight with the dynamic culture of storytelling in the digital age.
To achieve these goals we collaborate with universities and centers that utilize digital storytelling.