Altered Lives: assessing the effectiveness of digital storytelling as a form of communication design

Abstract

This article considers the effectiveness of digital storytelling as a form of communication design in addressing stigma and discrimination associated with being human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive. The Altered Lives digital storytelling project was a collaboration between a group of New Zealand women who live with HIV and a team of artists, including communication designers and an oral historian/writer. The final DVD was shown to a series of focus groups, consisting of young people aged 15–20 years who may or may not be sexually active; social service and health care professionals who work with people who need to be tested for HIV, aged from 25 to 73 years; and women aged between 22 and 38 years who have been affected by sexual violence, all of whom are currently being tested for HIV as part of their recovery/treatment. Findings suggest that collaboration of this nature has potential to raise and challenge the stigma attached to having an HIV diagnosis whereas at the same time acts as an educational tool across different segments of the community.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bronwen Gray

Dr Bronwen Gray is a freelance artist, art therapist and educator who has worked in a multitude of creative settings and is happy working with many different media. For five years she was the Director of the Masters of Arts Therapy program offered at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design in Auckland New Zealand, and was previously the head of Faculty in Art Therapy at the Phoenix Institute in Melbourne Australia. Bronwen's work has been recognized as international best practice and has been exhibited and discussed in international forums in the United States, England, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. Her most recent works, Unreserved and Homelessness myths and memories, which are digital story telling projects have been accepted into the permanent collection of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne.

Alan Young

Dr Alan Young has been a design practitioner and educator for over 15 years. His doctorate A Genealogy of Graphic Design in Victoria excavates the emergence of design as discourse, using methodologies from Foucault and Bourdieu. He has worked on award winning community-based social justice projects and has recently had works installed as part of the permanent collection of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. He is currently a senior lecturer in Art and Design at Auckland University of Technology presenting frequently at national and international conferences. His publications include work on the historiography and politics of oral history.

Tania Blomfield

Tania Blomfield has been working in the field of trauma for the last ten years. She is a registered Arts Therapist, and currently has a private practice in South Auckland, working primarily with survivors of sexual violence. She also lectures part time into the Master of Arts in Arts Therapy programme at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design in Auckland. Tania has a Master of Arts in Arts Therapy from Whitecliffe, and a BA in Psychology and Rehabilitation from Massey University. She is currently working on a PhD through University of Western Australia.