Recording Memories
Storylines are experienced at capturing high quality, in depth life stories. Often in collaboration with others, from small community groups to large institutions, our ability to sensitively record personal stories brings numerous benefits.
It’s a real privilege to sit and truly listen to someone, and as experts in oral history Cornwall, we love nothing more than spending time recording people’s memories. Whether in a cosy front room, or in a fishing boat, we love watching someone come alive as they share with us often long forgotten memories. Our lifestyles now leave a lot less room for deep listening. Giving someone the space to be heard can have a huge impact on their wellbeing. This deep listening can boost confidence, validate experiences and provide opportunities to connect with others.
From capturing stories of people who have migrated to Cornwall for an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, to spending time with shellfishermen to document a changing industry, Storylines have given a voice to a wide range of people. Whilst the methods and the outcomes for our projects are bespoke; we put sensitive and timeless storytelling at the core of everything we do.
As experts in oral history Cornwall, our practice is in line with current ethical guidelines. Bespoke paperwork ensures that interviewees wishes are met and interviews can be used and preserved into the future. Where relevant we also work alongside local archives to ensure that oral history interviews are professionally archived for future generations.
Storylines also provides training and support to help organisations and projects to conduct recordings. We often reflect on how privileged we are to do this work and have shared some of our thoughts on this valuable process here.
Testimonials
It’s been wonderful to share my story. You never sit down and really think, gosh is that what in went through? But it was the best thing I did. I’d never really talked about these things with anybody, not even my son. And I thought, if I’m feeling like this, how did my parents feel when they migrated? I never really looked at other people’s stories, never thought beyond the box, because of trauma perhaps. It’s been really nice to hear other people and think that it’s not that much different to your own story.
Participant, Titanic Stories, Contemporary Voices
Since training with Storylines we have interviewed 9 people in 4 different outdoor locations. Everyone really enjoyed the experience and was very positive about it. Your training helped us enormously with all aspects of this. Simon and I really enjoyed the whole process and felt so much more confident and prepared for the interviews. The clarity, integrity, sensitivity and rigour of your approach to oral history interviews was an excellent grounding for being able to conduct these interviews in such different and high stakes circumstances. And the “is there anything else you would like to share” question worked like magic every time!!
Katie Etheridge, Small Acts
