Creating audio-visual portraits for now and forever…
We all have stories: about where we came from, about growing up, about our parents and grandparents, and about our accomplishments and struggles. In many cases, these stories – and those of our family – remain largely unknown and will eventually be forgotten.
There are important reasons to save your family stories, among others:
The legacy of our stories is a tremendously valuable asset to pass along to our children and grandchildren. Research shows that kids who know their family history are more resilient, are better able to handle the ups and downs of life, and have better “emotional health” because they know the arc of their family’s narrative.
Capturing a person’s stories offers an enriching opportunity to reflect on a lifetime of experience & accomplishment. Reminiscing has, in fact, become widely recognized as a valuable & therapeutic activity, resulting in an increased sense of happiness, pride & self-esteem.
Audivi helps individuals save their family stories and keeps them accessible by creating an Audivi ‘portrait’.
What is an Audivi ‘portrait’?
An Audivi portrait is audio and visual. It is a rendering of an individual based on their stories told in their voice combined with images and memorabilia from their past. Hearing someone’s voice is transportative – it’s powerful and immersive. It can bring you back to that time or that person. In fact, research shows that when we hear someone’s voice, the physiological effect we feel is similar to what we’d experience if we actually hugged them. This is the reason Audivi (Latin for “I heard”) is – first and foremost – about capturing and preserving a person’s voice.
An Audivi portrait keeps family stories accessible. The audiotaped stories are edited into short clips, carefully curated and arranged to suit the family’s project goals. Unlike oral histories (which can be exhaustive and harder to access), an Audivi portrait showcases individual family stories in an accessible format, making them more likely to be explored by family members, revisited by individuals and integrated into daily life. Particularly for individuals experiencing cognitive decline, the easy audio-visual access to the past may help strengthen a person’s memories and offer a safe, comforting respite from the day.
An Audivi portrait is always available – wherever you are. Audivi portraits are hosted on Audivi’s website – with no annual fee – making them available to everyone, all the time. The memories and memorabilia won’t be lost in one person’s house, or left to gather dust on a bookshelf or in a desk drawer or in the mind of the family historian. The Audivi portrait is available for anyone who has a computer or smartphone. It is always there to drop in and hear a story or two, or to share with others….
An Audivi portrait helps us be known. There are many ways in which today’s society prevents us from being “known”. Grandparents often don’t live near their grandchildren. Seniors move into retirement communities and need to make new friends, having left behind other friends, a job, a city, or perhaps even having lost a spouse. Care givers and care giver teams are spending an inordinate number of hours with our loved ones, taking care of them day in and day out for short and long periods. Wouldn’t an Audivi portrait be helpful? Replete with images, voices, memories, stories….