Story Matters is me, Joost van der Spek. It's where my love for stories, writing and history collide. It's about authenticity and touching people. Story Matters creates stories for exhibitions, experiences and heritage. Stories that translate factual knowledge into an experience that visitors will remember. From concepts to film scripts and copy. Voice-overs, film scripts, interactive content and other copy are the tip of my work iceberg. The public part. Whether you call it content development or public history or storytelling, it's about translating knowledge and ideas into compelling stories that visitors understand. And you can take that 'translation' quite literally. Experts usually speak a different language than the audience they want to serve. On top of that, they are often not used to telling their story in a spatial context. And that's where I come in. To begin with, by distilling a clear and attractive story from the vast quantity of expertise. And then by attuning that to the spatial experience, and finally wording it in such a way that the intended audience feels addressed. The actual construction of an experience or exhibition is often preceded by a long process. Think of fund applications and pitches, but also concepts, sketches and designs. These are aimed at convincing stakeholders or enthusing funds. My role in that design and persuasion process is to (co-)develop a great idea and then put it crystal clear on paper. This can be in the shape of a bid book to win a pitch, a master plan to convince local politicians and funds or a concept to develop together with a client and a creative team. A good concept is original, substantively strong and appeals to the imagination, but it also gives confidence in the technical and financial viability and sustainability.

Developing concepts and content mostly for cultural heritage projects. It's basically about finding effective ways to tell meaningful stories. Sometimes you don't need much more that a good story, a torch light and one object to seduce visitors. At other occasions it's about theatrical experiences with actors, moving machinery, animation and video mapping. Or anything in between. Personally I love all all forms, what matters for me is that people are touched and that their curiosity is activated.Apart from developing concepts I also take care of film and audio scripts, game development and exhibition texts.

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