The Story Lab 2016 – Blog Post Two

This week we touched on a range of subjects including Narrative and Database in Lev Manovich’s “The Database” (2001), as well as the concept of Agency as discussed in Janet Murray’s “Hamlet on the Holodeck” (1997). While I will openly admit that Manovich’s reading was a lot to digest, his ideas focused around one of his opening lines:

“Many new media objects do not tell stories; they do not have a beginning to end; in fact, they do not have any development, thematically, formally, or otherwise what would organise their elements into a sequence. Instead, they are collections of individual items, with every item possessing the significance as any other” (Manovich, 2001).

From here, Manovich used his time to explain the process of narrative through alternative forms of storytelling, in which allowed “…a new way to structure our experience of ourselves and the world” (Manovich, 2001). Predominantly, these ideas surrounded using modern technology to form interfaces and databases in order to create a coherent narrative, in which the audience member moves from being a passive individual, to an active interactor.
The reading very much reminded me of my Network media class, in which we created an interactive narrative through the use of the program, Korsakow. After we had gathered a range of seemingly random footage (although all filmed in the one location of Melbourne’s Luna park) – which would become our database of footage, we used key words in order to link the footage to one another (from memory we linked emotions together). The audience member however, could control which emotional story they followed, as they were given the choice to select one of the two links that they were provided with on the interface. Manovich explains this concept as he states; “…creating a work in new media can be understood as the construction of an interface to a database. In the simplest case, the interface simply provides access to the underlying database” (Manovich, 2001).

While Manovich’s reading still has some black holes for me, Murray’s reading was a little easier to get a handle on. Predominantly discussing Agency, Murray explains it as “…the satisfying power to make meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices” (Murray, 1997). For me, I took this as a counterpart to Manovich’s reading – that being an active audience member, one can use technology to uncover a narrative through multiple platforms, i.e. through computer and console games, and from achieving or succeeding in progressing forward through the levels and narrative, the gamer feels a sense of accomplishment. However, the most interesting part of Murray’s reading came towards the ending, as she discussed “the interactor as author”, claiming that “there is a distinction between playing a creative role within an authored environment and having authorship of the environment itself” (Murray, 1997). This stuck out to me as it is easy to perceive how one could be mistaken that because they are controlling their avatar, making the decisions and deciding how to handle courses of actions, that they are in fact the narrator, the creator of the narrative. So it is when Murray states that “…interactors can only act within the possibilities that have been established by the writing and programming: (Murray, 1997), that I find myself agreeing with her completely (I have a tendency to have a soft spot for writers. As the opening credits of Deadpool (2015) state, they are “the real heroes here”) For anyone who still found themselves in disagreeance, however, Murray had some strict final words:

The interactor is not the author of the digital narrative, although the interactor can experience one of the most exciting aspects of artistic creation – the thrill of exerting power over enticing plastic materials. This is no authorship, but agency (Murray, 1997).

But now moving onto some class discussion!
In addition, we began our subtle slide into Transmedia storytelling, by examining how a fan can go beyond the work of the media they’re given. While the notion of Transmedia wasn’t specifically listed (the telling of a story across multiple media platforms), we touched on the basis of multi-platform storytelling; the cogs that keep the wheel spinning: The audience. So how can a fan go beyond simply being a viewer of a TV show, or a that of a “gamer”. Instantly, the website tumblr springs to mind. Unfazed, I will admit I myself am a fan girl, believing myself to be in a number of different “fandoms” ranging from The Marvel Fandom, to The Vampire Diaries Fandom, to the author Jennifer L Armentrout’s Fandom. So what does Tumblr have to do with it? Well, spend a total of five minutes on the website, and you’ll soon learn it’s a pop culture playground full of ships (the pairing of two characters from a story, whether they are romantically involved or not), fan theories, fan fiction and fan art. In fact, it’s a hub for fan discussion. On numerous occasions Tumblr has been my source for inside information and a place to ask questions to people who share the same interests. For others, it’s a place to share their work and art with people who appreciate the same stories, worlds and characters they do.
While the site is home to numerous (i’m talking thousands here) fandoms, there are some who stick out more than the rest. What has become known as the “Superwholock” Fandom, is probably the biggest of them all, incorporating the fans of all three shows of Supernatural, Doctor Who and Sherlock. It is a near impossibility for me to scroll through my “dash” without coming across one of their posts – although I am a supernatural fan, so I can’t complain too much.

^ Youtube user “Scout F’s” remix of the three biggest Tumblr Fandoms opening titles sequences

But what do these three have in common aside from their large-scale fan base? Their long-running series (which you could argue was to do with their fan base, or the fact that their shows have run for so long they have accumulated many audience members…this really is an endless discussion topic!). However, while there’s been numerous Doctors and multiple Sherlocks, Supernatural is in it’s first lifespan, currently midway through it’s thirteenth season. While I could list multiple reason for why these shows have been such a success, my aim in this post is to demonstrate the world of Fandoms. So to conclude, I’ve attached a few of my favourite fandom take overs of posts (mostly Supernatural though you might be able to spot some others in there!). Here, the fans have cut and edited lines from certain episodes, turning them into gifs that they have used for reactions to certain posts. Just another way they are demonstrating their appreciation for the story worlds, plots and characters.

 

 

R E F E R E N C E S 

• All tumblr images: spn-take-over, (2014), What’s That You Said About The Supernatural Fandom Having A Gif For Everything? [ONLINE]. Available at: http://spn-take-over.tumblr.com/post/92190112309/whats-that-you-said-about-the-supernatural-fandom [Accessed 12 March 16].
• Janet H. Murray, (1997), ‘Chapter 5: Agency.’ In Hamlet on the Holodeck.Cambridge, USA: The MIT Press.
• Lev Manovich, (2001), ‘The database.’ In The language of new media. Cambridge, USA: The MIT Press, pp. 218-243.
• Scout F. (2013). Superwholock Theme Mashup. [Online Video]. 01 July. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGhMru2bA8Y. [Accessed: 12 March 2016].