The Story Lab 2015

What is story _now_?

Category: Resources

Theresa Duncan CD-ROMs

April 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

This might be of interest to those of you keen to discover more about the history of transmedia storytelling. Interesting that two of the three Theresa Duncan CD-ROMs predated Murray’s work on Agency!

In the 1990s, Theresa Duncan and collaborators made three videogames that exemplified interactive storytelling at its very best.

Two decades later, the works (like most CD-ROMs) have fallen into obscurity, but they remain as luminous and compelling as ever. This online exhibition—copresented by Rhizome and the New Museum as part of First Look: New Art Online—brings them back, making them playable online.

Read the rest of the article (and play the games!) here.

Week 9 Reading

April 27, 2015 / / 0 Comments

The Gambarato reading for Week 9 is now available via Blackboard, as listed on the Readings & Resources page – get on it!

Kill Me Three Times

April 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments

KillMeThreeTimes

Head to this website and scroll to the bottom to begin the immersive, branded, storytelling experience being used to promote the new Aussie flick Kill Me Three Times starring Simon Pegg.

How to pitch anything in two minutes

April 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Creating a positive association with a product as mundane as a toaster is no easy feat. Yet this chef won me over in under two minutes. This proves you have the ability to persuade your listeners with every pitch. Don’t believe you have a dull product. As a former correspondent for CNN, I learned that how the message is told is as important as the message itself.

McLuhan is high-fiving himself in his grave…

[read the rest here]

Storytelling in the internet age

April 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments

It’s easier to reach millions of people than ever, and great stories are doing just that.

While a post on Buzzfeed or The New York Times is far likelier to get 5 million hits, a post on your personal blog can still accomplish that. It could hit the front page of Reddit or get shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook or get syndicated by a big publication.

Storytellers today have the best tools, the best distribution channels, and the largest audience in history.

[read the full piece from Medium here]

Dr Troy Innocent – Guest Lecture

April 16, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Hi team –

You can grab my garbled notes from Troy’s lecture here, just in case you’ll find them useful. Lots and lots of interesting tidbits were raised — both in the lecture and the subsequent discussion — that I think will be useful for a lot of your projects. Also a lot of good sparks for awesome blog posts: pitch me Story Lab as micronation! Write a constitution! Design a flag!

Even if you’d not thought about game mechanics and elements of gaming before, maybe you’ve been inspired to include some of these things in order to increase player/audience interest and engagement with your projects.

The Semiotician’s Oath

April 13, 2015 / / 0 Comments

This article is an old favourite, for thinking ‘outside the box’ when it comes to story and how it should operate, and also for different ideas on where stories should come from.

Story gives humans a chance at survival.

Because of story and our willingness to guess, we achieve what most animals cannot: We pass along knowledge.

Naked and fragile, humans thrive in spite of a lack of armor or fangs because of story. All other animals must discover the world anew every generation. We iterate on each others’ knowledge.

It’s also handy as we move into our stories, and as we think about how to fracture them for different platforms.

The Last Hours of Laura K

April 8, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Last Hours of Laura K

Those of you looking at doing murder mysteries or immersive theatre-type stuff might be interested in this BBC Writers’ Room project.

Week 4: Seminar Class

March 25, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Research Response Queries

  • formal essay-style response
  • not just class readings
  • word count 2000 +/- 10%
  • citations/refs
  • text only
  • be ready to present in Week 5
  • double check submission req’s – late penalties will apply
  • email questions before 5pm Friday – ideally earlier

Projects & Teams

  • finish your brief proposal – individually or group
  • remember to keep this proposal simple: 50-100 word story summary, list of characters, any ideas for platform, genre notes
  • upload this proposal to your blog
  • assign roles in your group
  • work the idea as a group

Collaboration Contracts

  • table names and roles (must be on paper)
  • discuss expectations for collaboration
  • draft five rules – reword, add, edit
  • names – final five rules – signatures
  • upload five rules to blog
  • hand to Dan

Case Study resource – Analyzing [sic] Film

March 12, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Karen Gocsik & Richard Barsam. (2012). Analyzing Film. In Writing About Movies (Third Edition). New York City: WW Norton & Co. (accessible through Blackboard)

I’ve dropped a resource in the Readings & Resources folder on Blackboard that some of you may find useful. Be aware, though, and this is a big warning, that the analysis that Gocsik and Barsam are demonstrating is very specific to film. There are some parts that simply won’t work when looking at a super-experimental non-filmic object. But the general rules about formal analysis may be useful in unpacking and writing about your chosen ‘text’.

Recent Posts

Categories

© 2025 The Story Lab 2015

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑

Skip to toolbar