Jonathan Krywulak’s Storify: Transliteracy / Transmedia

COMM 597: New Media Narratives Course #NMN provided an explorative journey through the concepts of Transliteracy and Transmedia.   Through a mixture of articles, videos, blogs, tweets, images, and comments we were better able to grasp what it means to be Transliterate and the value associated with it.  My Storify provides a brief overview of Transliteracy and its relation to Transmedia Narratives, where people have the ability to create, curette, and consume content.

Andrea Soler's storify - #NMN review

Nicole Basaraba's Storify: Transmedia

Overall I learned a lot about transliteracy, technobiophilia, and transmedia this semester. The New Media Narratives course really inspired my personal, professional, and academic pursuits.  I wish there was a #NMN2.0 so I could learn more about these areas, but I will continue to do so on my own time. The following is a Storify highlighting three areas I focused my attention on in the #NMN course.

Assignment 2 – Collective Intelligence

Bringing Nature to Kids through Technology

For this assignment I decided to look at the idea of using technology to help children experience nature. All three of the articles/ videos that I examined encompass the themes of nature, technobiophilia, and transliteracy.

In his TED talk “A teacher growing green in the South Bronx”, teacher Stephen Ritz talks about how he and his students teamed with Green Living Technologies, a company that develops technology for green roofs and green walls, in order to build an indoor edible wall in their South Bronx classroom. Green Living’s technology allows plants to grown in an urban setting, both inside and outside. Ritz states that the edible wall allowed all of his students to participate in this farming exercise. He says, “I wanted to figure out how I could get this kind of success into something small, like this, and bring it into my classroom so that handicapped kids could do it, kids who didn't want to be outside could do it, and everyone could have access…And lo and behold, we gave birth to the first edible wall in New York City” (Ritz, Jan. 2012). The food the students grew was served to students and teachers in the school cafeteria. Students were also encouraged to graze directly off the wall whenever they wanted. They had access to fresh vegetables during school hours that they grew themselves.

Ritz’s students were so inspired by their green wall, that they went on to build and design more walls and roofs, and they got paid for their efforts. Ritz discusses one case, which seems to embody technobiophilia, where his students designed and installed a green wall on the John Hancock building in Boston. Ritz states that “And my kids, from the poorest congressional district in America, became the first to install a green wall, designed by a computer, with real-live learning tools, 21 stories up” (Ritz, Jan. 2012). Some of Ritz’s students have become licensed Green Living installers, and have gone onto work with contractors in their neighborhood who build affordable housing. Through this introduction to green technology, and what they have learned about growing food, Ritz’s students have been able to transform their neighborhood, their school, and their future.

In her Ted talk “Using tech to enable dreaming” Shilo Shiv Suleman also discusses how children can use technology to enhance their experience with nature. Suleman states that she felt that technology was killing imagination. She felt that cellphones and digital cameras had “stopped us from dreaming. They stopped us from being inspired. And so I jumped…into this world of technology, to see how I could use it to enable magic as opposed to kill it” (Suleman, Dec. 2011).

Suleman did this by designing an interactive iPad app called Khoya, which allows children to become immersed in a digital fantasy adventure story. She states that she realized that the iPad was the perfect storytelling device – a transmedia storytelling device – because it could connect readers all over the world, plus the device can tell the way it’s being held, and it has a GPS so it can tell where the reader lives. She states that digital storytelling allows for transliteracy because “It brings together image and text and animation and sound and touch. Storytelling is becoming more and more multi-sensorial” (Suleman, Dec. 2011). In terms of technobiophilia, as part of the interactive digital story, readers are asked to go outside and take pictures with their iPad of nature – like flowers or leaves - and upload the photos online, where they can share with other readers around the world. Suleman states that “now with mobile technology, we can actually take our children outside into the natural world with their technology.” (Suleman, Dec. 2011). She feels that we are moving towards a world where nature and technology are becoming closer, stating that “We're bringing our children and ourselves closer to the natural world and that magic and joy and childhood love that we had through the simple medium of a story” (Suleman, Dec. 2011).

In her article “Get Your Students Outside With Technology”, Patty McGinnis discusses how technology, students and nature can be a ‘winning combination’. McGinnis writes how the creation on an interpretive trail helped her students interact with nature while using technology to “create a product that would be beneficial to the community” (McGinnis, p.59, 2014). This exercise allowed her students to become transliterate because it “addressed many 21st-century learning skills while making learning relevant and providing students with an authentic audience for their work” (McGinnis, p.59, 2014). Students were tasked with creating numbered posts that contained a quick response (QR) code to be placed along a nature trail. A QR code contains an embedded URL, that when scanned with a smart phone takes the user to a student created Web site. Each student made their own QR codes and created their own Web sites which contained text information, photos and student created videos explaining different points of interest along the trail.

During this exercise, students were required to become familiar with different types of technology, along with their life-sciences course content. Students were placed into small working groups, and each group had to record their point of interest along the trail on Google Sites. McGinnis explains that “Students were made editors of the site, which enabled them to add information about their point of interest to their page” (McGinnis, p.60, 2014). Students were encouraged to use "text, images, podcasts and videos when discussing their points of interest” (McGinnis, p.59, 2014) on their sites, plus they learned how to place a marker on their point of interest on Google Maps. This exercise seems like a great example also of Dr. Sue Thomas’s definition of technobiophilia, because students were encouraged to “achieve a ‘tech-nature’ balance through practical experiments designed to enhance…digital lives indoors, outdoors, and online” (Thomas, July 2013).

My Delicious site is: https://delicious.com/nawoods

References:
McGinnis, P. (2014). GET YOUR STUDENTS OUTSIDE WITH TECHNOLOGY!. Science Scope, 37(7), 58-64.

Ritz, S. (2012). A teacher growing green in South Bronx. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx

Suleman, S. (2011). Using tech to enable dreaming. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/shilo_shiv_suleman_using_tech_to_enable_dreaming?quote=1330

Thomas, S. (2013). Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace. Retrieved from http://suethomasnet.wordpress.com/technobiophilia/

Week 9: Transmedia Guest Lecture from Christy Deena

Here is the lecture from Dr. Christy Deena. Please read through and think about what Christy asks you to do. Leave your comments here, as usual, and Christy will respond towards the end of the week.

A Quick Pulse Check on Transmedia

Transmedia storytelling is often understood through a definition put forward by academic Henry Jenkins:

Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story. (source: http://henryjenkins.org/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html)

Transmedia has kept evolving since the early days of theories around its nature. Let’s have a look at some top-level concepts that encompass key varieties of transmedia and see what we’ve learned over the past ten years:

1.     Medium

Story and experiences created with transmedia are affected by the nature of the media involved. Just as one writes for the affordances of film or television, writing a story that works across film and the web needs skills not just with each medium involved, but across them too. You have to create a storyworld (http://meanjin.com.au/blog/post/meanland-some-things-ive-learned-from-transmedia-worldbuilding/) that works in different media (a concept borrowed from franchise development), and you think about how your audience or players will be moved to continue with the story across media and so on. Two types of medium dispersion have arisen to various degrees however.

1.1  Intermedium

From the very beginning, most researchers and practitioners championed the “multi-platform” nature of transmedia. Indeed, my PhD thesis focused on creative works that are distinguished by their use of distinct media platforms (and environments). These types of projects are an under-recognised form(s) that deserved the spotlight transmedia theories provided. They’re not as pervasive as other mono-medium works though, in no small part due to the diverse and open thinking that transmedia requires. You don’t privilege or see artforms as hierarchies in transmedia. 

1.2  Intramedium

In practice though, what has emerged is a leaning towards intramedium works. These sorts of works, where the experience is dispersed across “sites” such as websites a kind of distributed narrative (http://jilltxt.net/txt/distributednarratives.html), have become more accessible and welcoming to practitioners and audiences alike. The creatives still need to work with the key creative challenge of transmedia: that of creating a wholeness out of dispersed works. But they’re not dealing with the added complication of medial boundaries. Lizzie Bennet Diaries (http://www.lizziebennet.com/) is a recognised recent exemplar of this type of transmedia, one that I have spoken about the significance of before (http://www.yousuckattransmedia.com/you-suck-at-seeing-transmedia-change/).

2.     Production Timing

It is part of the community-defining rhetoric of digital media to distinguish between “digital native” and “non-digital-native” works. This language emerges because there is a natural tendency towards remediation (http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Remediation.html?id=kwZZdKiXG8wC&redir_esc=y) . Indeed, anyone who works with “newcomers” finds that digital media is often viewed first as a delivery channel (for example streaming TV rather than making webisodes) and a place to adapt stories or games from another medium. It isn’t viewed as an artistic medium in itself. The same happens with transmedia. Works can be designed to be transmedia from the beginning, or made transmedia retrospectively.

2.1  Proactive

Proactive transmedia encompasses those works that are transmedia-native. They are designed to be transmedia from the beginning. Intramedium transmedia are always proactive transmedia.

2.2  Retroactive

Retroactive transmedia explains works that become transmedia because of the relationships added to an existing project. In most cases the scenario operates as follows: a mono-medium project is created (eg: a film or TV show or book or digital or analogue game); then either after it is released or after it has at least been thoroughly developed, the world is expanded in another medium. So the first work is designed to be experienced in a single medium, and the next work then tries to change that nature. This can be the harder route to take because the first work is conclusive, there isn’t much else to explore. The lack of success in this type of approach accounts in part for the lack of popularity with intermedium transmedia in some circles.

3.     Reality aesthetics

A related phenomenon is “alternate reality aesthetics”. The concept emerged with the rise of “alternate reality games” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game), and is observable in many transmedia projects outside of ARGs. It involves a relationship with the world of the player in some way. So rather than seeing a medium as a conduit or window to another world one is transported to, the actual present-time world is integrated in some way. This can be to various degrees ranging from being completely set in the here and now observing all the constraints of “reality” to involving fantastical elements too. A great majority of proactive intramedium transmedia works have the world of the audience or player recognised in some way.

4.     Participatory

Likewise, another trait of transmedia is implemented to varying degrees: that of the participatory nature. This involvement of the audience or players can be participatory design (during the development and production of the work), or participatory in the work. Like all of the approaches described above, this affects the nature of the work and requires a whole different skillset. It is perhaps the least pervasive approach though, due in part to the difficulties the creative process entails rather than lack of audience interest.

What types of transmedia have you come across? Are there ones you prefer? If so, why? Your answer might give an insight into the evolution of transmedia – why it has developed in the direction it has, and where it might be going…

Week 9: Transmedia

Week 9: Transmedia	Required and Recommended Readings
Guest Lecture by Christy Deena	n  O'Flynn, S. (2012). Documentary's metamorphic form: Webdoc, interactive, transmedia, participatory and beyond. Studies In Documentary Film, 6(2), 141-157.

A bit about Christy Deena, our fantabulous guest-lecturer for this week.

Christy Dena is a writer-designer-director who has worked on award-winning pervasive games, film, digital and theatre projects. Clients include Nokia, Cisco/No Mimes Media, ABC, Wieden+Kennedy, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Noah Falstein, Ken Eklund & Agency of Coney, and many more.
Christy was granted Australia’s first Digital Writing Residency at The Cube for her project “Robot University,” funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and QUT. In 2012, she was the “Digital Writing Ambassador” for the Emerging Writers Festival; and a prototype of her project “AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS” was Finalist for “Best Writing in a Game” Award at the Freeplay Independent Gaming Festival. Christy co-wrote “The Writers Guide to Making a Digital Living” for the Australian Literature Board.
She has given keynotes and presentations at film, tech, writing, and gaming festivals worldwide, including Power to the Pixel (London), DIYDays (LA), TEDxTransmedia (Switzerland). She has mentored industry professionals around the world, including The Pixel Lab and Crossover; has written numerous articles on writing and design, and been published in numerous industry books. Christy was commissioned to run Transmedia Victoria, a key transmedia event in Melbourne bringing professionals from TV, film, performance, art, and gaming together.
She is Professor Adjunct at Creative Industries, QUT; Game Design Lecturer at SAE Brisbane; a Member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys); and a Board Member of the Entertainment Technology Press (ETC).
Christy has been a juror for the International Digital Emmy Awards, IPF Web Drama Series, and many other programs including the Australia Council for the Arts. She wrote the first PhD on Transmedia Practice, and wrote the definition of ‘transmedial fictions’ for the forthcoming The Johns Hopkins Encyclopedia of Digital Textuality. Christy has released her award-nominated web audio adventure for the iPad called AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS (with the crowdfunding campaign being the biggest successful campaign for a game on Pozible to date).  Her digital installation “Robot University” was launched at The Cube, QUT; and her playful story for the phone, “Guardians of Hidden Universes” was released at the first outdoor pervasive gaming festival: Popup Playground’s Fresh Air Festival.