Futurecasting storytelling

The Future of Digital Storytelling – An Exercise in Futurecasting Trisha Andres and Julian Kücklich Knowledge Transfer Partnership, London College of Communication / Press Association

Overview Rationale Methodology The Past The Present The Future, 2008-2020 The Future, 2021-2050 Conclusion

Rationale Part of the work of the KTP associates at the Press Association focuses on new ways of storytelling for news media. Currently, news stories are produced using various technologies and procedures, and delivered through multiple channels. We anticipate increasing technological convergence and changing consumption patterns, to both of which PA will need to adapt.

Methodology Literature review Web research Interviews with IT team at PA and other technology experts Conferences and seminars Futurecasting Brainstorming Allocation of tasks Delivery format

Allocation of tasks Past: Trisha Andres Present: Julian Kücklich Future, 2008 – 2020: Trisha Andres Future, 2021 – 2050: Julian Kücklich

Overview The Past The Present The Near Future (2008-2020) The Future (2021-2050)

The Past: Oral Tradition Mythology (ca. 500 B.C.) Earliest form of interactive story and entertainment Dionysian rituals (i.e. religious rituals) – coming of age Source: scholar John Campbell (1904-1987)

The Past: Dramatic Tradition Drama (tragedy): Aristotle The Poetics (330 B.C.) Three-act structure: beginning, middle and end Dramatic structure, unity of action, plot reversals, and the tragic flaw Character development, dialogue, plot, and techniques to elicit emotional response from audience

The Past: Pictorial Tradition Tapestry of Bayeaux ( constructed reasonably soon after the battle in 1066) The Norman conquest of England Story told by panels Main character: William the Conquerer Precursor of Comics

The Past: Musical Tradition Opera (16 th /17 th century) First opera: Dafne composed by Jacopo Peri Story of Apollo falling in love with the nymph, Daphne

The Past: Musical Tradition Ballads (17 th century) e.g.: Robin Hood - Broadsheet ballad = New ballads/Satirical or Royalist ballads - Literary ballad - Ballad opera = antecedents of the modern newspaper AKA oral news

The Past: Literary Tradition World’s first newspaper (1605) (WAN): The German Relation - The first modern newspapers: Germany ( Relation in 1605) France ( Gazette in 1631), Belgium ( Nieuwe Tijdingen in 1616) England ( The London Gazette in 1665; still published as a court journal). Source: World Association of Newspapers (WAN)

The Past: Literary Tradition First novel: Don Quixote (1605) Farce-punning and verbal playfulness Character-naming makes figural use of contradiction, inversion, and irony Influence over later writers

The Past: Literary Tradition Short story (19 th century) Popular e.g.: Washington Irving ( Rip Van Winkle & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ) Edgar Allan Poe ( Grotesque and the Arabesque ) 20 TH century: appeared in magazines: The Atlantic Monthly , Scribner's , The Saturday Evening Post, Life

The Past: Literary Tradition Comics (19 th century) Ally Sloper's Half Holiday British comic, first published on 3 May 1884. It has a legitimate claim to being the first comic magazine named after and featuring a regular character. The strip in a newspaper = driving force of the form

The Past: Pictorial Tradition Photojournalism (1853) Carol Szathmari: Crimean War (1853-1856). Golden Age of Photojournalism (1930-1950) Henri Cartier-Bresson: father of modern photojournalism THEN: HCB: George VI Coronation, 1938 NOW: Afghan girl, Steve McCurry, 1985

The Past: Audiovisual Media Film (1888) Invention of the motion picture camera (1880) Reel + motion picture projector = motion pictures Silent films  talkies B&W  ”natural” colour

Digital text-based Storytelling New forms of writing and reading emerged with the advent of the digital computer in the 1960s and 1970s However, these only became mainstream when affordable home computers emerged in the 1980s Arguably, the interactive fiction game was the most successful form of digital text-based storytelling

Early hypertext systems Hypertext Editing System (1969) HyperCard (1987)

Early interactive fiction (IF) Colossal Cave / Advent (1975 / 1976) Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1984)

Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) MUD1 (1978)

Early hyperfiction Michael Joyce: Afternoon, A Story (1987)

Storytelling on the web Blogs (1994?) NASA website (1996)

Audiovisual storytelling Audiovisual storytelling has its origins in film and radio Smaller and cheaper devices fostered new forms of storytelling, such as audio books and home videos Similarly, television was transformed by the invention of VCRs, DVDs, and hard disk recorders Web-based audiovisual technologies have further diversified the genre

Audio storytelling technology Compact cassette (1964) Compact disc (1982) MP3 player (1997) Podcasts (2001)

Audiovisual Media MTV (1981) MTV launched, airing "Video Killed the Radio Star” and began an era of 24/7 music on television. Madonna, Adam and the Ants, Myleene Farmer, etc. constructed image via videos.

(Digital) image-based storytelling Webcomics Flickr photo essay

Video storytelling technology VHS video (1976) Videoblogging (2003)

New TV storytelling formats Television (1925ish) Tivo (1998) Big Brother (1999) 24 (2001) American Idol (2002) Survivor (2001) I’m a Celebrity (2002) Lost (2004)

Multimedia Storytelling PCs with CD-ROM drives became popular in the 1990s, and this gave rise to interactive audiovisual formats Games such as Myst were hailed as a new form of literature The transition to user-driven web content (Web 2.0) gave rise to a host of tools for personal, networked storytelling

Early Hypermedia Aspen Movie Map (1978) Myst 1993

Interactive film Dragon’s Lair (1983) Phantasmagoria (1995)

Early graphical adventure games Super Mario Bros. (1985) King’s Quest (1984)

Early 3D narratives Doom (1993) Jeffrey Shaw: Legible City (1989)

Multilinear spatial narratives Grand Theft Auto 3 (2001) World of Warcraft (2004)

Alternate reality games (ARGs) I love bees (2004) The Beast (2001) SENTIENT MACHINE THERAPIST – JEANINE SALLA

Social networking as storytelling Facebook (2004) MySpace (2003) Twitter (2006)

Location-based storytelling Geocaching Mobile Map-based

The Near Future: Overview Digital storytelling is narrative entertainment that reaches its audience via digital technology and media—microprocessors, wireless signals, the Web, DVDs and so on (Handler Miller, 2004) Older media (ANALOG) vs. New Media (Digital) = difference = interactivity First modern computers were introduced in the middle of the twentieth century First successful work of digital entertainment is Pong – appeared in 1972

The Near Future: Overview Lifecasting (biographical storytelling) Social storytelling - Ubiquitous computing RFID/ubiquitous storytelling Gaming Technology - Virtual reality and cyberspace - Convergence: - Future access devices and input technology - Visualisation: Infinite canvas - Conclusion

The Future: 2008-2020 Lifecasting: biographical storytelling Justin.tv Wearable sousveillance concept (Wearcam.org) Trackstick

The Future: 2008-2020 As a consequence: Social storytelling Knewsroom Newsvine OhMyNews The term Citizen Journalist will cease to exist as today’s citizen journalists more and more get compensated and trained. Stories: More human interest/features

The Future: 2008-2020 Virtual reality vs. Ubiquitous computing Mark Weiser, Former Chief Technologist at Xerox PARC Source: fill

The Future: 2008-2020 Ubiquitous computing + RFID (Radio Frequency Identification System) EVERYWARE (Adam Greenfield): RFID tags, wireless networking, portable devices hooked up to satellites, wearable computing -- will make objects in the real world act like the Internet currently does. FUTURE: Dubbed: The Omni(prescient) Environment Environments will tell their own stories E.g.: Scan a building Scan artwork in a museum or gallery NOW: Ginza

The Future: 2008-2020 Gaming Technology Two scenarios: (a) One virtual world OR (b) Trans-national world (where avators or in a blood-cell computer world, the augmented version of you) can cross borders and traverse worlds Interoperability, virtual travel (ranging between worlds), interaction and rich communication Scenario 1 Scenario 2

The Future: 2008-2020 Cyberspace + Virtual Reality Virtual Reality will be Real Reality Fully emergent games Exponential growth in processing power and shrinking of technology (microscopic computers) 1000,000-fold shrinking of computer technology Nanotechnology can create blood-cell devices: produce fully immersive realities within the nervous system Pea-size device  blood cell device Learning and storytelling through parallel interactions BUSINESS

The Future: 2008-2020 Input Technology Digital Pens Gesture devices Motion sensors Game pads

The Future: 2008-2020 Future Devices BUSINESS Flexible active matrix e-paper SVGA display by PlasticLogic. This could be the future of newspapers, magazines, and other paper media.

The Future: 2008-2020 Future Platforms: Convergence: Evolution From: (multiplicity of platforms) BUSINESS SKYPE on PSP TO: Global devices Trans-platform devices with reconfigured uses (all-around devices) E.g.: With PSP, you can check your email and listen to your playlist. Completely platform/device- independent stories?

The Future: 2008-2020 Visualisation: The Infinite ‘Canvas’ BUSINESS + Touch screen scrolling (ad infinitum) feature e-paper - Inspired by Steve McCloud’s concept “Infinite Canvas” in comics

The Future: 2008-2012 Will there be completely platform/device-independent stories? Experiential usership: No longer will you have to say “I heard it on the radio.” You may have heard it on your PSP, mobile phone, PC, etc.

From multimedia to unimedia Technology will make it possible to access a story from wherever you want, on any device, in a variety of media forms Genre distinctions will disappear – there will be no difference between watching a film, reading a book, listening to an audio source, or playing a game, etc.

From multimedia to unimedia Movie Game So undtrack B ook eReader Games Console Screen Phone Augmented Reality

Delivery technologies Currently, media use takes place primarily on PCs and portable devices (e.g. mp3 players), however, this is likely to change Advances in augmented reality, reactive environments, neural interfaces, and biotechnology will make media consumption truly ubiquitous

Augmented reality Wearable computing technology HUDs Half-Life Terminator vision

Reactive Environments Ambient Intelligence Holodeck Virtual Reality

Neural interfaces / cyborgs Cyborgs

Drugs and dreams Programmable dreams Lucid dream device Hallucinations Psychoactive drugs

New consumption patterns If the current trend towards user-generated content and interactivity continues, linear storytelling will increasingly give way to multilinear, open-ended narration This will by necessity be a pull rather than a push feature – if users just want to lose themselves in a story, they don’t have to do anything

Procedural story generation Façade (2005)

A story generating database V. Propp: Morphology of the Folk Tale (1928) All possible stories All existing stories

Rich media formats Rich media formats will make it possible to encode stories in such a way that they can be delivered in any desired format, including audio, (interactive) film, text, location-based narrative and images (e.g. comics or slide shows) Semantic technology will make it possible to ‘transcode’ rich media into any non-rich media format

Artificial intelligence Advances in artificial intelligence will enable computers to react to natural language input, adapt to user preferences, think creatively and produce stories.

The Sheherazade device The Sheherazade device is an autonomous virtual agent with semantic parsing capabilities and access to a story generation database can be accessed through any device allows users to choose a story from the library or make up a new one can deliver stories in any desired format – text, image, video, audio, … and a combination thereof adapts to users’ preferences and acts as a recommendation engine Would you like me to tell you a story?

Storytelling as a social activity Media consumption will not be a solitary experience Several users can experience the same story, either individually or collectively Users’ decisions can influence the development of the story for other users

Conclusion Predicting the future of digital story-telling made us more aware of the fact that we are currently in a transitional phase The variety of media formats existing today is historically contingent and likely to change In order to be ready for the future, PA needs to be aware of possible future developments and take steps accordingly While fictional stories differ from news stories significantly, both genres will continue to be transformed by new technologies and consumption patterns

Futurecasting storytelling

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