Category Archives: NetNarr

I spent a good part of the first 100 days of the Networked Narratives adventure trying to do the Daily Arganee prompt just about every day, both in my guise as The Internet Kid and Horse with no Name, and as myself, using an app called Legend to create short bursts of creativity. I stopped at the 100th prompt but may soon jump back on board. (I hit 98 with the Kid/Horse combo but only 79 as myself, according to the Daily Araganee leaderboard).

I stopped to take a breather when it started to feel like a chore rather than like fun. In addition, the NetNarr experience has shifted into a Mirror World element, and that has included new personas (I have another alternative fictional character in play) and different activities. I’ve been concentrating on that NetNarr aspect for now.

Using the Legend app gave me both some freedom (merging art with words and movement) and structure (limited text/characters) and I worked hard to try to see each prompt from a different angle, to come at it from the slanted view. I can’t quite explain what I mean, except that I never tried to directly address the prompt. Instead, I tried to come at it from an unexpected angle. Obviously, some days were more effective than others.

I have now gathered up many of the prompts that I responded to (although you can find them one at a time at the Daily Arganee site, too) , and put them into Animoto as a curated video space. I like the effect of them all together.

Take a look.

Peace (each day),
Kevin

Wired Laundrette flickr photo by mikecogh shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license

I was recently re-reading an interesting article by Clive Thompson, in Wired magazine, entitled “The Social Medium is the Message,” (which has a different title online, for whatever reason) and some of what he writes about resonates with the connection between social media, storytelling and civic imagination that forms the core anchor of the Networked Narratives course.

Here are some bits from Thompson’s article that stuck with me, and then some of my own commentary afterwards.

“Over the next year, the mainstream culture will grapple, for real, with the civic and political effects of our lives online.” — Clive Thompson, Wired, “The Social Medium is the Message”

That’s a fact. Whether it will be a productive discussion remains to be seen. The opening days of this presidency are not holding out great hope, with talk of “alternative facts” and outright lies to the American public and media.

“The most effective disinformation usually begins with an actual fact then amplifies, distorts, or elides; ban the distortion and you risk looking like you are banning the nugget of truth, too.” — Clive Thompson

See above. Trump, as Thompson notes, smartly understands this piece of how disinformation can be used. I suspect media outlets will be under gun until they find a way to harness the power they do have to hold officials accountable for their actions, and their words, and their tweets. We’ve already seen that happening in some of the major news organizations.

“There are limits to what technological fixes can achieve in civic life. Though social networks amplify American partisanship and distrust of institutions, those problems have been rising for years.” – Clive Thompson

Which means it may not be technology, but us, the people, who need to find ways to make this new system work. We need to pressure social media to reduce our bubbles (don’t just share with me things I want to read) and we need to reach out to others. Obama’s quote of calling on someone, in person, to discuss differences of opinions? Yes on that.

“The old order was flawed and elitist and locked out too many voices; it produced seemingly consensus by preventing many from being heard. We’re still fumbling around for new mechanisms that can replace that order and improve upon it.” — Clive Thompson

It seems to me that the Networked Narratives is evolving at the right moment in time, and that while we are celebrating the notions of digital storytelling in a very connected age, we also have to acknowledge and grapple with the reality of darkness that comes with such a shift. This week, we saw some of that darkness emerge with Facebook being the platform for a murder, playing out for the world to see, and all of the ensuing questions that arise about responsibility and censorship and viral natures of digital platforms.

If we want ourselves, and our children and our students, to become engaged in civic life, then we need to find ways to harness the potential positive power of networks for the good of the world (even though what one person defines as “good” might be “bad” in the mind of someone else).

I’m curious to know what you think.

Peace (brimming through the wires),
Kevin

It was by chance that my wife and I found ourselves inside Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum the other day, and I realized with a strange sense of “of course” that one of the exhibits was something I had shared out to the Networked Narratives world a few week ago, during our work with Sound and Story.

And here I was, wandering into the Art of Sound.

Stewart’s museum is intriguing, as the inside “palace” inside is chock full of all sorts of artistic wonders, and a few missing pieces (the museum was the scene of a great unsolved art heist many years ago). She was a patron of musicians, as is evident from collections of letter and music-themed art.

The Art of Sound is a series of sound pieces scattered about the museum (and other public spaces around Boston, apparently) that seeks to offer “new insights into the spatial, social, and aesthetic dimension of sound,” according to the museum information.

Each piece does have an interesting aural experience for the listener, and I appreciated how difficult it must be to create a sound experience in a museum built on the visual. One work, with LED lights and hanging crystals, reacts to your presence, giving off a sonic hum, as if enveloping you into the experience.

Another work is centered the purring of cats, which my wife and I found quite amusing. As you stare at huge close-up portraits of cats, who seem quite content to get their image taken, you listen to headphones of purring, and you move through the different tonal qualities of each cat’s individual purr. We found ourselves trying to remember the purr of our late cat, Coltrane.

In another piece, a massive room has been converted into a soundscape, where lights flicker on and off on the floor as a melody plays. The walls are full of speakers, set at different heights, to give an other-worldly element to the exhibit. We were there during the day, but I bet in fading light, the colors connected to the music would be even more interesting.

I found this video at the museum site, talking about one of the exhibits out in Boston that you can experience via an app.

Peace (listen),
Kevin

Remix Image by Mark

One component of the Networked Narratives is the concept of the “bus trip,” where Mia Zamora and Alan Levine took the show on the road. They did virtual visits with their  students, and assorted guests and open participants, to other places than Kean University campus, including Puerto Rico, Vermont and Egypt. As one of the Open Folks, who is part of NetNarr but not part of the graduate class at Kean, I pitched the idea a few weeks ago to some other open participants about organizing our own “Bus Trip.”

Last night, thanks to the organizing prowess of Wendy Taleo in Australia, we did just that, with a full Hangout House of folks — Terry E., Sandy, Alan, Mia, Mark, and Keegan. It was a fantastic time to gather together, and talk about our various creative projects that we have underway, and set the stage for some feedback for projects in the days ahead.

Keegan talked about a text-based game project he has in the works for professors at his college; Terry talked about using a Federated Wiki concept for a Fall class; Wendy mentioned learning how to fly drones so she can drone-race her son, and Sandy also talked about drones, and how the technical interface made learning about them daunting for her; Mark talked about an independent research project underway to better understand open learning platforms in hopes of sparking social change; Mia and Alan discussed the framework of Networked Narratives, which is now moving into an online world-building game mode, and how they are scrambling to keep a few steps ahead of students and participants; and I chatted about a Poem for Five Voices project I am just finishing up this week with some online friends.

When this much creative energy comes together in one place, at one time, it is inspiring. I have been grateful for my open friends in NetNarr and beyond. I notice that many of us are willing to try new things, to see how and if they work, and to keep pushing the envelope of digital storytelling and digital narratives a little bit further each time. To know that we have others to support us, and to help us (or let us know we’re on the path to Crazytown … again), is heartening in so many ways.

The Open Bus Trip hangout last night affirmed an important realization of online projects for me: Taking the time to be in the same “space” as others, even virtually and even across many time zones, for conversation and sharing provides an important emotional connection to the online experience itself that no amount of tweeting, blogging, commenting, and social media liking can ever replace. We’re people, after all, and people like to find their Tribes. I’m grateful to be in this particular Tribe at this particular time.

Peace (stories unfolded),
Kevin