multi-platform

By Daniele Giampà, 12 November, 2014
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Abstract (in English)

TheCoevas Strumentist di Parole is an group of authors or, as they define themselves, a literary band which created an interactive novel called TheCoevasIo interattivo (TheCoevas I interactive). The novel which was published in 2011 on the blog of the authors is accompanied by a medium-length documentary and is also published in form of printed book. Another characteristic of the novel is the variety of the online versions: iWork Apple, Powerpoint and pdf. As they explain in the interview, the project as a whole is conceived as an experiment of different ways of expressions and the work of writing is similar to the musical composition of a band. The very freedom of creativity is granted to the readers who can choose various audio-visual effects and narrative paths following their emotional and individual choices according to the demands of extemporaneity.

Abstract (in original language)

TheCoevas Strumentisti di Parole è un gruppo di autori o una band letteraria, come si definiscono loro, che ha creato un romanzo interattivo intitolato TheCoevasIo interattivo. Il romanzo che è stato pubblicato nel 2011 sul blog degli autori è accompagnato da un mediometraggio ed è anche stato pubblicato in forma di libro cartaceo. Altra particolarità del romanzo è la varietà delle versioni online: iWork Apple, Powerpoint e pdf. Come spiegano nell’intervista, il progetto nell’insieme è inteso come una sperimentazione di diverse forme espressive e il lavoro di scrittura è simile a una composizione musicale di una band. Questa libertà creativa viene concessa anche ai loro lettori che possono scegliere diversi effetti audio-visivi e percorsi narrativi in base a scelte emotive e individuali secondo le esigenze dell’estemporaneità.

By Jill Walker Rettberg, 12 June, 2013
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Abstract (in English)

In 2001 Henry Jenkins discussed the growing prevalence of ‘transmedia storytelling’. Transmedia storytelling is, simply put, franchises: a movie is followed by a game, then perhaps a comic, website and so on. An example is the Wachowski brother’s Matrix franchise. For Jenkins each media, each channel, communicates different aspects of a storyworld. Since 2003 Jane McGonigal, and others, have been researching the phenomenological and social aspects of ‘alternate reality gaming’. Alternate reality gaming requires players to traverse websites, games, public play, SMS and so on. Microsoft’s The Beast was the first of such ‘games’ that required participation with websites, posters, faxes, hacking, chatbots and Spielberg’s film AI (McGonigal, 2003).
Academic research into multi-channel storytelling is at present approached from the media studies and phenomenological perspective. As yet no poetics to address transmedia, alternate reality gaming, cross- or multi-platform and cross-media of content have been proposed in academia; in addition no poetics has been invented for multi- channel single-story creation (that is: one story told over multiple media).
This paper provides an overview of the poetics being developed for multi-channel storytelling. It is a narrative schema intended for instructional use in story creation and literary criticism.