Master Exhibit & Public Design, La Sapienza, Lezione 1

Narrative TransmedialiSalvatore Iaconesi & Oriana Persico

“La Sapienza” Università di RomaMaster in Exhibit & Public Design

Thursday, May 23, 13

- presentazioni- avanzamento- metodo/processo- narrative transmediali


gli output del corso

• una narrativa transmediale

• una pubblicazione

• elementi da esposizione


Narrative Transmediali


SIMULACRI

Organize a fake holdup. Verify that your weapons are harmless, and take the most trustworthy hostage, so that no human life will be in danger (or one lapses into the criminal.) Demand a ransom, and make it so that the operation creates as much commotion as possible — in short, remain close to the "truth," in order to test the reaction of the apparatus to a perfect simulacrum. You won't be able to do it: the network of artificial signs will become inextricably mixed up with real elements (a policeman really will fire on sight; a client of the bank will faint and die of a heart attack; one will actually pay you the phony ransom). [p. 20]

“The Precession of Simulacra”, Jean Baudrillard



a terrorist sect called

The Panther Modernstakes advantage of the fuzzy boundary

between the simulacra and the realto create chaos at the Sense/Net Corporation


NEUROMANCER

Nine Moderns, scattered along two hundred miles of the Sprawl, had simultaneously dialed MAX EMERG from pay phones.Nine different police departments and public security agencies were absorbing the information that an obscure subsect of militant Christian fundamentalists had just taken credit for having introduced clinical levels of an outlawed psychoactive agent known as Blue Nine into the ventilation system of the Sense/Net Pyramid. Blue Nine had been shown to produce acute paranoia and homicidal psychosis in eight-five percent of experimental subjects.

“Neuromancer”, William Gibson


• phone emergency

• show video footage inside Sense/Net that triggers seizures in a certain percentage of employees

• introduces images of contamination

• audio of a news segment dealing with a dangerous human growth hormone

• By creating panic among the Sense/Net employees, The Panther Moderns simulate the effects of introducing Blue Nine into the ventilation system to the security forces

• at the same time, the presence of the security forces reaffirms the employees' belief that there are biological agents in the ventilation system

• it only required nine phone calls and five minutes of video feedThursday, May 23, 13

the characters fail to distinguish reality from simulation


a transmedia story represents the integration of entertainment experiences across a range of

different media platformsHenry Jenkins, 2007


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 its own

unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.

So, for example, in The Matrix franchise, key bits of information are conveyed through three live action films, a series of animated shorts, two collections of comic book stories, and several video games. There is no

one single source or ur-text where one can turn to gain all of the information needed to comprehend the Matrix universe.

Henry Jenkins, 2007


In 2007, some songs from their Year Zero album were thought to have been leaked as they were found on a lost flash drive in a hotel room, while the band was on

tour. On that flash drive there were songs and recorded phone calls, which later turned out to be parts of a previously made-up online experience for Nine Inch Nails fans. From the recorded phone call mp3 fans decoded a URL of a website that gave them further

clues to decipher.

Nine Inch Nails


CHARACTERISTICS


1. Spreadability vs. Drillability

Spreadable media encourages horizontal ripples, accumulating eyeballs without necessarily encouraging more long-term

engagement.

Drillable media typically engage far fewer people, but occupy more of their time and energies in a vertical descent into a

text’s complexities.


2. Continuity vs. Multiplicity

Some transmedia franchises foster an ongoing coherence to a canon in order to ensure maximum plausibility among all

extensions.

Others routinely use alternative versions of characters or parallel universe versions of their stories to reward mastery

over the source material.

examples: DC and MARVEL comics; fan fictions; UGC; mash-ups


3. Worldbuilding

Transmedia extensions, often not central to the core narrative, that give a richer description of the world in which the narrative

plays out.

Exploy both real-world and digital experiences.

Often lead to fan behavior of capturing and cataloguing many desparate elements.



Janet Murray argues that stories will have to work for two or three kinds of viewers in parallel:

"the actively engaged real-time viewer who must find satisfaction in each single episode and the more reflective long-term audience who look for coherent patterns in the story as a whole (...) [and] the

navigational viewer who takes pleasure in following the connections between different parts of the story and in discovering multiple

arrangements of the same material."



4. Negative CapabilityWhen applied to storytelling, negative capability is the art of

building strategic gaps into a narrative to evoke a delicious sense of "uncertainty, mystery or doubt" in the audience.

Simple references to people, places or events external to the current narrative provide hints to the history of the characters

and the larger world in which the story takes place.

This empowers the audience to fill in the gaps in their own imaginations while leaving them curious to find out more.

Long, 2007


5. Migratory CuesThe letter in Matrix is a sample of a Migratory Cue – when used at the beginning of the second

movie it exists as a hint to look for more information in Animatrix and in Enter the Matrix.

Yet the story functions even without audience members having experienced either the anime or the video game, as they can imagine their own answer to the question of where exactly that

letter came from.

They retain the option to go and track it down, and their understanding (and enjoyment) of the story would be increased by their doing so.

Understand: any reference to external people, places or events as utilizing negative capability to craft potential migratory cues, and become actualized as migratory cues when those extensions

become available.

Long, 2007


6. Seriality

Transmedia storytelling has taken the notion of breaking up a narrative arc into multiple discrete chunks or installments within

a single medium

and instead has spread those desparate ideas and story chunks across multiple media segments


We might understand how serials work by falling back on a classicfilm studies distinction between story and plot.

The story refers to our mental construction of what happened which can be formed only after we have absorbed all of the available chunks of information.

The plot refers to the sequence through which those chunks of information have been made available to us.

A serial creates meaningful and compelling story chunks and then disperses the full story across multiple installments.

We can think of trensmedia storytelling as a hyperbolic version of the serial, where the chunks of meaningful engaging story information have been dispersed not simply across multiple segments within the same medium, but rather across multiple media systems.

Jenkins, 2009


7. Subjectivity

Transmedia narratives often explore the central narrative through new eyes, such as secondary characters or third parties.

The diversity of perspective oftel leads fans to more greatly consider who is speaking and who they are speaking for.

examples: backstories; mobisodes; webisodes;

1st, 2nd or 3rd person


8. Performance

The ability of transmedia extensions to lead to fan produced performances that can become part of the transmedia narrative

itself.

Some performances are invited by the creatorwhile others are not.

Fans actively search for sites of potential performance.


Cultural Attractors: draw together a communityof people who share common interests.

Cultural Activators: give that community something to do.


Cosa Faremo



non c’è

parte di unanarrativatransmediale

crea il simulacro:rende “credibile”quello che non c’è

stabilisce cross-narrativetra le varie componentiper aumentare la credibilità

negative capability& migratory cuesper creare “buchi”e suggerireapprofondimenti

shareable +drillable: facilitala viralità, ma èapertoall’approfondimento

invita allacollectabilityattraverso le variemanifestazioni

usa puntidi vista molteplici

cultural attractor +cultural activator


Cosa Faremo• NARRATIVA TRANSMEDIALE

• tutti: progettiamo (brainstorming, concept)

• in gruppi: lavoriamo sulle parti e coordiniamo (cross-stories, world-building)

• DOCUMENTAZIONE

• pubblicazione: ognuno documenta per immagini e testo la preparazione e l’esecuzione

• exhibit: coordinato con gli altri prof; materiale esponibile


progettiamo

risponde alla domanda:“come sarebbe/cosa ci sarebbe

il mondo se?”

tutti

un gruppo

+

un gruppo

+

un gruppo

+

ogni gruppo/personaprogetta/eseguele singole azioni

si realizza laNarrativa

Transmediale

tutti insieme siproduce uno schema

e un breve testo (concept)che descrive la strategia

ogni gruppo produceun breve testo sulla sua

parte di Narrativa Transmedialeinsieme a delle immagini dellapreparazione e dell’esecuzione

si realizza laPubblicazione+


Entertainment & Humor

Master Exhibit & Public Design, La Sapienza, Lezione 1