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In the tale, in the telling, we are all one blood. Take the tale in your teeth, then, and bite till the blood runs, hoping it’s not poison; and we will all come to the end together, and even to the beginning: living, as we do, in the middle. - Ursula K. Le Guin
Storytelling has always been a collaborative work of art, thriving within the symbiotic relationship between reader and author, each experiencing the tale from beginning to end as an invention of the imagination. Now, with the myriad of social tools found online, a different kind of alliance is evolving. Spores of community based collaborations are propagating throughout the webosphere, producing creative and innovative ways to tell a story. From video-collages to micro-blogging, the artform is spinning a new tale.
London based author, Charles Cumming teamed up with game designers from Six To Start, to create a story which unfolds across the map of the world. The end result entitled, The 21 Steps, is a Google Maps mashup enticing the reader to click around the world with the opening line, “I was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Cumming’s work is part of the We Tell Stories series, created by Six to Start in collaboration with Penguin Books. We Tell Stories is a six part series featuring six different authors. The work ranges from Choose Your Own Adventure style work to blogs and aims to create a new fiction, offering a unique and immersive experience for readers. These inspired tales are worth a gander.
For some, the art of storytelling is best expressed through the visual landscape of cinema. Rootclip is a community of digital storytellers, producing content in a serialized narrative. The story begins with a short video clip or "Rootclip" and people are encouraged people to shoot their own rendition of what happens next. The video submissions are voted on by the community and the video with the most votes becomes the next chapter. The Grand Prize Winner (that's you if you win the final chapter) gets an all expense paid trip to the Traverse City Film Festival on August 1-3, 2008 where you'll meet with the award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore (yes, that Michael Moore) and see the debut of the full Rootclip film. If you’ve got the vlogging bug, I encourage you to check it out.
With hundreds of thousands of videos uploading to YouTube every day, there’s no denying its infectious nature. As such, an underground movement has emerged by active members of the YouTube community called the Gootube Conspiracy, a collaborative plotline depicting Google and YouTube conspiring for media domination. The story began when one YouTube user posted a video claiming he was kidnapped by YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. The plot caught on like wildfire with other YouTube creators submitting unsolicited videos developing the conspiracy story and resulting in a fluid and interactive video collage. Subscribe to season two and get in on the action.
Micro-blogging has proven effective for networking, pitching proposals, getting advice, research and sharing content and yes, you know it’s coming, collaborative storytelling. Check out Plurk’s Longest Story, and add your 140 character Plurk-cents. While this round-robin style is not exactly groundbreaking, there is a certain carpediem and “topicalness” to the online platform. I might even suggest that a thread of comments in response to a blog post maintains a certain round-robin style as well, with each correspondence elaborating the original story or blog post.
With access to a worldwide online community and the innovation of social tools, I do believe we are all participating in the evolution of a new wave of storytelling; one where the lines between creator and audience are permeable and elastic, inviting active participation and collaboration. After all, in the tale, in the telling, we are all one blood.
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