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January 28 2012
Transmedia Talk 40: Snow Town
Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes
Jan Libby, the creator of Snow Town, talks with us about story, immersion, and her plan to turn her short ARG into a replayable app.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Haley Moore
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller
Special Guests:
Jan Libby, creator of the Snow Town I-Fi App currently up for contributions on Kickstarter.
From This Episode:
About the Snow Town I-Fi App
ARGN on the Snow Town ARG
December 12 2011
Transmedia Talk 37: Robot Heart Stories at DIY Days LA
Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes
Janine Saunders, creative producer of Robot Heart Stories, talks with us about how Robot Heart Stories used transmedia strategies to engage underprivileged elementary students in collaborative learning.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media)
About the Project
In Robot Heart Stories, two groups of students – one in Montreal (French speaking) and the other in LA (English speaking) – used their developing knowledge of math, science, history, geography and creative writing to get a stranded robot back to her home planet. The robot’s ten-day journey from Montreal to LA culminated in its arrival at DIY Days LA, where we sat down with Janine.
About Our Guest:
Janine Saunders is a creative producer who has worked on Collapsus, Pandemic 1.0, and produced the Workbook Project’s RADAR series. Working with Workbook Project founder Lance Weiler, she was the producer of Robot Heart Stories.
September 29 2011
Transmedia Talk 33: ARGFest Special with JC Hutchins
Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes
Author and transmedia creator J.C. Hutchins joins us as we recap ARGFest-o-Con 2011.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guests:
J.C. Hutchins, author of Seventh Son and Personal Effects: Dark Art, and keynote speaker at ARGFest.
From This Episode:
ARGfest Keynote 2011: “Getting To Good” from J.C. Hutchins on Vimeo.
JC’s podcast novel Seventh Son, and his transmedia novel Personal Effects: Dark Art with Jordan Weisman.
We usually don’t link guests’ twitter feeds, but we’re linking JC’s here since we talked about it quite a bit on the show.
The Darkest Puzzle, and Andrea Phillips’ response
Awkward Hug’s game The Wisconsin Hustle opened ARGFest for attendees at the opening night cocktail party.
JC’s and Violet Blue’s unboxing videos of a handmade scent kit, released earlier this year for Campfire’s experience for Game of Thrones.
Our episode featuring Steve Coulson, about the Game of Thrones campaign the Maester’s Path.
JC wrote animated videos for Smith and Tinker’s game Nanovor
Video games from JC’s rundown include Mass Effect, Dragon Age, God of War, Uncharted, Heavy Rain, and Fable.
Rob Jagnow of Lazy 8 Studios, who contributed to the Potato Sack ARG for Portal 2, is in pre-launch for his game Extrasolar
Balance of Powers, an extended story from many of the creators of Perplex City, has been funded on Kickstarter.
Zombies, Run! by Six to Start and Naomi Alderman, has now raised $50k of its $12k goal, with over a week left open on its campaign.
The steampunk comic, theater and film experience Clockwork Watch, created by Yomi Ayeni, is still accepting backers on IndieGoGo.
DIY DAYS LA will be held on the UCLA campus on October 28. Tickets are free.
Story World Conference will be held in San Diego October 31-November 2.
September 12 2011
Transmedia Talk 32: GoBZRK and the Future of Publishing
Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes
Rich Silverman, Alex Lemay, and Transmedia Talk host Dee Cook discuss the future of publishing and talk about GoBZRK, the experience they have created for an upcoming novel by prolific young adult author Michael Grant.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media, Experience and Community Moderator for GoBZRK
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guests:
Rich Silverman, Writer/Producer, GoBZRK
Alex Lemay, Executive Producer, GoBZRK
From This Episode:
Silverman and Lemay are members of The Shadow Gang.
Borders closed almost 400 stores in July.
Egmont UK, the publisher of BZRK
Nexus Humanus, the first in-game site for the experience.
Why So Serious, the ARG experience for the Dark Knight. ( player forum )
Publishers Weekly’s interview with Michael Grant
ARGNet’s coverage of the experience
September 07 2011
CONNECTED with Tiffany Shlain
We caught up with Tiffany Shlain as she prepares to release her newest feature, CONNECTED “An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology.” A DIY pioneer, Tiffany is always at the forefront of utilizing interesting and innovative ways to reach and engage audiences. Starting next week CONNECTED makes its way to screens nation wide after a successful festival run.
What made you decide to make the film CONNECTED?
Fifteen years ago, I founded The Webby Awards because I was fascinated by how the Internet was connecting people all over the world in new and unexpected ways. And being so interested in the ways things are connected, I it always struck me how so many of the conversations about the problems of our day were discussed as separate challenges. Whether the environment, women’s rights, poverty or social justice, it became more apparent to me that that when you perceive everything as connected, it radically shapes your perspective. The concept of interdependence has been around since the dawn of humanity, but the relatively recent component of the internet has added this new layer that connects us in a fresh way, almost giving the world a new type of central nervous system.
I am a filmmaker and so decided to craft a film that would tell the story of being connected in the 21st century. I asked my father, Leonard Shlain, to be a co-writer on the project. My dad was a surgeon, but also a pioneer in writing about connections between science, consciousness, the human brain, art and civilization. His best-selling books included The Alphabet Versus the Goddess; Sex, Time, and Power; and Art & Physics. He was an incredible visionary, had a wonderful knowledge of history and I felt he would make an enormous contribution to the film. Just as we began production on CONNECTED, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. I quickly discovered that here I was writing about all these interrelationships and the one great connection I had overlooked was the emotional connection. That’s when I began the difficult process of rewriting the film to include my personal story of connection interwoven into the the bigger story of connection throughout history and where I think we are heading.
The subtitle of CONNECTED is “An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology.” What does the word “autoblogography” mean?
“Autoblogography” is a word we made up in order to convey that the film is autobiographical, but also has to do with technology. It also conveys the humor which is a major thread in the movie.
Is there a connection between CONNECTED and your last film THE TRIBE?
In my earlier film, THE TRIBE, I explored American Jewish identity through the history of the Barbie Doll. I know, it sounds absurd. After all, what can the most successful doll on the planet show about being Jewish in American today? It turns out that Barbie was invented in 1959 by an American Jewish businesswoman named Ruth Handler. A Jewish woman created the ultimate shiksa. With THE TRIBE, I wove together archival footage, graphics, animation, humor, and even slam poetry that took audiences on a ride through the complex history of both Barbie and the Jewish people. By revealing all these unique connections, THE TRIBE explored the question of what it means to be an American Jew in the 21st century. CONNECTED employs much of the same collage visual style but explores what it means to be a human in 21st century.
Do you believe there are positives and negatives to technology?
My father loved quoting Sophocles, “Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.” So, from the beginning of time, every new technology and advancement brought with them a complex mix of positive and negative repercussions as well as unintended consequences. CONNECTED addresses the potential of these new 21st century technologies, the importance of harnessing their powers, but also covers the ramifications when these new technologies take over and even overwhelm our personal lives.
I’ve started practicing what I call “technology Shabbats” with my family. Every Friday at sundown, our whole family disconnects until Saturday night. No cell phones, no internet, no television, no Ipads. No multi-tasking. We disconnect completely. Or maybe I should say we connect completely – with ourselves and each other.
I am learning that turning off technology is just as powerful as turning it on and that our society needs both. Technology can be so enticing and overwhelming, but we also need to remember how important it is to be fully present with the people you love and also be alone and quiet. The potential of technology globally and personally is exponential, but we need to know where the off switch is and when to shut it down.
So what is the ultimate goal of your film?
The goal of CONNECTED is to launch a global conversation about what it means to be connected in the 21st century. I hope that the film will be the catalyst for this global conversation. In an effort to expand the power of the film, we’ve created a robust website, facebook page where we constantly add new articles about this topic and have created an educator’s kit including conversation cards, a film guide a curriculum for educators.
In the film you say, “For centuries we have declared our independence, perhaps it’s time we finally declare our interdependence.” What does it mean to declare our interdependence?
It’s time to shift perspective. In many ways we as a species are mirroring the way we each develop as a human on this earth. We come into the world completely dependent on our mother’s and parents. As we grow up, we evolve into independent adults, live on our own and get our own jobs and provide for our own families. But this independence then brings us to a new realization of how we are connected with family, friends and community. I think we, as a species are evolving to the point where we are entering this understanding of our interdependence. Who knows if all these tools we are creating for collaborating in new ways through the internet are leading us to this understanding, or the understanding is driving us to create these tools. Technology is just an extension of ourselves. It is not separate. Regardless of what’s propelling it, these living and thinking interdependently will actually change our consciousness and help make real transformation in the world around us.
So you are optimistic about our future?
When I do Q&A’s after screening CONNECTED, I am frequently asked, “What makes you so optimistic?” I respond by saying that I believe in humans and humanity and in our innate ability to change for the better. Look at the end of slavery and apartheid, the women’s rights and civil rights movements, and other political and social transformative movements in the last few hundred years, and you can see how we are indeed evolving. There are two things that make me optimistic. We as humans are curious and we have a deep desire to connect. These two things will make us move us forward to a better place.
You are also spearheading a new project called “Let it Ripple.” What is this and how does this connect to CONNECTED?
The ‘Let it Ripple’ project will pick up where CONNECTED leaves off. We are creating a series of six short films, all tied together by the general theme of connectedness. The first film is A Declaration of Interdependence. My husband, Ken Goldberg, co-writer Sawyer Steele, and I wrote A Declaration of Interdependence, which is based on the American Declaration of Independence. Our new declaration was then posted online on July 4th and tweeted out via YouTube and we invited people from all over the world to submit video of themselves reading the declaration in their native language from their cell phone, laptop, whatever was handy. We also asked graphic designers and artists to interpret the words creatively and submit artwork. The submissions are blowing me away. It’s interdependence in action. The film will be made up entirely of these submissions, tied together by our animator, Stefan Nadelman, with music by one of my favorite sound artists Moby.
A Declaration of Interdependence will premiere on Interdependence Day which is September 12th at a special event near Ground Zero in New York. Every time we get an entry, I get chills watching the videos. It is thrilling to see people from all over the world declare their interdependence. We are going to edit it all down into an inspiring 3 minute movie that will be posted on the web and we are going to provide this film for free and allow different organizations and non-profits to use the film by putting their own call to action at the end. We are open-sourcing the creation of the film and hope to open source how it is used.
By sharing these messages of connectedness and interdependence, I believe there will be a positive ripple effect; sparks that help turn what we’re talking about into action. It’s all about connection.
CONNECTED opens in theaters in major cities beginning in mid-September.
*All dates below start one week runs
SF: Sept 16th SF Landmark Embarcadero
Berkeley Sept 16 Shattuck 10
Marin: Sept 16 Sequoia Theater
Santa Cruz: Sept 23 Nickelodeon
Portland: Sept 23rd Regal Fox Tower 10
LA: Sept 30 premieres at The Pacific Arclight Theater Hollywood
Seattle: Oct 7th Landmark Varsity 3
NYC: Oct 14th Angelika Theater
Denver: Oct 28th Landmark Chez Artiste
Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, artist, founder of The Webby Awards and co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. Tiffany’s films and work have received over 40 awards and distinctions. A celebrated thinker, she delivered the commencement address at University of California at Berkeley and is a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. www.tiffanyshlain.com
August 25 2011
Transmedia Talk 31: Evan Jones, Suspending Disbelief in Interactive Stories
Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes
Stitch Media partner Evan Jones talks about the role of the audience in transmedia storytelling, suspension of disbelief, and Stitch’s new project, the Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guest:
Evan Jones, partner at Stitch Media
From This Episode:
Jones’s TEDx Halifax talk, “Belief is Not Binary”
The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour
Him, Her and Them, and our episode on the project
The film Catfish
Stitch Media’s web series Moderation Town
August 10 2011
If it doesn’t spread it’s dead – part 2
In part two of the series Henry Jenkins and WorkBook Project founder Lance Weiler sit down for a conversation about participatory culture and how “if it doesn’t spread it’s dead.”
August 01 2011
Transmedia Talk 30: 2011 Half Year in Review with Michael Andersen
Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes
Michael Andersen, managing editor of ARGNet, joins us to take a look back at the first half of 2011 in the Alternate Reality Game world.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guest:
Michael Andersen from ARGN
From This Episode:
Andersen’s article 2011 Year in Review: Puzzling Through Half a Year
Wired.com’s Decode games and puzzles section.
Transmedia Talk host Dee Cook is an associate editor at ARGN.
Ian Bogost’s Cow Clicker ARG
The Awl’s Rick Paulas recounts the conclusion of the Jejune Institute game.
5 Wits in Boston produced the interactive experience Tomb, which is now closed. They currently offer two interactive experiences, 20,000 Leagues and Espionage.
The city-wide experience Accomplice in NYC, Hollywood, and London.
The free-roaming San Francisco experience Message from Z.
The QR code driven game Time Trip LA.
The Jejune Institute spinoff Elsewhere Philatelic Society.
The Toynbee Plaques in Philadelphia.
Kcymaerxthaere, historical markers from another world.
Pittsburgh’s mysterious protractors
Aram Bartholl’s wall-embedded USB project Dead Drops.
Haley Moore’s writeup and Lazy 8 Studios’ Gamasutra article on the Portal 2 Potato Sack ARG.
Note: Ten indie game studios released games in the Potato Sack.
The Game of Thrones extended campaign The Maester’s Path.
The Crash of the Elysium, Punchdrunk’s Doctor Who experience for children.
42 Entertainment’s game Test Subjects Needed for 5 Gum.
Area/Code’s 2007 ARG ‘Primacy’ for the CBS drama Numb3rs centered around a casual puzzle game Chain Factor, which was later developed into the popular iPhone app Drop 7.
Earlier this year, Area/Code was acquired and became Zynga New York.
Patrick Carman’s extended book project Dark Eden launched its App today.
The Australian tv drama SLiDE
The Thomas Dolby game A Map of The Floating City
If it doesn’t spread it’s dead
Henry Jenkins and WorkBook Project founder Lance Weiler sit down for a conversation about participatory culture and how “if it doesn’t spread it’s dead.”
NEW BREED – A Conversation on Transmedia – Part 1 from The Sabi Company on Vimeo.
July 19 2011
The 9th Dot
The following is a guest post by Kim Lessing.
Just about five years ago, Glen Trotiner, a filmmaker who’s had every job from p.a. to producer, and his buddy, Jeff Hephner, a television actor, were in bar in the East Village drunk talking about two of their favorite subjects: conspiracy theories, and fixing the world’s problems.
Somehow, that night, the two discussions became linked and a story that needed to be told began to unfold:
It began with one of their favorite conspiracy theories. Just before he died, in 1943, the 87 year-old reclusive inventor, Nikola Tesla, who had given the world alternating current, radio, radar, and x-rays, claimed to have invented a device that could produce energy from a free and unlimited source, and distribute it without wires or cables.
The device was never publicly demonstrated.
The conspiracy theory claims the device was removed from the inventor’s lab by Government Agents on the night the inventor died, and has been suppressed by the authorities for all these years.
Their story would begin almost seventy years later as two roommates, Jeff, a conspiracy theorist, and Sam, a debunker, go out in search of the one remaining surviving witness to the events of the night of Tesla’s death.
Just as the premise for The 9th Dot was hatching, Jake Wasserman, an ambitious and talented high school student, came to work for Glen as a production assistant. Jake is one of those kids born with a camera in his hands. Glen recognized his potential and immediately took Jake under his wing.
With Jake’s input on the script, The 9th Dot began to take shape (the title comes from the nine dot puzzle, developed by Disney, that tests for thinking outside the box).
The search for an actor to play Sam ended during a difficult film shoot in Maine. Ariel Shafir, who was coincidently, (or not so coincidently) playing conspiracy theorist in that very movie, read an early draft of the 9th Dot and came aboard to play Sam.
It seemed then that the project was ready for take off. Unfortunately shooting was put on hold when Glen went off to Romania to work on the movie Blood Creek.
Luckily, right after Glen returned, he learned Titan-TV, was looking for web content that could be launched into episodic material. Titian, read and loved the script and suggested it be conceived as a web-blog. Each episode would be a short segment of the investigation. The audience would be participating in real time, blogging along with Sam.
Just as the scripts were finished, however, Titan-TV stopped making original content. A disappointing blow, but like any good story, it didn’t end there.
The gang went ahead with shooting. They shot at locations all over New York City, including the New Yorker Hotel, where Tesla had died, Bryant Park, where Samuel Morse had once first shown the world the dots and dashes of Morse code at the very first New York Worlds Fair, and The Engineers Club, where Tesla had once belonged.
Soon, Jake took on the daunting task on editing, and furthered his role as a valuable collaborator. He singlehandedly created a unique look for the episodes, alternating between the handheld investigative footage with carefully crafted animations.
The finished product looks and feels like nothing ever done before; a true demonstration to the powerful content that can be created when passion meets craft.
CBS interactive saw the first three episodes and offered to pick up the series.
But then CBS Interactive was folded into CNET, so the series lacked an outlet once again.
At that point it became clear that if the project would never meet it’s full potential waiting around for the networks.
Five years after the bar stool meeting, the show is finally ready to launch, on August 1st, on it’s very own homegrown website (www.the9thdot.com).
A preview of the investigation is already up on the site, ready to watch. Self-made and self-promoted, it’s been a labor of love for all concerned and its birth is testament to power of interactive story telling in every sense of the world.
In the same way the character Jeff distrusts corporations, the 9th Dot’s creative team Glen, Jake, Jeff and Ariel want The 9th Dot and its followers to speak for themselves,
The cost of energy is still a global problem. The price of gas is still too high. And Tesla’s invention is still missing. There is much to be considered, and discussed and there is problem solving to be done. The 9th Dot is the place to listen and be heard. Above all else, we want to hear from you.
http://twitter.com/#!/the9thdot
http://www.arch-entertainment.com
June 29 2011
Transmedia Talk 29: Lost Zombies
Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes
Skot Leach, creator of Lost Zombies, talks about crowdsourced film, monetization, and building an online community.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guest:
Skot Leach from Lost Zombies
From This Episode:
Skot solicits some of the final submissions for Lost Zombies.
Max Brooks’ zombie short story collection World War Z.
Lost Zombies’ community is hosted by the social network building service Ning
Lost Zombies stickers are posted to mark the sites of zombie outbreaks.
The ad that Lost Zombies ran on Adult Swim through Google TV Ads. Leach said the site’s traffic jumped from roughly 1,200 visits a day to around 3,500 after airing the ad.
Austin’s KXAN reports on the Lost Zombies booth at SXSW Interactive 2009.
Dead Inside: Do Not Enter is the Lost Zombies scrapbook. It will be released September 21.
Academy Award winning site Star Wars Uncut introduced many audiences to the idea of a crowdsourced film project.
June 19 2011
The Power of User Generated Content
At SXSW I watched Nick Poole (founder of the infamous 4chan) introduce his new project Canvas. This isn’t as edgy as his previous meme factory. Canvas provides basic tools for users to post and alter pictures. Think of it like a message board where users have conversations through constantly evolving images. A long thread starting with a picture of Dos Equis’s “The Most Interesting Man in the World” can end randomly with him as Rebecca Black and the caption: “It’s not always Friday. But when it is…Saturday comes next.”
The success of Canvas hinges on growing a community of people excited to create remixes. With just viewers, there won’t be user generated content to entertain visitors. So, Nick makes sure the collaborative process is fun/easy and doesn’t focus on attracting professional quality design work. Without high standards more lurkers will become contributors.
Now more than ever, everyone from artists to storytellers should learn how to hone the power of UGC to build their internet presence. Facebook is the second most popular site in the world-Twitter, Youtube, Yelp, Fanfiction.net, and many other successful destinations wouldn’t exist without non-professionals.
Here are some different ways to get people to create user generated content:
What is your experience with user generated content?
June 16 2011
Transmedia Talk 28 – Game of Thrones and the Maester’s Path
Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes
Steve Coulson of Campfire talks with us about The Maester’s Path, a sensory storytelling campaign for the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guest:
Steve Coulson from Campfire
From This Episode:
The Maester’s Path, Campfire’s sensory and puzzle experience for the show.
The comprehensive making-of campaign Making Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones armor designer Simon Brindle showcases his workin a short video for Game of Thrones: The Artisans.
Fans attempt to fix Adrianne Palicki’s costume for her role in the new Wonder Woman series.
Michael Andersen walks readers through the Maester’s Path experience at ARGNet
Writer JC Hutchins opens his Maesters Path scent box with care and irrepressible enthusiasm.
Campfire partner GetGlue
The binaural experience of the Inn at the Crossroads
Campfire partner Luxurious Animals
The virtual environment The Wall
June 09 2011
RADAR NYC 6.9.11
My Potholes
What do you do when there’s a pothole in your street? Try avoiding it? Call the city to fill it in? Effective ideas, though they aren’t especially imaginative. With the help of Claudia Ficca and Davide Luciano, a couple of Montreal-based artists, these folks in several US and Canadian cities turned their potholes into works of art—at least temporarily. But the photos on My Potholes capture a number of whimsical moments created from minor nuisances. Watch as they turn common road hazards into swimming pools, donut fryers, gardens, rabbit holes, and more.
Check it out HERE
Noveller – Alone Star
NOVELLER “ALONE STAR” from Matt Kleiner on Vimeo.
Noveller, a.k.a. Sarah Lipstate (RADAR ep 28 – Before I Die) has just released this gorgeous black and white video on her website for her song “Alone Star” off her new album Glacial Glow. Directed by Matt Kleiner, this video chronicles several days in the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne. It’s some powerful stuff when paired with the musical storytelling of this Brooklyn-based guitar goddess. Contrasting the busy city with vast desert, it creates a truly surreal scene.
Check out Sarah’s website HERE
Ben McCool Interview
Writer Ben McCool (RADAR ep 41 – Memoir) has a new comic series coming out this September, but in the meantime you can check out a preview of it as well as an interview with USA Today. Titled “Pigs,” the comic takes a gritty look at the Cold War, which if you can believe it, ended two decades ago this year. So now it’s far back enough in our collective subconscious that we can take another look at the whole terrifying era of mutually assured destruction, secret agents and the Cuban Missile Crisis and see that things weren’t quite as black-and-white as we all thought at the time.
Read the article HERE.
Magic and Bubbles
Poetry Brothel, House of Illusions NYC
Our friends at the Poetry Brothel (RADAR ep 20) are bringing it back this weekend, with a magical twist. The “whores” will be teaming up with a master magician for some old school, Houdini-esque illusions.
Sunday, June 12th, 8pm-1am
The Back Room
102 Norfolk Street
New York, NY
$5-$15
EVENT INFO
Newmindspace Bubble Battle NYC 2011
The folks at Newmindspace (RADAR ep 10) want to make New York a more bubbly, effervescent place for its residents. Join hundreds of other bubble battlers with your own bubble-making supplies, and let the air fill with soapy, prismatic orbs (and yes I was trying to avoid saying “bubble” again).
Location TBA
Saturday, June 18th 2010 @ 6:00pm
Rain or shine. Free and all ages!
New York, NY
EVENT INFO
Second Avenue Sagas
New Yorkers, be honest, how often do you find yourself silently (or not so silently) cursing the MTA for all the service changes and fare increases? Second Avenue Sagas hopes to answer some of the questions as to why all these annoyances happen. What started as a blog chronicling the progress of the long-delayed Second Avenue Subway, is now a blog covering all forms of New York City transit, offering opinions, insight, progress reports, and ideas to make transit better, as well as listing all the weekend service changes every Friday. It’s a great place for New Yorkers to get informed and involved with the city’s decisions on transportation.
May 25 2011
Transmedia Talk 26 – Dave Szulborski Memorial Show
Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Download | Subscribe with iTunes
Mike Monello, Brian Clark, Michelle Senderhauf, and longtime ARG player Roxanne (Enaxor) join us to honor the life and games of indie ARG creator Dave Szulborski.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guests:
Mike Monello, Founder and CEO of Campfire
Brian Clark, CEO of GMD Studios
Michelle Senderhauf of Dog Tale Media
Roxanne, also known as Enaxor
From This Episode:
Dave Szulborski’s personal site with his biography, game descriptions and puzzles.
Dave Szulborski’s book This is Not a Game
Varin’s guide to Chasing the Wish
Dee’s guide to Dread House
EA’s game Majestic
Art of the Heist cube word search puzzle, aka The Evil Cube
The Strange Creatures video from Monster Hunter Club, currently at over 4,700,000 views on YouTube.
Cryptid Love, a video from Monster Hunter Club.
Dave’s character stringsends at Top Secret Dance Off
May 13 2011
RADAR NYC 5.12.11 – feat. Lori Nix
This week, we return to our contributor-curated series of blog posts with Lori Nix (RADAR ep 33 – Unnatural History). She found us a nice mix of beautiful works of art and some quirky, off the wall stuff–sort of like her own work.
Cravendale Cats
That’s it, I’m officially jealous of the British. After outdoing us in music and comedy for years, they now roll out this oddly addicting TV spot for milk—which is undoubtedly a result of years of its creators spending too much time on the Internet. Because—and I’ve mentioned this before—the equation goes: cats + doing weird things = roughly 85% of Internet content. Also, note the strange milk cartons they use over there (hey, at least it doesn’t come in bags like in Canada).
Find more on this clever campaign HERE.
Bodies of Water: Ears Will Pop and Eyes Will Blink
The music from this extremely talented LA-based collective has this rolling, lively Spaghetti Western-esque epicness to it that hooked me pretty much immediately, sort of like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros without all the gimmickry. Ennio Morricone would be proud. But don’t get me wrong, there’s still enough theatrics and choral pieces to make this record the very definition of grand. Listen to it while walking down the street makes your life an instant musical. Just don’t blame me if people stare at you when you start singing along.
You can buy the album HERE
Bodies of Water’s website
Hi-Fructose Magazine
Despite new media’s repeated attempts to kill off the magazine once and for all (blogger’s note: hi there, sorry about that!), Hi-Fructose Magazine may be all the proof needed to show that there will always be a place for a beautifully-made, high quality, full color quarterly. Hi-Fructose aims to profile and discuss alternative artists, while at the same time dissecting what “alternative” means, bending genres and shattering norms in the process. Whatever you want to call it, there’s really some stunning work on display here.
You can pick up a copy at most bookstores, or check out their web presence HERE
Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities
It may still be a ways off, but Otherworldly at the Museum of Arts and Design should definitely be worth the wait. Lori Nix and other diorama artists will be showcasing their different creations, extremely detailed microcosms of worlds that are both realistic and surreal—glimpses of our world both as it is and as it could be.
Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities
June 7 – September 18
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
$15 Admission
EVENT INFO
New York Mag (and comments)
When Lori told me she liked to liked to read New York Magazine online to laugh at the comments following the articles, I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. But I didn’t have to look far to find out—the comments section is a nice concentrated cross-section of the Internet as a whole. You’ll find cynical, snarky millennials, sarcastic storytellers, political pundits who insert their opinions of Bush and/or Obama into every conversation, and trolls of course, because trolls simply are and always will be—they are as deeply ingrained into comment threads as the Pope is into Catholicism. It’s worth a laugh on any day you could use a bit of a confidence boost.
May 05 2011
RADAR NYC 5.5.11
Image via Dr. Sketchy’s
Welcome to Pine Point
I’ll be honest; it’s difficult for me to describe this without just suggesting you watch it for yourself, and it’s even more difficult to classify this as “watch.” From the National Film Board of Canada, this project tells the story of Pine Point, a planned mining community in central Canada, the people who lived there, and its eventual demise—being completely razed and taken off the map. It’s told through interactive bits, archival footage, pieces of animation, and recorded interviews with the former residents, and it all combines with some lovely music from The Besnard Lakes (one of my personal favorite Canadian bands) for a truly engaging experience that tells more than a straight up documentary ever could.
Check it out HERE
Washed Out – Eyes Be Closed
Ernest Greene, better known by his recording name Washed Out (RADAR season 3) will be following up last year’s excellent EP with his just-announced debut LP, Within and Without (complete with NSFW-ish cover art), due out July 12. But if you can’t wait that long, you can download the first single off the album right now. Eyes Be Closed sounds like a dreamy, trippy journey through a beautiful desert, or perhaps flying through the clouds. Either way, it’d be cool to listen to on the subway just as your train bursts above ground, the sunlight hitting your face.
You can get the mp3 straight from Sub Pop HERE
How the Social Web Reflected on bin Laden’s Death
By the time President Obama came on to announce the death of Osama bin Laden, it was already old news for a lot of wired people—myself included—who probably found out on Facebook or Twitter, and had about an hour to divulge their two cents on the matter. And it really showed how much the world has changed in the past 10 years. It was fascinating to watch the news unfold over the Internet, through mediums such as social media and imageboards, while major news sites struggled to keep up. Mashable has an interesting article on the role of social media in bin Laden’s death, complete with several fascinating infographics that reveal a lot about the world in 2011.
Read the article HERE.
Cake on the Bowery, Murder in Victorian England
Let Us Make Cake
Shantell Martin (RADAR ep 26 – Hidden Oras) will be joining about a dozen other visual artists will be using the façade of the New Museum as a canvas for their collaborative projection installation, Let Us Make Cake, part of Flash:Light, a night time, site-specific series of temporary art installations that re-imagine public space. Other events are planned at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and on Mulberry Street, so it should be quite a night.
Saturday, May 7 · 8:00 pm
The New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
Free
EVENT INFO
Dr. Sketchy’s Does Jack the Ripper
Not even one of England’s creepiest and bloodiest legends is safe from the imaginations of the good people at Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School (RADAR ep 8). Though really, in hindsight it seems like the perfect backdrop for the grisly tale of murders that scared the petticoats off of Victorian England.
Sunday, May 8 · 4:00pm – 7:00pm
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
New York, NY
$12-$15
EVENT INFO
FreedomLab
FreedomLab Future Studies is an Amsterdam-based think tank and research lab committed to finding creative solutions to issues in technology, business, and society. The site also features a blog offering thoughts on subjects such as social media, storytelling, and intelligent green energy, while also emphasizing the growing influence of non-Western societies, such as Brazil and Africa, on the world stage. This is definitely a site to watch if you want to get ahead of the curve in the 21st Century.
FreedomLab’s website
@freedomlab on Twitter
Seven Things I Learned from the Portal 2 ARG
So, Portal 2 is out. You may have heard.
You may have also heard there was an ARG associated with it – or maybe you didn’t. While the game received some media attention right before the launch of Portal 2, it slid past ARG communities without making much of a wave.
The Portal 2 ARG project was a collaboration between several indie studios and Valve. Most of the game was rolled out through hidden content in 13 indie games sold together as “The Potato Sack” on Steam. Playing those games led you to hidden levels and messages from the Portal’s antagonist GLaDOS, and ended up being the key to getting Portal 2 several hours ahead of its official release time.
This game tried a lot of things that are outside the normal scope of ARGs, and I feel like there are valuable design lessons to be learned here.
1) Partnerships are Awesome
Because the ARG was created as a partnership between a large group of video game designers, they were able to deliver the game as a series of easter eggs in video game that were already fully developed and polished. That’s something indie ARG creators wish they could do, but very rarely can.
The additional content inside the games was polished, and the sort of content you could only get from putting quality designers on the project. The GLaDOS levels in Rush and Toki Tori were designed to have the same feel as Portal – they challenged you to be creative with the game’s existing teleportation mechanics. I felt like I was getting a little taste of Portal 2 as I was playing them.
After the game came to its conclusion, we learned that these indie designers were principally involved in designing the entire experience. They created everything from tweets to puzzles to youtube videos and music. The total budget? $100.
The ARG was a labor of indie love designed by Portal fans, who were given free reign to work with the Portal characters and access to Valve resources. I wish I had known this from the beginning because it would have made a big difference in my second point:
2) Don’t Build Your Pay Wall Too High
The primary content for the ARG was distributed through the Potato Sack – 13 indie games that sold in a package on Steam for $38.72. For someone with very limited entertainment cash, that is quite a lot of money.
However, about four days before the release of Portal 2, a little birdie let me know who was responsible for the ARG, and my attitude toward the pay wall shifted completely. Over the course of the next 3 days, I bought Cogs, Rush, Toki Tori, and The Wonderful End of the World for a grand total of $15.
The pre-sale for Portal 2 was priced at $45, so the Potato Sack cost almost as much as the game it was promoting. By contrast, $15 felt like a pretty natural stopping point. (This is pretty comparable to other experiences behind pay walls – the print version of Cathy’s Book retails for $17.95.) That $15 was doled out in four purchases of $5 or less. The option to buy the games individually was the only reason I didn’t just smack into the pay wall face first.
The only thing I can conclude here is:
3) Screw the Curtain
If there’s something cool about the way your project was established, there is no reason to keep it a secret. Valve partnering with indie game designers to create a Portal ARG is cool, and worth supporting. The desire to keep coy and quiet about the history behind this ARG may have kept it from ubiquity.
There’s also a fundamental sales pitch difference. The idea of paying $39 to be advertised to is ridiculous, but it’s reasonable to spend that money to support an indie ARG team.
4) Countdowns Can be Compelling
As the endgame approached for the ARG, a page with a countdown timer was revealed. When that timer ran out, it led to another countdown timer. It sounds like a parody of ARG design, but it worked – and very well – because player interaction drove changes in the final countdown.
Participants had to play the games in the Potato Sack, and earn the secret challenge badges in them, to release Portal 2 ahead of the release time given on Steam. The countdown was a measure of player progress and a call to action, which made it far more interesting than a countdown alone could be. This was another area where the video game roots of the ARG really made for something great.
It didn’t hurt that it was counting down to a much-anticipated event, either.
5) Exclusivity is a Design Flaw
I’m not going to lie. Several times, especially near the end of the game, I was earned my potato badges by replicating cheat videos on YouTube. The extra levels in each of the games were more than challenging; they were hard – and as the clock ticked down, I realized I didn’t have time to beat them by my wits alone.
The previous Portal 2 extended reality campaign, which released last year with the free release of Portal, also had this issue. I had no idea that the extra content in Portal was extra, because I was playing the game for the first time. The content was also a challenge to get to, and in many later levels required a lot of experimentation and gaming skill. It seemed as though the experience was designed to reward veteran players who had mastered the game years ago. That seemed odd, considering the point of giving Portal away was to bring in new players.
This may be a fundamental philosophical difference between video game design and pervasive fiction design. As a storyteller, I seek to create intimacy with the audience. Making players struggle to reach content is one way to make an interaction seem meaningful and personal, but it is far from the only way.
More importantly, it is a bad way to do things if you want to make an experience that will engage a lot of people. To experience the Potato Sack ARG in its entirety, you not only had to buy all of the games, but master them and beat their most challenging levels. That’s quite a lot of work to get to the meat of an experience.
We usually design ARG experiences with late rabbitholes, and mechanisms that allow trailblazers to unlock content for everyone. If you treat every new player as though you expect them to be a trailblazer, only the trailblazers actually play the game. That’s not such a terrible thing if your goal is to create buzz – but when you want people to cross a pay wall, things get a little different.
6) We Can Still Pull Players “Behind the Scenes”
Several players who had been active on the game’s wiki were “kidnapped” during the course of the game. At first, I wondered if Valve had planted fake players – an unpopular but unfortunately common practice.
As it turns out, those players were brought behind the scenes and invited to Portal 2’s launch party as a reward for being active in the ARG. This is something Dave Szulborski did in Chasing the Wish, and it adds a nice layer of audience collaboration to the mix.
7) April Fool’s is a Bad Launch Date
The Portal 2 ARG launched on April 1, which might be aptly called “International Online Fiction Day.” The internet is flooded with interactive and pervasive fiction pieces on April Fool’s, most of which don’t go any deeper than a few web pages and only last one day, as our yearly ritual prescribes. This game got lost in the static, especially after it picked up the name “Potato Fools Day” – which implied that the game was a joke.
BONUS: Music Keeps the Experience Alive
This one is more of a protip than a serious lesson. The popularity of Portal spread in part thanks to Jonathan Coulton and his catchy end credits tune. “Still Alive” has become such a gaming anthem that children’s choirs are performing it, and Portal 2 is continuing that tradition two key songs for the new game. The ARG creators took cues from that, and (along with several remakes of Still Alive) released some original music for with experience.
Audiosurf featured a techno track built on quotes from Portal, called The Device Has Been Modified. 1… 2… 3.. KICK IT included a chill out track called Searching. Emergence. Discovery., and The Wonderful End of the World contains a melodious folk song by Dejobaan Games developer Dan Brainerd called “Hole in the Ground.” This song, with it’s haunting lyrics (“I took up a job that was all absentee”), was stuck in my head for nearly two weeks after Portal 2 launched.
Even though I jumped into the game fairly late, the music cemented my connection with the game and made it memorable. This is something I might be trying for myself in the future.
May 03 2011
Tech/Stories:An Interview With Henrik Werdelin
At SXSW I attended the Scandinavia Tech Summit, a panel covering technology and media. Henrik Werdelin (@werdelin) was one panelist who stood out with his unique understanding of tech startups.
As disruptive technology is forcing the entertainment industry to either evolve or die, more creators should talk to smart people like Henrik.
Below is our interview.
Please introduce yourself.
My name is Henrik Werdelin. I am the managing partner at Prehype. We are a group of product developers who bridge the world between entrepreneurship and corporations by spinning new digital startups out of big companies and then selling them back to them. My background has always been around experience design and innovation; from running the product development for MTV International over startups like Joost and Hotpotato to working in venture capital.
What were your highlights from SXSW?
One big moment was the when I experienced first hand the power of social promotion as I stood next to Gary Vaynerchuk when he announced the location of his yearly SXSW wine flashmob. It was incredible to see a room filling from 5 people to over 300 in under 20 minutes. It made me think about how much impact our new social tools have. Normally when we do products and get e.g. 10.000 signups, we feel its only a marginal win. However, seeing 300 people poring into a room within such a short time was quite humbling.
Based on your background in experience design and innovation, how would you tell a transmedia story?
I know it might sound like a bad answer, but I think it very much depends on what the story is. New media are just tools that you can use to tell stories in a new – and often more engaging way. I feel too many media companies try to add new media components to their storytelling just to add those tools – and not because they add value to the story. They also often forget to fully understand how a users daily flow is – and then mold their use of technology around peoples behavior – instead of assuming that they can move people across different new mediums.
Who do feel are the most innovative storytellers and what can creators learn from them?
I think good storytellers – are good storytellers. Most of the more innovative ones uses new technology too add impact to their narrative. That can be from clever use of social media to establish suspense (like the blairwitch project), to simple game shows that adds user participation via sms (think American Idol), over CNN’s way to include their viewers via iReporter and finally people who use digital tools to tell a story. (like the guys who did http://pleaserobme.com/). However, clearly the game developers have managed to engage users in self-made storytelling and that is where I think we will see the most innovation come from.
Favorite books and blogs?
- The Singularity is Near
- Hellohenrik.com 
- Influences
- The Paradox of Choice
- A mind of its own
How would you make social games more social?
Move more of the gameplay outside the web and into real life.
Can film studios learn anything from startups?
I think everyone can learn from startups. A few lessons;
- Its hard to judge your own ideas in a board room. Therefore, find methods where you can produce components cheap enough to test it against real users and then build on it if it turns out to be successful.
- Identify if your incentive structure is aligned with your objectives. E.g. if you dont think your teams take enough risk, you probably have a structure where only playing it safe is compensated
- Think less – do more…
Will Netflix keep winning in an increasingly competitive market?
Yes. By being restrictive in their deal structures – studios have up to now prevented a healthy industry of innovative distribution partners
What are going to be the next major trends in the entertainment industry?
Gaming seems to be one of those industries that keep taking market share from the traditional entertainment industry. I think we will see more innovation from the game world. The last sprint was social gaming – but I think this form of entertainment that engage users will see more growth. Finally I think the user generated trend will continue also. As the barrier to entry into the entertainment industry goes down you will see a raise of independent overnight sensations.
April 29 2011
RADAR NYC 4.28.11
Eliza Skinner – The Oscar Party
Eliza Skinner (RADAR ep 2 – I Eat Pandas) returns to the world of Internet videos with this short about a couple going through an angry breakup just as their friends arrive for an Oscars party. Hijinks ensue, guests are weirded out, and movie puns are thrown around—and for some reason movie puns are so much funnier when shouted in a fit of rage. Movie nerds will either cringe or chortle. Or both. Either way, Eliza is quite hilarious as a pissed off ex-girlfriend.
Morningbell – Lovefool
Before I watched this video, I thought the title was just a coincidence—surely they weren’t covering that classic 90s radio mainstay? But that’s exactly what Morningbell (RADAR ep 33 – Unnatural History) did. And they did it gloriously. They stayed true to the original while giving it a bit of their own odd flair. And the breakfast-tastic video definitely ups the weirdness factor. You know, for those of you who like your 90s nostalgia with a side of scrambled eggs.
Download the mp3 for free HERE
Morningbell’s website
Morningbell’s MySpace
Sophie Blackall – The Crows of Pearblossom
Sophie Blackall has to be one of our busiest contributors. When she’s not creating beautiful blog posts about her father’s adventures or the Missed Connections of complete strangers, she’s creating amazing illustrations for children’s books. Her latest work is the illustrations for The Crows of Pearblossom, a short story originally written in 1944 by the legendary British author Aldous Huxley. Her vivid artwork gives a modern and whimsical flair to the classic tale.
You can buy the book HERE.
The Digitour & SLAM Theatre
The Digitour feat. The Gregory Brothers
Have you ever wanted to see Internet memes live on stage? As it turns out, the Gregory Brothers (RADAR ep 27 – Auto Tune the News) are among the many YouTube musicians performing as part of the DigiTour—and they’re playing New York on May 1. Go see the show, and then spend the rest of May with musical current events stuck in your head.
Sunday, May 1 · 7:00 pm
Gramercy Theatre
127 East 23rd Street
New York, NY 10010
$18
EVENT INFO
Slam Theatre week 1
SLAM Theatre (RADAR ep 6) is back this spring with another round of their fast-paced playwright and actor competition. It will be going on for the next four weeks, but Sunday is the first round of eliminations for this series, and you don’t want to miss the beginning.
Sunday April 24 · 7:00 – 12:00 am
Sunday, May 1 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm
The Tank NYC
354 West 45th Street
New York, NY
$5 suggested donation
EVENT INFO
@LukeGWilliams
Luke Williams is a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business who specializes in disruptive innovation—a constant stream of unexpected changes and challenges to the old status quo. And in this world where “recession” is the word on everyone’s mind, new, disruptive ideas are more important than ever. While his blog (and book), DISRUPT may have been written with businesses in mind, the ideas he gives in his posts are surprisingly applicable to anyone.
DISRUPT blog
Luke Williams on Twitter
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