IMMERSERe-imagining the personal narrative

Hypothesis: 

The personal narrative has lost power because of ubiquity. By studying how relationships are built between narrative and audience we can develop new tools for individuals to create engaging stories.

       Author                    Narrative                 Audience

THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE HAS LOST ITS POWER

What is a personal narrative?

Stories people tell - a wedding video, a series of pictures and tales from a vacation or a tweet about a humorous incident at the bar last night.

There are events and emotions to relate, and the author is not a professional storyteller.

Why does the personal narrative matter?

-Since becoming ubiquitous and easily recordable, they both describe and comprise our history.-They connect us with new or distant experiences-As a designer, I have the opportunity to invigorate a form of communication.

Author        Knowledge, Experience, History         Narrative      

Why has it lost power?

Changing modes of production and new media have put the personal narrative in a position where it is less expressive and more difficult to follow.

Three factors have contributed: 

Ubiquity                           Purpose                           Format

Personal narratives have become ubiquitous:

Content creation and publication have become democratized

“Print extends the human body into the space of material production and self representation.”-Marshall McLuhan

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The purpose of the personal narrative has changed:

They are created with the knowledge that they will be published.

The line between personal story and amateur publishing is blurred.

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The format of the personal narrative has changed.

New personal narratives take advantage of new media, and are found on many platforms. Length and content are no longer limiting.

HOW NARRATIVES CAN BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH AUDIENCES

Consider this example taken from Twitter:

“... I use Twitter for really personal things, so I just share moments from my work or moments from my love life or I talk about my cats or my family. And it engages lots of different people, so when these people are following you and suddenly you are talking about a torture case, some of them might not usually be exposed to such cases. But because they are following me and there is an ongoing conversation between us, they would suddenly be engaged in this, as well.”

-Mona Seif, Egyptian Protester

In a traditional narrative, profound ideas are woven through trivial moments to create an immersive experience…but:

Personal narratives create a relationship with the audience through trivial moments over time, and then suddenly become important with brief moments that are profound.

How do narratives work in different media, and what is the nature of the relationship they form with the audience?

Let us consider two works created for diverse audiences in disparate media: Mona Seif's Twitter posts and a recording of Homer’s Iliad

This recording of the Iliad presents the elements of spoken narratives which result in an immersion into the story.

There is variation in tone, narrative pacing, presentation pacing, detail and dialog.

Mona's mundane posts about her daily life speak to her followers on common ground - they are relatable experiences shared by many.

The profound posts relate experiences that are less accessible, and act as a tool for publishing important ideas and a historical, personal record of events. Yet this would not be possible were it not for the previously established relationship, formed through connections with friends and mundane posts.

I aim to adapt the structures and immersive attributes of traditional, professionally authored stories and combine them with the new media and personal relationship building advantages of personal narratives to produce tools for the creation of immersive, relationship building stories.

Possible Developments:-Integrate storytelling vocabulary with media-Intertwining sensory cues-Developing tools for creating cross-medium narratives

A new method creating immersive user generated stories

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