Culture Hacker
Bridging the gap between storytelling and technology. by Lance Weiler
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Convergent: Columbia DSL Live at the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Columbia University’s Digital Storytelling Lab (DSL) is launching a monthly live event and podcast on the changing nature of storytelling in partnership with New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center. “Convergent: Columbia DSL Live at the Film Society of Lincoln Center” will explore new forms and functions of storytelling and pull back the curtain on what’s required to tell stories in the digital age. The initial program, to be held at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center on Tuesday, Feb. 23, will celebrate the Lab’s first annual “Digital Dozen: Breakthroughs in Storytelling” with a line\up of speakers that includes New… Read more
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Breakthroughs in Storytelling
Photo credit Freedom, created by Josh Kline for the 2015 New Museum Triennial.
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The Alchemy of THINGS
This weekend at the New York Film Festival, Sherlock Holmes & the Internet of Things will convert Lincoln Center into a massive crime scene. Come step into an immersive storytelling experience that enables you to become Sherlock Holmes. - "It’s pitch dark. A faint chatter spills across the theater. Someone clears their throat and everything goes still. A ringing cuts the silence. It has a crispness, a tone that signals the sound of actual metal vibrating. Just on the edge of piercing, it’s an old school ring, one that now only exists in classic cinema or reruns of pre… Read more
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Finding the Pause Button
A lone van sits idling outside terminal four at JFK. As the last of the passengers settle into their seats, a voice cracks through the early morning silence: “Does anyone know where we’re going?” Nervous laughter fills the air. “Welcome to Forward Slash Story,” says the man behind the wheel as he pulls away from the curb. Twenty storytellers working across a diversity of disciplines (film, TV, theater, gaming, publishing and product design) have traveled from around the world to gather for a residential lab to explore, challenge and experiment with the creative process. Their destination is a secret remote… Read more
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Somebody Wake Me Up Please
My phone is ringing. The sound pulls me from a deep sleep. It’s 5:30 a.m., the room is dark, and for a moment I’m confused. As I push the phone into my ear I hear a female voice singing. Slowly it registers; this is the wakeup call that I requested. But I’m not staying in a hotel, and the woman calling me is a complete stranger. The singing stops and the voice on the other end of the line tells me to have a wonderful day. I express my gratitude and ask her name. “Sarah from Dublin,” she replies, and… Read more
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The Art of Narrative Deduction
In 1887, an eccentric detective named Sherlock Holmes appeared in print for the first time. A literary creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson captured the imaginations of readers and quickly grew in popularity. Fifty-six short stories and four novels later, Doyle’s work has seen numerous adaptations. From films to television to stage plays, Sherlock Holmes has stood the test of time. But beyond the fiction, Doyle’s stories have had a lasting impact on the way that crimes are solved. Holmes’ obsession with protecting crime scenes from contamination and his use of chemistry, ballistics, bloodstains… Read more
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YouTube, We’re Watching You
As I pull up to the front of the convention center, a man in a fluorescent vest struggles with some orange cones. I roll down my window to see if there is room in the parking garage, but before I can ask he says. “We’re full. Twenty thousand people, too many cars. Welcome to VidCon.” As I try to talk, the long line of vehicles behind me begin to honk. Drowned out, I drive off. It was only five years ago that more than 1,400 YouTube creators and fans crammed into a hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. The first… Read more
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Rewriting with Rapid Prototyping
In a few weeks’ time, I’ll be in Australia traveling the country with a small plush connected toy named Lyka. A robot scientist with a big heart, Lyka is from another planet decimated by climate change. Sent to Earth in a last desperate attempt to save her home, she relies on students to help her travel the globe. Together, the students and Lyka explore Earth as they search for insight that prevents her planet from dying. At its core, Lyka’s Adventure mixes purposeful storytelling and play. The project strives to teach 21st-century skills by utilizing collaborative problem solving, rapid prototyping,… Read more
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Plug and Play
We are in the middle of a hardware revolution. Inexpensive processors, memory and sensor technologies are now accessible to the masses. Long gone are the days of expensive fabrication and manufacturing processes. Maker culture and crowdfunding have ushered in a new cottage industry of manufacturing, one that enables entrepreneurs to go direct to consumers. As a result, innovation is pouring out of garages, basements, bedrooms and makerspaces around the world. My favorite hardware innovation of the last year is a latecomer. Just last month, a startup named Kano launched a crowdfunding campaign for a $99 computer aimed at teaching kids… Read more
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21st Century Writer’s Room
The last few years have seen a rise in filmmakers who are extending the stories they tell beyond a single medium. At the same time, festivals, schools and organizations are starting to nurture work that mixes story and code. Tribeca has a program called Storyscapes, which highlights new trends in digital media and recognizes cross-platform approaches to story creation. While Sundance’s New Frontier section has highlighted experiments in storytelling since 2007, they recently added a Story Lab to help incubate forward-thinking, platform-agnostic projects. At Columbia University, where I teach, we are in the process of developing a digital storytelling lab… Read more
