lyle.skains
Great Writing Conference
Imperial College London
June 2011
The Medium in the Writer's Process: How the Intent to Work in Digital Media Affects Practice
A novel looks like a book. A film script follows very specific formatting, used as a blueprint for the final production. But a digital story, using multiple media...who can say what form that will take during its composition?
My PhD project is a practice-based exploration of multimodal storytelling, specifically in fiction – print and digital. The primary focus of this research is to examine the effects of writing fiction in multiple modes and multiple media on the author's writing process.
Knowledge of and immersion in the digital interfaces and technologies fundamentally changes the writer's perspective on story structure, character, their relationship with the reader, and the way they write stories. As I have discovered through my practice-based research into multimodal and multimedia storytelling, both the intent to remediate a story into digital media and knowledge of digital fiction techniques and theory alter the shape and outcome of the creative writing process dramatically. A character's voice might change depending on whether they are narrating in print, or communicating through a blog. A once-linear structure might branch out into a web of possibilities – and the author can write and include all of them, rather than choosing one road less traveled.
This presentation will include readings from several stories, both print and digital, composed as part of this research, which will demonstrate the effects of producing fiction in multiple media on narrative and structure. I will also discuss ways in which my writing process evolved as a result of my developing awareness of, and intent to work in digital media.
Beyond Adaptation Conference
De Montfort University
January 2011
The Story in the Medium: Reader Responses to Multimodal Fiction Narratives
A novel in hard copy, book form, with numbered sequential pages, bound into paperback. A computer program with clickable links, images, sound, open to multiple nonlinear readings/viewings. How does the adaptation of a story from the conventional medium of a novel to the emerging medium of digital fiction affect the reader's understanding and experience of narrative? This paper explores the results of a classroom-based pilot study surveying readers who were asked to examine both a print novel and its digital adaptation (or vice versa). Readers were asked to read one of two novels and their digital versions (253 by Geoff Ryman or 10:01 by Lance Olsen). Half the readers examined the print novel first, and half examined the digital novel first. After each reading, they were asked to respond to questions based on the narrative and their reactions to each reading. This paper will present the initial results and conclusions of this study, and the potential implications for authors working in multimodal fiction.
My PhD work is a practice-based exploration of multimodal storytelling, specifically in fiction – print and digital. The primary focus of this research is to examine the effects of writing fiction in multiple modes and multiple media on the author's writing process. In my teaching, however, and in reactions from readers of the early drafts of my work, I began to notice interesting reactions to stories depending upon the medium through which they are delivered. These observations formed the basis for this study and the resulting paper.
MeCCSA Postgraduate Conference
University of Glasgow
June-July 2010
Visualizing the Story from Text to Screen: Application of Film Adaptation Techniques to Digital Fiction
As participants become more familiar with the conventions of the internet as a storytelling medium, digital fiction is emerging as a literary genre alongside novels and films. The genre will eventually broaden to include forms and stories that are more easily accessible to the consumer public than the current academic- and experiment-focused works. To date, most of these digital stories have been "born-digital"; few adaptations have been attempted. In the past, as storytelling technology advanced to the printed book and then film, authors and directors relied heavily on the processes of remediation to adapt familiar stories with the new technology, easing the transition to the new media. In film adaptations, multiple modes of interpretation are utilized to depict the story. Set design, costume, camera angles, and framing all contribute to transforming the textual narrative to the visual media of film. The processes used in adapting a literary work to screen are well-tried, and the fundamental techniques may apply to remediation in other technologies - namely, the newer media of digital fiction. This paper looks at the influential film adaptation Blade Runner, adapted from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, analyzing how the visuals contribute to the storyworld and narrative of the film. Examples of current visual remediation techniques will be explored, as well as a proposal for their applications to digital media storytelling. A possible model for the remediation of Dick's original text into digital fiction will also be illustrated, using these principles, during the presentation of the paper.
Great Writing Conference
Bangor University
June 2010
Stories as Real Estate: A New Paradigm for Publishing
Digital technology in the form of online sharing and digitized files revolutionized the music industry; forced by consumer transgression on the distribution model, the recording companies began to sell music, rather than CDs or records. The same paradigm shift in the storytelling arts is occurring as digital technology enables similar transgressions on the publishing model, as evidenced in legal battles over copyright and distribution schemes, notably Google Books and Amazon.com. These ongoing issues are driving a worried discourse surrounding questions of copyright infringement, the oft-predicted 'death' of the author, and the continued survival of the traditional publishing model. But rather than blogging about their perceived woes, some artists are embracing this increasingly liquid phase in publishing, using digital technologies to not only increase their opportunities for selling their stories, but to cut out large chunks of the traditional publishing chain. They not only offer their work directly to the reader, but they invite the reader to participate in the creation of the work; in the gaming world, these invited (and occasionally uninvited) transgressions are termed 'modding'. The process of including the (eventual) reader in the creation of the story takes many forms, involving reader participation at various stages of creation, with various levels of both artistic and monetary success. All of these mod-projects, however, share an ideal in common: they offer their stories as places rather than objects, as theme parks where readers can play rather than pre-determined experiences with the author's name stamped on every page. This paper examines several case studies, including Robin Sloan's Annabel Scheme project (http://robinsloan.com/annabel-scheme), Second Life, and the author's own work in digital storytelling. These examples serve as models for a new paradigm in storytelling: the story as an interactive and ongoing world, rather than a fixed text owned by a copyright-holder.
Transgression & Its Limits Conference
University of Stirling
May 2010
Invited Transgression Against the Text: Masochism, or an Evolved Perception of Authorship?
Digital technology in the form of online sharing and digitized files revolutionized the music industry; forced by consumer transgression on the distribution model, the recording companies began to sell music, rather than CDs or records. The same paradigm shift in the storytelling arts is occurring as digital technology enables similar transgressions on the publishing model, as evidenced in legal battles over copyright and distribution schemes, notably Google Books and Amazon.com. These ongoing issues are driving a worried discourse surrounding questions of copyright infringement, the oft-predicted 'death' of the author, and the continued survival of the traditional publishing model. But rather than blogging about their perceived woes, some artists are embracing this increasingly liquid phase in publishing. Instead of binding their texts in chains of copyright and legal protections, they are inviting so-called transgressions on their works; in the gaming world, these invited (and occasionally uninvited) transgressions are termed 'modding'. The process of including the (eventual) reader in the creation of the story takes many forms, involving reader participation at various stages of creation, with various levels of both artistic and monetary success. All of these mod-projects, however, share an ideal in common: they offer their stories as places rather than objects, as theme parks where readers can play rather than pre-determined experiences with the author's name stamped on every page. This paper examines several case studies, including Robin Sloan's Annabel Scheme project (http://robinsloan.com/annabel-scheme), and the author's own work in digital storytelling, as models for setting new boundaries around the questions 'what is literature?' and 'who is the author?'.
Cinema & Landscape Conference
University of Sheffield
April 2010
Visual Landscapes as Storytelling Devices: Providing Thematic Depth on Screen
As storytelling technology advanced to film at the turn of the 20th century, authors and directors relied heavily on the processes of remediation to adapt familiar stories with the new technology, easing the transition to the new media. In film adaptations, multiple modes of interpretation are utilized to depict the story. Set design, costume, camera angles, and framing all form a visual landscape that contributes not only to transforming the textual narrative to the visual media of film, but also to provide thematic depth to the story. At the turn of the 21st century, a new medium is yet again emerging: digital storytelling. To date, most of these digital stories have been "born-digital"; few adaptations have been attempted. The processes used in adapting a literary work to screen are well-tried, and the fundamental techniques may apply to remediation in other technologies - namely, the newer media of digital fiction. This panel looks at the influential film adaptation Blade Runner, adapted from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, analyzing how the visuals contribute to the storyworld and narrative of the film, with particular emphasis on how the visual landscape remediates the thematic elements of the text rather than providing a mechanical adaptation. Amy Chambers will present an analysis of the story's visual world, examining the cityscape and its incorporated symbolism, and how these represent a thematic remediation of Dick's Novel. Lyle Skains will explore the application of these cinematic storytelling techniques to digital storytelling. By creating a landscape in the visual presentation of digital stories that offers a thematic depth on par with Blade Runner's visual story, digital storytellers can deliver a more satisfying story to readers with minimal text use on screen. She will illustrate these concepts with a proposed model for the remediation of Dick's original text into digital fiction, using the presented principles of visual storytelling.
Transliteracy Conference
Phoenix Square Digital Centre
February 2010
Visualizing the Story from Text to Screen: Application of Film Adaptation Techniques to Digital Fiction
As participants become more familiar with the conventions of the internet as a storytelling medium, digital fiction is emerging as a literary genre alongside novels and films. The genre will eventually broaden to include forms and stories that are more easily accessible to the consumer public than the current academic- and experiment-focused works. To date, most of these digital stories have been "born-digital"; few adaptations have been attempted. In the past, as storytelling technology advanced to the printed book and then film, authors and directors relied heavily on the processes of remediation to adapt familiar stories with the new technology, easing the transition to the new media. In film adaptations, multiple modes of interpretation are utilized to depict the story. Set design, costume, camera angles, and framing all contribute to transforming the textual narrative to the visual media of film. The processes used in adapting a literary work to screen are well-tried, and the fundamental techniques may apply to remediation in other technologies - namely, the newer media of digital fiction. This paper looks at the influential film adaptation Blade Runner, adapted from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, analyzing how the visuals contribute to the storyworld and narrative of the film. Examples of current visual remediation techniques will be explored, as well as a proposal for their applications to digital media storytelling. A possible model for the remediation of Dick's original text into digital fiction will also be illustrated, using these principles, during the presentation of the paper.
MeCCSA Postgraduate Conference
Bangor University
July 2009
The Shifting Author-Reader Dynamic:
Online Novel Communities as a Bridge from Print to Digital Literature
In this digital age, readers are turning to online outlets in an effort to prolong the experience of reading a beloved novel. This paper looks at the websites created and maintained by the authors themselves, which delve deeper into the world of novel and novelist, offering fans interaction with both the author and other readers, as well as an extension of the novel's world through games and additional materials. These online novel communities are models of a bridge between print and digital storytelling conventions. They create a new dynamic between author, text, and reader; no longer is the communication of fiction a one-way street. Rather, these communities provide a space for discourse between author and reader, opportunities for readers to influence and form the texts the author is creating, and reader-contributed material in the form of fan fiction and games. The digital format of these communities also introduces the print-oriented reader to digital storytelling elements such as online games, multimedia, and hypertext. This paper uses two communities as models: NeilGaiman.com and JasperFforde.com. It examines the discourse between these bestselling fantasy authors and their readers, reader contributions on the sites, the unique author-reader dynamic created through these interactions, and how these sites introduce readers to digital storytelling conventions.
Great Writing Conference
Bangor University
June 2009
Inside Out Empty: A Digital Story
This presentation consisted of a reading of my short story “Inside-Out Empty (Working Title)”, accompanied by a display of the digital adaptation in progress. My doctoral research is practice-led; throughout the course of my studies, I will be writing a novel in the form of interlinked short stories building to an overall climax. I will adapt these stories to digital format, incorporating visual, audio, hypertext, and interactive elements. My final product will be a print book, and a website presenting the stories in networked, interactive, digital format. “Inside-Out Empty (Working Title)” is intended to be a model of the process of adaptation: my PhD project in miniature. The print story presented in the reading will be a complete, polished piece of fiction. The digital version of the story will show elements of my adaptation process, and may include storyboards; small scenes; notes; outlines for networked, interactive, or hyperlink elements; photographs; text; and other planning and adaptation tools. After the reading, should time allow, I spoke briefly on the experience of adapting print fiction to digital format, including problems encountered, strategies, software, and variations required in the creative thought process to move from a linear print story to a networked digital version.
Beyond Boundaries Conference
Bangor University
January 2009
Beyond the Novelty:
Creating Digital Fiction for Mainstream Audiences
Over the course of my practice-led research, I will be writing/creating a digital novel, exploring the ways to appeal to a mainstream market. I will focus on the strength of the story in the novel, first writing a traditional print piece, then adapting it to a digital format. Some digital stories sacrifice the writing and story, instead relying on the novelty of the digital format to engage the reader. I feel that while this approach engages the reader's intellect, as games do, it abandons the attempt to engage the reader's emotions, which is a key component in creating a lasting story with impact. My adaptation, therefore, will include hypertext, film, audio, digital art & photography, and interactive components as an 'enhancement' of the print novel, similar to a DVD with extras. Readers will be able to 'play' with the text, writing their own scenes, rearranging others, adding art and photography to the novel's landscape. Finally, they will be able to save the novel at the end in a format they can then experience again, should they choose to, like re-reading a favorite book. Alternatively, they may choose to start fresh again, to form a new experience of the digital novel, as many times as they wish
Related Publications
Related Blog Posts
Print Version
Digital Version
