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Microsoft documented The Raven a project that explores state based immersive theatre. The documentation includes a series of videos, a how-to guide and a link to the source code from the project. You can find more details here

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Spring Semester 2020

The following is the syllabus for Digital Storytelling II: the art, craft & biz of storytelling in 21c. This a living document that will be modified over the course of the semester.  Click here

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Columbia DSL is now on Github. To find resources and code from our prototypes please visit https://github.com/columbiadsl

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Spring Semester 2019

The following is the syllabus for Digital Storytelling II: the art, craft & biz of storytelling in 21c. This a living document that will be modified over the course of the semester. 

https://medium.com/columbia-dsl/digital-storytelling-ii-building-storyworlds-the-art-craft-biz-of-storytelling-in-21c-spring-4697734c38eb

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Columbia DSL’s Sandbox: episode 001 — Immersive Theatre for One with Michael Rau

We’re excited to announce the launch of a new Columbia DSL podcast entitled Sandbox.

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2018 round up of 52 Immersive Things – Columbia DSL – Medium

The following is a round up of 52 immersive things from 2018 that mix storytelling, play, design and code.

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The Raven - an evening of spatial audio & augmented reality storytelling @ Lincoln Center Wed, Jan. 9th

Come explore the mind of Edgar Allan Poe. The Columbia University School of the Arts’ Digital Storytelling Lab is excited to announce that we'll be collaborating with the Actors Theater of NYC and the Film Society of Lincoln Center on an immersive storytelling experience that reimagines one of Poe's seminal works - The Raven.

READ MORE

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Frankenstein AI @ Sundance.

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The Columbia DSL is headed to Sundance with Frankenstein AI: a monster made by many.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sundance-darren-aronofsky-megan-ellison-ai-projects-debut-at-festival-1065030

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Applications are now open for the 2018 Forward Slash Story residential lab. The 4-day lab is for writers, artists, technologists and designers who work in uncharted territories to share their journey. Location to be disclosed shortly. Submissions accepted until 5th Jan 2018. 

http://forwardslashstory.com

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Test & Break - an evening of prototyping

This month's Columbia DSL meetup will focus on prototyping methods for immersive storytelling projects. When attempting to take an idea to execution, things can get complicated. How can you balance the differing needs, considerations and development cycles or story, play, and code?

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Digital Dozen: Breakthroughs in Storytelling Awards

The Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab’s “Digital Dozen: Breakthroughs in Storytelling” awards honor the most innovative approaches to narrative from the past year.

Set up to encourage innovation, creativity, and an awareness of the myriad ways digital technology is changing the way we tell stories, the awards program is open to works from any field or discipline, including advertising, art, fiction, film, games, journalism, television, and theater. In citing these accomplishments, the Lab hopes to further digital media’s potential to break free of rigid, industrial-age classifications and evolve in ways that analog media could not.

Check out the Digital Dozen at http://digitaldozenawards.com

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Frankenstein AI: a monster made by many

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

I’m so excited about Frankenstein AI I can barely contain myself. Last week at the Film Society of Lincoln Center we launched a prototype for Frankenstein AI, our newest immersive adaption. Over the next two years we’ll examine the themes within Shelley’s groundbreaking work, using them as a lens to explore our relationship to emergent technologies such as; artificial intelligence, robotics and the Internet of Things.

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From Vimeo description: Prosthetic Reality is an Augmented Reality Art book. The book is paired with the EyeJack iOS and Android app to allow each artwork to come to life with animation and sound.

The project has been created in collaboration between artist Sutu, Code on Canvas and 45 artists and sound designers from around the world. With additional support from The Department of Culture of Arts in Western Australia.

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Digital Storytelling — a look at the last 12 months

I recently asked the internet…

“Have a favor to ask. I’m currently prepping for my Columbia University Class which I start teaching later this month. Interested to get a global perspective on the following. Wondering what are some of the best examples of digital storytelling that came out in the last year? I’d like to do a showcase for my students and I’ll bundle the results and share back with everyone. So what stood out? What moved you? And why? Fiction, Non-fiction, hybrid, experimental, game #VR #AI #IoT #AR #immersive #theater#browser#mobile #game #installation etc. Thanks so much!”

The following collection of 38 projects was suggested via comments to my original post. Below I’ve pulled the ones that we’re released in the last 12 months. The listing follows the order of the original comments in Facebook.

Special thanks to everyone who contributed to the list!

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“...passengers who appear in the back seat of your taxi, and the order they arrive, isn’t scripted. It’s all randomized. This means you have to be attentive to each person’s thoughts and reactions at all times, open to the idea that not everything you hear and see will be a lead.” 

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Building Storyworlds: the art, craft & biz of storytelling returns next semester

Looking forward to next semester. I’ll be teaching Building Storyworlds at Columbia University again. This marks our fifth year and the course is expanding in some exciting ways. I recently received a grant to design and build a physical computing kit that we’ll use within the classroom to explore new forms of narrative, while also measuring learning retention and transference. The kit is intended to help students from the School of the Arts without a computer background to learn conditional statements.

The course fills up quick and is open to students across the university. I also allow room for folks to audit the class too. In the past that’s been people from other programs, schools and/or working professionals. If you’re interested in auditing please contact me.

This tumblr will ramp up in the coming months and will be a place to catch my prep for the course and also an archive of elements from the class once we start.

In the meantime

Last week I launched a curated site and weekly newsletter for those interested emerging tech and its impact on storytelling, play, design, education, health and humanity. With over 1,000 links and growing, Culture Hacker is part of a research/writing experiment for a new book that I’m writing which will be published in 2018. For more info visit www.culturehacker.com