Story Blocks

Abstract

Digital technology is changing, and has changed the ways we create and consume narratives, from moving images and immersive storyworlds to digital longform and multi-branched story experiences. At the same time, blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, is revolutionising the way that transactions and exchanges occur. As a globally stored and collaboratively written list of all transactions that have ever taken place within a given system, the blockchain decentralises money and offers a platform for its creative use. There are already examples of blockchain technologies extending beyond the realm of currency, including the decentralisation of domain name servers that are not subject to government takedown, and identity management and governance.By framing key blockchain concepts with past and present storytelling practices, this paper raises questions as to how the principles and implementation of such distributed ledger technologies might be used within contemporary writing practices Ð that is, can we imagine stories as a currency or value system? We present three experiments that draw on some of the fundamental principles of blockchain and Bitcoin, as an instantiation of a blockchain implemented application, namely; 1) the Ledger, 2) the Blocks, and 3) the Mining Process. Each low-fi experiment was intentionally designed to be very accessible to take part in and understand and were conducted as discrete workshops with different sets of participants. Participants included a cohort of design students, technology industry and design professionals, and writing and interaction design academics. Each experiment raised a different set of reflections and subsequent questions on the nature of digital, the linearity (or not) of narratives, and collaborative processes.

The unexpected consequences of a pandemic: Crypto-finance as cultural commons

“…Historically based on memetic and participatory Internet cultures (Jenkins, 2006), a part of the cultural common of crypto-finance is visible in the fabric of everyday life, as my ongoing ethnographic research suggests – for instance, in informal conversations that take place undetected by digital data-gathering processes. Furthermore, it is possible that beneath the production of this cultural common, an even more fundamental change is taking place: a digitally enabled transition to a post-literary canon (Maxwell et al, 2017). This transition would imply that the deluge of digital traces in the crypto scene can be accounted for only by framing them as part of natively oral, not written, culture.…”

What Are the Effects of Short Video Storytelling in Delivering Blockchain-Credentialed Australian Beef Products to China?

“…Digital technology has changed the ways of creating and consuming narrative stories [34,35]. Although digital storytelling still processes traditional storytelling methods, new multimedia tools have equipped storytelling with video or animation configuration [36,37].…”

GeoCoin

“…In order to understand the effects these technological developments may have on our everyday lives, researchers are looking into ways to render them more accessible and tangible for non-specialist audiences [31,32]. Other, creative applications and explorations by artists and designers aim to reimagine and critically question future applications or uses of this technology [8].…”