For the past three years, I have been working on a collaborative art/music/technology project called The Musical Melodyians with multimedia producer, Scott Tooby. In the process of developing this project, I have grown as an artist as well as a businesswoman. Scott in turn, whose background was in music composition, has grown as a product developer and programmer. Our continued goal for this project has been to create a rich story Universe that draws upon multiple media sources like a graphic novel, music, videos, photography, and social media to tell the tale of a musical alien race that lands in Los Angeles, CA.
An important recent development in the Musical Melodyian project has been –MUSIC! Please stay tuned for our EP that will be available for purchase on Bandcamp. P.S. Bandcamp is a great platform for music artists to release their work and get paid. Imagine that!
Now that we have been piecing together a nice collection of content that revolves around the Melodyian concept, I think back to a time when there was a nagging voice in the back of my head (the one finds calm in labeling and categorizing everything). This voice constantly attacked me with questions like: “What the hell is this?” and “What do you call this kind of thing?”
Apparently, it’s called Transmedia Storytelling.
After discussing our writing projects and my worries about not having a succinct word to describe the nature of my project, my good friend and colleague, Tómas Prower introduced me to the word: transmedia — a simple and powerful way to describe this form of storytelling in which the narrative (and marketing) evolves from the symbiosis of different media sources.
Damn, it’s helpful to have smart friends! I know that Tómas has been working towards transmedia storytelling for his upcoming book, Santa Muerte: Unearthing the Magic & Mysticism of Death which will be available in the fall of 2015. I am curious to see how Tómas will use transmedia storytelling not only to promote his book but develop his story. Thinking about how Tómas is using transmedia and I am been using transmedia makes me think about the future of storytelling and how much storytelling has changed in just a decade.
It’s difficult to talk intelligently about the changing landscape of transmedia storytelling without talking about the Internet boom.
The Internet was a huge game-changer. That’s a fact. Whether or not the Internet changed the world for good or bad — that’s up for debate, but I am of the mindset that the Internet has been a generally good development for humankind. New social platforms have boomed, giving ways for new voices to be heard with the click of a button. This created a storm of shitty content (but hey, we’re all guilty of watching cat videos), but also opened a path for many artists to get their voices heard.
I am excited to witness and take part in a future where artists experiment with innovative ways to share their work and develop their stories. More specifically though, I wonder if the future will be a place where both creators and consumers can live harmoniously. In this future, the consumer values the creator’s work by financially supporting them and their projects. Some feel like this future is unattainable and overly idealistic, but for artists and creators like myself, solving these issues is a matter of survival. Sustainability is what I strive for. Maybe transmedia is the answer.
If you are a transmedia artist, please share your experiences in the comment box below. If you have questions about my transmedia project, please feel free to ask questions!