Stories and Songs
Both begin with S.
And the word Soul also begins with the letter S as well.
Songs have hooks, bass lines, riddim, lyrics, chord progression, solos and song structure.
Songs are known for repeatable cycles, chorus and verses.
Songs make up the basis of the music industry and popular song has been a cornerstone of popular cutlure for over 500 years. The people of Elizabethean England sang “popular songs.”
Stories have arcs, themes, characters, endings, conflict and resolve.
Stories are known for iconic roles, characteristic conflict and resolve and well-recognized plot lines endings.
Stories have been around since the dawn of time and we’ve studied stories — as well as turns stories into money — for just about as long a time.
The term Stories has been turned into a particular kind of “media slideshow” format — and there are over 1B stories being posted everyday, if you count Snap, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
Stories is a term which has been kidnapped, just like “tags” got turned into a way to say who is in a photo. That’s not really what a Tag is, but we forgive Facebook for stealing the phrase.
So Stories and Songs are both HUGE cultural vehicles in which we express ourselves. There are professional story tellers and song writers — and there are lots and lots of amateurs as well.
Interactive Narrative puts the viewer into the structure; allowing for choices, branches and different POVs to be explored.
Interactive Narrative includes asking users a question, offering users polls and surveys and in general — bringing the end-user into the equation — as opposed to just asking them to sit there and watch.
What do Stories and Songs have in common?
There fundamental ways that people express themselves. This is not about making money, but about emotional manipulation, baseline communication and emotive expression.
Songs tell the story of our lives — in musical fashion. Storytelling adopts to whatever medium or technology available — at the time — and so today we find ourselves telling stories — as advertising, training and machine learning.
Message Boards have always been a happy medium for interacive communication — a halfway point — since before the Internet.
Message Boards allow humans to post a message and get a reply from another human. This form of asynchronous interaction expanded with the Internet and the WWW when people figured out that a viewer of art or video, or the reader of words — could leave these things called “comments” — attached to the original form of expression.
Over the past 25 years comments have been the fundamental way that a viewer, listener or reader can express themselves BACK to the author. This form of interaction is a foundational principle of web and mobile “interaction.”
What we’re trying to do is go beyond commenting.
We’re working on a way for “the other person” to interact and become part of the original creative expression. We’re figuring out ways that an author can decide — to what extent do I wish to “let” my reader interact with my art?
If you ask any YouTube influencer, social media marketing maven or blogger “how much interactin is enough?” “How many people do you want liking and leaving comments on your post(s)?” — they will answer AMAP (as much as possible.)
To today’s creative expressors — there is no such thing as too much interaction. The Internet and mobile web LOVE it when users interact together. This is the friction that causes commerce.
Storytelling has been kidnapped and usurped by marketeers and our children yearn to become “Internet famous” — without having to do anything else than be obnoxious, rude and cultural inappropriate.
When little white grrrls growl in ebonics and claim “they is black” — then you know we’re in trouble.
There’s GOT to be a way to move beyond commetning, if for no other reason that JUST being Kim Khardasian just isn’t enough.
Its time to go beyond just commenting and provide new ways for users to interact with creative expression.
We call it “Storytelling Beings” (‘cause we sure as hell ain’t creating Bots!)
Imagine if your Instagram story was the beginning of an Interactive Story?
Imagine if you could “author AI” so that your Instagram story became sentient and could “interact” with your friends, collegues or future customers?”
Imagine if AI Authoring was as easy as recording a video selfie?
That’s what my startup Instigate is working on.
Interactive Stories and Songs driven by AI that anyone can author. The Director of AI.
First appearance for you all to try this out — is Aug. 2018.
Fingers crossed and the blessings of Jah supporting us.
