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Active Narrative Gathering: The Attentional Will Not be Televised

By , on May 9, 2008

Alternate Reality Games, Prosumerism, Social Networking Platforms, Synthetic, Twitter

Tags: , , , , , ,


Alternate Reality Games [ARGs] are forms of entertainment that derive their structure from a mix of fictionalised world framing and real-world narrative components. Players create a required suspension of disbelief when connected to an ARGian world construct. This construct operates “…via interconnected narrative threads/cues beyond exclusive parent forms or individualised game parameters. ARGs make players step outside the restrictions of mono-genre game boundaries and narrative-seek through the use of webtrawling, email, phone/sms contact, real-time interactions and extensive online engagement to glean cues + puzzle pieces. These games work within a collusive reaction principle; that arousal, curiosity and search-behaviour will result if info-schooled gamers are offered teasing data as narrative tip offs.”.

ARGs display commonalities with Viral Marketing and Viral Media campaigns. All three forms have structural similarities that attempt to promote meaning formation. ARGs use a Gestalt system pieced together through pervasive content. Successful ARG navigation requires the employment of Active Narrative Gathering [ANG]. ANG involves genre amalgamation, prosumerism, and attentional layering. The Social Networking software _Twitter_ is a contemporary example of one variation of prosumerism in action. Twitterers micro-blog via text snippets [tweets] of 140 characters in length. Users can respond in the public communication stream/timeline, direct message others, or restrict their tweets from general view.

Twitter users create and absorb in concentrated attentional narratives. These tweetstreams blend observations and user-regurgitated facts. Content occurs with attentional “tasting” as users choose to collaboratively incorporate snippets into their streams. Alternatively, they can express introspective or otherwise nuanced updates without accounting for replies or additional user interactions. These integrative comprehension streams represent Synthaptic units – a synthetic network measurement that gauges attentional consciousness.

Prosumerism, like successful ARG navigation, is not passive but active in intent. Synthetics embody the attentional as an extension of a fiction/non-fiction meltdown within streams of ego-consciousness. Should notions of pop culture be replaced by a corresponding attentional conception of entertainment?



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4 Comments to “Active Narrative Gathering: The Attentional Will Not be Televised”

  1. Nino Rodriguez says:
    May 10, 2008 at 3:49 am

    “Should notions of pop culture be replaced by a corresponding attentional conception of entertainment?”

    Well, as someone who’s pending divorce is occasionally being tweeted and blogged about by my soon-to-be-ex-spouse as part of her infotainment business, I guess you could say that my wife is a “prosumer” of our relationship:

    http://twitter.com/penelopetrunk/statuses/801639193

  2. Christian McCrea says:
    May 11, 2008 at 1:30 pm

    So the prosumer is a figure whose capabilities for getting lost in the plot breach narrative, fictive and media-specific curtains? If its true, then pop culture is healthier than ever; the creation of alternative realities that feed off multiple media to create attitudinal shift and narrative engrossment apply to the saccharin sweet worlds of New Idea magazine’s synthetic humans as well.

  3. mez says:
    May 12, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    Hi Nino.

    Do you find the fact your inter-personal experiences with your [ex?]wife now contribute to Twitter/Blogopshere streams – as well as the bleed through into trad_media channels such as the New York Times – influences the way you use the abovementioned platforms? I’ve found you also consistently reference your divorce on your facebook page [and indeed we have spoken about it there]. I am curious as to how the disintegration of such a tender public/private divide [in terms of real-time feedback potential] manifests and associated affective consequences it may have? I also hope you are coping with such a difficult time as best you can.

  4. Nino Rodriguez says:
    May 12, 2008 at 3:35 pm

    Well, my ex and I have a history of using each other’s stories for personal writing/art projects, so in a way, we’ve been rehearsing this for 15 years.

    My CD-ROM “Boy” from 1994 (old school “multimedia” in da house!) — http://www.mindspring.com/~ninor/boy.html

    And her “hypertext novella” “What Fits” which chronicles the rocky start of our relationship: http://www.eastgate.com/ReadingRoom/WhatFits/WhatFits.htm

    So the commodification of the pending divorce seems less like a surprise and more like the inevitable conclusion.

    For my part, I am actuely aware of the only-somewhat-private nature of Facebook. That mostly people I know will be keeping tabs on what I post there, but that it will probably leak out to other semi-public areas. I don’t tend to update my status with the private emotional ups and downs, though I’m sure it comes through nevertheless.

    For her part, I am something of a supporting player in her ongoing blog and twitter streams.

    And, yes, writing about the experience is a great way to cope!

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