“Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.” - Henry Jenkins
Welcome to The Cultch Digital Storytelling! We’ve spent our first season exploring, learning and experimenting with digital transmedia storytelling.
As digital innovations in the performing arts progress locally, nationally, and internationally, The Cultch continues our responsibility in creating a hub of discourse and creation as a vital arts venue based in Vancouver, Canada: the traditional, unceded, and occupied territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
We present artists and offer them an opportunity to create experiences that extend their stories outside the time of the live performance -- beyond the physical space of the theatre. The Cultch Digital Storytelling Team is a branch of The Cultch’s team, dedicated to creating spaces to deepen understanding of context and character, thereby providing opportunities for ongoing interaction in both storytelling methodologies and new technologies for digital interaction.
The Goals of The Cultch Digital Storytelling Initiative:
Bring voices and stories from the stage into online spaces to expand the reach and depth of the storyworlds
Support and encourage the artists we present to explore a digital transmedia approach to their storytelling, blending digital and physical worlds
Mirror The Cultch’s commitment to diversify and democratize the stage, and connect with audiences who thus far have not been reached by the performing arts
Capture and share knowledge with the community
Expose our audience to works that take place digitally as well as on-stage, and learn where and how they can best engage with these works
Allow our team and the artists we collaborate with to build skills with technologies and interactive processes, then disseminate this knowledge through the community
Facilitate relationships between artist and audience before and after live performances
Innovate upon what enriching experiences a performing arts venue can offer, building on the goals of talkbacks and pre-show chats and other on site enrichment activities (eg. Feminist Karoke, Family Drag Brunch), not limited to physical attendance.
Innovation in the use of technology for storytelling: hack the design intentions of technologies to achieve new forms of storytelling or new artistic elements within existing frameworks. Look for opportunities to increase the participation, interaction or immersiveness or of digital elements.