My presentation at Media mutations http://www.mediamutations.org/

1. Narra4ves as spa4al stories in
hybrid ecosystem
Kai Pata
Tallinn University, Estonia
Ins4tute of Informa4cs
Center for Educa4onal Technology

2. Are narra4ves primarily inter‐subjec4ve devices
that are used to tell stories to others
….or do we use narra4ves as mediators of our
ac0ons in the hybrid ecosystem
….and can others use accumulated narra0ves
for naviga0on in hybrid spaces?

3. Telling the stories
• A narra4ve is the semio4c representa4on of a
series of events meaningfully connected in a
temporal and causal way.

4. Op4on I.
Represen4ng stories in new formats
• Jay Bushman has been experimen4ng with
transla0ons of famous authors’ stories into the
microblogging format (eg. The Good Captain
hNp://www.loose‐fish.com/waifpole/the‐good‐
captain/
• His aim is embedding fic0on between the
streams of nonfic0on that is constantly present
in our daily lives.
• His goal is to blur the line between the real
world and the story world (Shaer, 2008).
• hNp://cwd.co.uk/storysofar/

5. Hybridizing loca4ons with stories
• Some authors have embedded their novels into
the real geographical loca4ons and provide
i0neraries for exploring the novels parallel in
real and virtual world to enable for the readers
embodiment of the fic0onal story as part of city
reality
• eg. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, “The Shadow of the Wind”
hNp://www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk/shadow‐
walk.html

7. Experiencing distributed narra4ves
• Distribu0on in Time: The narra4ve cannot be
experienced in one consecu4ve period of 4me.
• Distribu0on in Space: There is no single place in
which the whole narra4ve can be experienced.
• Distribu0on of Authorship: No single author or
group of authors can have complete control of
form of the narra4ve.
• They appear as aggregated narra0ves or
emergent narra0ves
hNp://jilltxt.net/txt/Walker‐AoIR‐3500words.pdf

8. Op4on II.
Narra4ve media4on
• Bruner’s (1996) cultural‐psychological approach
to educa4on emphasizes narra0ves as vehicles
for meaning making and iden0ty‐
determina0on.
• Embodied simula4on may be how storytelling
works as a personal “tool” for placement in
hybrid ecosystems
• Personal narra4ves are supposed to constrain
the choice of ac0ons available to us; they are
supposed to indicate to us what to do.

9. Embodied narra4ves
• As we now live in mul4ple
reali4es, as we now
occupy mul4ple spaces,
our cultural dream‐pool
will soon include the very
real, or lived, experiences
of embodiment in virtual
worlds, and in turn, new
narra4ves will emerge.
Doyle & Kim (2007). Embodied narra0ve: The virtual nomad
and the meta dreamer Embodiment of virtual stories
hNp://www.atypon‐link.com/INT/doi/pdf/10.1386/padm. Pata, 2010
3.2‐3.209_1?cookieSet=1

10. We are eco‐cogni4ve engineers
• Humans are powerful eco‐cogni0ve
engineers.
• Humans use the environment itself as a
representa0on by manipula0ng and even
crea0ng it so as to find room for new
cogni0ve chances not immediately available.
• We build and manipulate cogni0ve niches so
as to unearth addi0onal resources for
behavior control.
Bardone, 2010

11. Op4on III.
Community niches for narra4ve media4on
• People with various perspec0ves are
simultaneously at present in hybrid ecosystems
and influencing them.
• Many abstract subspaces can be formed within
ecosystems.
• Such spaces emerge when parts of the
environment are embodied and used similar way
by many people.
• Groups of individuals who have something in
common in their iden0ty create abstract spaces
in the ecology ‐ niches.

12. Ecological inheritance
t
Adapta4on to the niche Culturally
defined
dimensions
Niche crea4on of the
hybrid
Community ecosystem
t + 1
iden4ty
Time Adapted from Odling‐Smee, F.J., Laland, K.N., & Feldman, M.W.

13. Hybrid digital ecosystem
• Social media environments together with
geographical loca4ons can be conceptualized
as a “hybrid ecosystem”, provided that
par0cipants of social media have ecological
dependence of the par0cular set of
mediators that they use as their niche for
taking ac0on.

14. Spa0ality that is common to both stories and
human geography is a key concept in new
emerging narra0ves in hybrid environments.

15. Places in hybrid space: geotags
We can define and confirm
paNerns of how tourists
navigate the urban space
A trace consists in an
ordered set of geotagged
images taken by one person
in one day and downloaded
to Flickr.
hNp://limlab.com/think/fabien/2006/12/13/tracing‐the‐visitors‐eye/

16. Places in hybrid space: tags
• Posi4on
• A) in conceptual space (tags)
• B) in geospace (geotags)
Tags: Love and trees on Flickr images

17. Spa4al story prototypes
PERCEIVED STORIES TAGSPACE OF STORIES
STORYLINE AS A INVASION
TRAJECTORY
SUSTAINABLE ECOLOGY
MESSAGE
ATTRACTOR BASINS OF STORIES
An existen4al posi4oning (ontobranding)

18. What may enhance spa4al
storytelling?
• In the future, visualized niches and aRractor
areas for narrators may become powerful real
4me guides for community members to beNer
adjust their personal ac4vi4es in respect to
community preferences.

19. Naviga4on across hybrid spaces
for informal learning, marke4ng and tourism
• Think what kind of Reloca4on in
conceptual space
possibili4es of
interac4on
New meanings
• a) with other users and to content New places
for ac4on
• b) with contents are
possible if to re‐locate
yourself in conceptual
space or in geospace. Finding user
communi4es Reloca4on in
geospace
Technical and Design Considera4ons for a Mobile Informa4on System.
Mark Bilandzic & Marcus Foth (2009).

20. Embedding bronze soldier memory from conceptual
space into the real space

21. Open ques4ons
How do we tell and read stories that consist of
distributed fragments?
Dissipa4ng signals
Mutual awareness

22. Contact: Kai Pata kpata@tlu.ee
blog: hNp://4hane.wordpress.com