Deus Ex Machinatio

Sew By Numbers

Do you remember my creative spotlight on Haley Moore? In it, I hinted that she was doing something super-duper awesome that I could not yet talk about. I'm proud to say that the awesome has arrived.

I'd like you to meet Annabelle.

 
 

Annabelle is my first (somewhat hastily constructed) doll from Haley's killer-awesome new project, Sew By Numbers. Here's how SBN works:

1. You download a pattern from the SBN site
2. You print it on a sheet of printable fabric (make sure it's not transfer paper!)
3. Peel away the fabric backing, cut the pattern out, and stitch!

The result is a hand-sized plushie that you can customize however you desire. With Annabelle, I went simple and sketched on a face with a Sharpie. 

But the beauty of SBN is that Haley has placed the whole thing under a Creative Commons license, and she'll be making the template available for you to alter -- and then you can print your custom doll directly onto the pattern. Sky's the limit, folks. I've already been privy to some of the amazing creativity SBN is catalyzing, and this is definitely a project to watch.

Go on. Go do it now. Stitch, stitch. You know you want to! I've already done it once, and I want to do a whole bunch more.

And I, For One, Welcome...

Big things have been afoot at the Circle K, my friends. Or at the IGDA, anyway.

The big news is that we had an election for the chairmanship! The SIG has spoken! Accordingly, I'd like you all to welcome the magnificent Brooke Thompson, who is my successor as the IGDA ARG SIG chairman. Brooke is a transmedia designer with a long track record of high-profile work in the field, and even better, of diligent and selfless volunteer service. I'm sure she's going to do an excellent job.

Thanks for stepping up, Brooke! Let's all give her a round of applause and some moral support, shall we?

Creative Spotlight: Mez Breeze

Creative Spotlight Week is over, but I figure I'll still do them from time to time, as the muse strikes. And the next contender is someone I've been dying to write about for ages... but I haven't been able to do her justice. See, whenever I try to write about Mez Breeze, I just can't articulate the awesome enough communicate it to anybody else. That's surely because the only language you can use to convey Mezness is of her own making -- mezangelle -- and for sure I'm not a fluent speaker.

Mez is a code poet and internet performer, and besides mezangelle, she (and sometimes her collaborators) have brought the world such works as Streamflow Conditions and Augmentology 1[L]0[L]1. She lives at the intersection of art and technology like nobody else I know, and the result is always on the spectrum of mysterious, deep, and terribly, brain-warpingly clever.

But here's the best part! I am beyond excited to tell you about FeralC, Mez's new project, which is launching in just a few hours. The site describes it thus:

_feralC_ is a “socumentary” [mix of social_networking mockumentary & Alternate Reality Sequencing] that will trace the Twitter output of special networked characters.

To take part, follow the Twitter list @pupa_mistress/feralC. The show kicks off at 3pm on the East Coast of Australia, which as best I can figure is about 1am on the East Coast of the United States.

I don't know much more about it, but I can assure you it is going to be totally awesome and you won't want to miss it. Keep your eyes peeled.

Creative Spotlight: Jay Bushman

I've blogged about Jay before, for his Loose-Fish projects The Good Captain and his Spoon River anthology. But you really want to hear about the latest from him -- he's taken his talent at literary adaptation and bent it into some wonderful new pop-art configurations.

In 2009, Jay did the infamous SXStarWars and replicated the climactic trench run on Twitter. This year, he naturally did the sequel -- The Empire Tweets Back. Using Twitter's new list functionality, he's put together a production of Empire that you can follow along with on Twitter whenever the mood strikes you. It's running right now, go take a look!

But I have to tell you, my most favorite Jay Bushman Special was what he did for Halloween last year, and that I shamefully didn't call your attention to in time: Cthalloween. Jay organized the rise of the Lovecraftian Elder Gods on Twitter as one massively collaborative, synchronized whole, and it was freaking awesome.

The next time he does something like that, I'll tell you ahead of time, folks. I swear I will. You won't want to miss it.

Creative Spotlight: Naomi Alderman

I have another beautiful thing to show you, and it is called The Winter House. This jewel of an interactive experience was written by Naomi Alderman. I won't spoil it for you, except to say that it's a short but simple interactive mystery, heavy on ambience and light on puzzle-solving. Go and gobble it up. It is delicious from start to finish.

Some of you may recall Naomi Alderman as the lead writer of Perplex City (and, not to sell him short, her collaborator Jey Biddulph as a key designer). If you do, it won't surprise you that the same pair were the ones to bring you the Library of Babel, which is similar in execution; this is the obvious next step in that style of storytelling, poised at the intersection of visual and literary arts.

This is poetry as the future will know it, you guys.

What you may not know is that Naomi is also an award-winning novelist. Her first book, Disobedience, came out to massive literary acclaim in 2007. Her second book, The Lessons, has just been released in the UK. I've had the pleasure of reading The Lessons, and it is likewise a beautiful work full of achingly real characters. If you can get your hands on it, absolutely read it at once.

I have an inkling what Naomi will be working on next, and trust me when I say it's going to be amazing. I can't wait to read it, and I can't wait to tell you about it.

Creative Spotlight: Haley Moore

You know the best part about working in transmedia? The company I get to keep. My world is filled with smart, crazy talented, creative people, and it's a gift to know them. But there's no reason I should have all the luck -- you should know them, too. 

I'm dedicating this week to shining a light on just a few of those amazing people and the work that they do.

First up: Haley Moore, artist, writer, prolific creator. Her most recent project is Rule of Three, an Etsy shop filled with arcane items 100% guaranteed not to be magical in any way whatsoever. Seems our Haley has become fed up with the con artists on Etsy and eBay who sell "fairies" and "ghosts" trapped in ten-cent tchotchkes at a 5000% markup. (Read more about it in her artist's statement.)

Her competing products, which come with a Certificate of Quackery, are beautiful to look at; there may not be real magic in them, but there is real craftsmanship. And the descriptions are pitch-perfect, if you're familiar with the genre:

 

A radical cleansing, not for the faint. Aural impurities are burnt to ash and flit or fall away from the space, based on the weather. The aura is reduced to its most basic, aligned form. Clean auras create a sense of peace, well being and balance, within and without.

Each scroll's core is formed from pinion-rosemary incense and birch twiglets.

This spell is intended for spaces only, and only where other spellwork has failed. It can be abrasive to spaces with especially subtle or mixed basic auras, removing subtleties that will take time to regrow. Do not use on the living!

While you're at it, check out some of Haley's other work. She also makes robots, jewelry, and an upcoming secret project involving sharp, pointy things that I can't wait to tell you about. Stay tuned, guys.

Why So Serious: Lessons in Transmedia Worldbuilding

The Why So Serious campaign for The Dark Knight was a huge achievement (and I'm not just saying that because it I love a lot of the people behind it). It's garnered awards, huge amounts of press coverage, and incredible fan love. I know I'm a little late to the game on this, but I don't think anybody has yet talked about the most important thing that the campaign did, in my eyes. 

Two digressions, first. One: Experiences like Why So Serious have come under criticism because they arguably don't create audiences where none were before. At the end of the day, the people who were really involved in Why So Serious were all people who were going to see the movie anyway, right? It's uncomfortable to admit it in public like this, but... yeah, it's probably true. 

Two: The most successful transmedia experiences are the ones where there is space for the player to live in the world. Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings; these are all worlds that are very much bigger than the action on the main stage. And that's what we do in the ARG space; we provide walk-on roles that let people live in our worlds, while not requiring them to step onto the main stage themselves. 

That's why the first Twilight book is poorly suited to transmedia; there isn't much of a world there outside of the couple in love. But the subsequent books increase the scope of the world more and more, incorporating group dynamics and government structures that add up to a world bigger than just Bella and Edward and their true, sparkly love. 

So why was Why So Serious such a big deal? It's because it took a world that did not have space for an audience to live inside it -- Gotham -- and created canon spaces where players could dwell, for the first time. They became voters and accomplices. It turned a property that was previously not very well suited to a transmedia experience and created one that suddenly is. It's not just Batman and his allies and enemies anymore.

And while the people participating in that world are probably the ones who loved the property before, all of that energy and excitement brings more people in. The person with the joker mask was already going to see the movie, but maybe their roommate wasn't going to, or their cousin, or the person they enthuse about the film to at work or at the coffee shop or on the bus. 

I know I started reading Harry Potter because of all of the fan energy around it; that's also why I read Twilight. Giving your audience the freedom and an outlet for their passion for your work leads to them converting peripheral audience members into fans, and people who were never a part of the core audience into peripheral audience members. Participation is the engine that drives fandom, and fandom drives success.

So there you have it, one of the most important keys to making a great transmedia world: Scope. Make it roomy enough for your audience to play in your world. They'll love you for it, and their love brings rewards.

Last-Minute SXSW 2009 Shamelessness

Just a quick reminder that if you want to see me at SXSW this year, you'll need to be voting for my presentation, "ARGs and Women: Moving Beyond the Hot Brunette." The SXSW panel picker will only be up until the end of the day on Friday Sept. 4, so vote while the polls are open!

 

I'd also like to take a second to point you to a couple of not-strictly-ARG panels of note submitted by the talented and all-around-great Ivan Askwith that I missed out on in my first SXSW thumb-begging post: "SXSW 2010: Rethinking This Year's Most-Hyped Trends" and "Does My Sh*t-Talking Really Help Your Brand?" Of which the first looks to be a welcome breath of analysis in the face of the hype cycle, while the second... well... let's just say I think it's long past time we close the book on that particular piece of conventional wisdom.

Hot Brunettes at SXSW

It should come as no surprise to any of you that gender in gaming is something a spend a lot of time and thought on. And in fact it's the topic of my proposed talk at SXSW this year: ARGs and Women: Moving Beyond the Hot Brunette.

Let's cut and paste my description, shall we?

ARGs are often trotted out as a shining example of woman-friendly games. They boast unusually high rates of female developers and players, and a slew of kick-ass female leads. But if you dig a little deeper, are they just the post-Buffy version of Princess Peach, always needing to be saved?

If that sounds like something you'd be interested in hearing, then please, go to the SXSW panel picker and give me a big ol' thumbs up.  

 

I'm by no means the only interesting panel submitted, of course. My friends at Six to Start have some proposals in, and Brooke Thompson has a fantastic and selfless write-up of several panels beyond her own submissions.

It's going to be a great conference this year, any way you slice it. Hope to see you there!

New Business Cards!

The gracious and talented Marcus Riedner has recently designed new business cards for me. I wanted them to give out at ARGfest, but I'm so pleased with them I thought I'd show off to the world at large. Go take a look! 

Marcus is interested in breaking into the ARG world, too, so if you have a project you might need him on, go ahead and drop him a line. He's funny, he's creative, he's diligent, a good time will be had by all.