Changing perceptions of what creates a narrative
Steller, an app designed for iOS devices seamlessly welds together short stories, visual art, and self-publishing, all at the swipe of one’s fingertips. A social media platform for photographers, writers, and adventurers alike – and as well, built by both Google and Microsoft veterans, Steller is a developing framework creating a global community of visual storytellers (Perez, 2014).
Here, the traditional occupation of the ‘Author’ is divided into many as the 20-something year old backpacker documenting her travels across South America through photos and snippets of thoughts along the way, is as much an ‘Author’ as the health food blogger curating short recipe magazine-like publications to share amongst her following base. Digital technology developments as Steller, further prove the shift from conventional publishing and other media platforms to a modern era of social networking where there is no longer a distinction between the consumer and producer (Rettberg, 2008).
The app works as such: authors have the freedom to format their stories as they wish, given a wide variety of easy-to-use templates, fonts, and photo/text placement to play around with. Stories can be written solely through film, text, photos, or any combination of the three, with the use of ‘story’ translated out of conventional terms in order to accommodate any medium that tells a narrative, whether that be through words or visuals.
The finished publications of these print-for-tablet stories are sleek in design and emphasize the visual character of the narrative, bringing focus to the photographs and film clips of which accompany the text itself. Authors curate their stories into ‘collections’ and create a network amongst others through the use of #hashtags and @mentions. The ‘Reader’ and ‘Author’ operate in an indistinguishable sphere as both participants and audience members; the two likewise have the ability to republish their own stories as well as republish other’s into their own ‘collections’ – creating a ‘digital’ short-list. As author of Digital Art Christiane Paul describes, ‘while the individual stories may be of varying quality or interest, they become a more complex social memory through the relational filters and lenses’ (Paul, 2006).
This global community of which Steller is part of the infrastructure for, is an opportunistic proposal for publishers looking for new ways to emulate what social media networks like Facebook and Instagram have achieved whilst still maintaining the cultural values and standards of print – and that is worldwide recognition and user friendliness. The reshaping of the industry to accommodate these social norms is part of the ‘Post-Gutenberg Parenthesis’ as Rettberg (2008) adapts from Tom Pettitt in his keynote during the 2008 Media in Transition conference. The ‘Gutenberg Parenthesis’ is the end of an era where print is ‘composed once and passively reproduced by readers and creatives alike’ (Rettberg, 2008). As the consumers and producers are both part of the dialogue and storytelling process, Steller’s growing community of creatives could change the way we perceive what constitutes a narrative.
Here, the traditional occupation of the ‘Author’ is divided into many as the 20-something year old backpacker documenting her travels across South America through photos and snippets of thoughts along the way, is as much an ‘Author’ as the health food blogger curating short recipe magazine-like publications to share amongst her following base. Digital technology developments as Steller, further prove the shift from conventional publishing and other media platforms to a modern era of social networking where there is no longer a distinction between the consumer and producer (Rettberg, 2008).
The app works as such: authors have the freedom to format their stories as they wish, given a wide variety of easy-to-use templates, fonts, and photo/text placement to play around with. Stories can be written solely through film, text, photos, or any combination of the three, with the use of ‘story’ translated out of conventional terms in order to accommodate any medium that tells a narrative, whether that be through words or visuals.
The finished publications of these print-for-tablet stories are sleek in design and emphasize the visual character of the narrative, bringing focus to the photographs and film clips of which accompany the text itself. Authors curate their stories into ‘collections’ and create a network amongst others through the use of #hashtags and @mentions. The ‘Reader’ and ‘Author’ operate in an indistinguishable sphere as both participants and audience members; the two likewise have the ability to republish their own stories as well as republish other’s into their own ‘collections’ – creating a ‘digital’ short-list. As author of Digital Art Christiane Paul describes, ‘while the individual stories may be of varying quality or interest, they become a more complex social memory through the relational filters and lenses’ (Paul, 2006).
This global community of which Steller is part of the infrastructure for, is an opportunistic proposal for publishers looking for new ways to emulate what social media networks like Facebook and Instagram have achieved whilst still maintaining the cultural values and standards of print – and that is worldwide recognition and user friendliness. The reshaping of the industry to accommodate these social norms is part of the ‘Post-Gutenberg Parenthesis’ as Rettberg (2008) adapts from Tom Pettitt in his keynote during the 2008 Media in Transition conference. The ‘Gutenberg Parenthesis’ is the end of an era where print is ‘composed once and passively reproduced by readers and creatives alike’ (Rettberg, 2008). As the consumers and producers are both part of the dialogue and storytelling process, Steller’s growing community of creatives could change the way we perceive what constitutes a narrative.
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Bibliography
1. Blog.steller.co, (2014). Steller Blog. [online] Available at: http://blog.steller.co/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2014].
2. Paul, C. (2006). Digital Art/Public Art: Governance and Agency in the Networked Commons. First Monday, [online] 0(Special Issue 7). Available at: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1616/1531#p4 [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].
3. Perez, S. (2014). Storytelling App Steller Becomes More Of A Social Network | TechCrunch. [online] TechCrunch. Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/21/storytelling-app-steller-becomes-more-of-a-social-network/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2014].
4. Rettberg, J. (2008). Blogs, Literacies, and the Collapse of Private and Public. Leonardo Electronic Almanac, [online] 16(2-3). Available at: http://jilltxt.net/txt/Blogs--Literacy%20-and-the-Collapse-of-Private-and-Public.pdf [Accessed 12 Oct. 2014].
5. Vliet, H. and Hekman, E. (2012). Enhancing user involvement with digital cultural heritage: The usage of social tagging and storytelling. First Monday, [online] 17(5). Available at: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3922/3203 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2014].
Bibliography
1. Blog.steller.co, (2014). Steller Blog. [online] Available at: http://blog.steller.co/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2014].
2. Paul, C. (2006). Digital Art/Public Art: Governance and Agency in the Networked Commons. First Monday, [online] 0(Special Issue 7). Available at: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1616/1531#p4 [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].
3. Perez, S. (2014). Storytelling App Steller Becomes More Of A Social Network | TechCrunch. [online] TechCrunch. Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/21/storytelling-app-steller-becomes-more-of-a-social-network/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2014].
4. Rettberg, J. (2008). Blogs, Literacies, and the Collapse of Private and Public. Leonardo Electronic Almanac, [online] 16(2-3). Available at: http://jilltxt.net/txt/Blogs--Literacy%20-and-the-Collapse-of-Private-and-Public.pdf [Accessed 12 Oct. 2014].
5. Vliet, H. and Hekman, E. (2012). Enhancing user involvement with digital cultural heritage: The usage of social tagging and storytelling. First Monday, [online] 17(5). Available at: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3922/3203 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2014].