Transmedia storytelling is when a narrative is told using several different types of media, such as film, music, performance, prose, or more. An example of this would be Donald Glover/Childish Gambino’s work This is the Internet, according to Camden Ostrander. In This is the Internet, Glover used video, music, live performances, a specialized app, a website, and more to create a story about how the internet affects identity. Although I didn’t know about this project or the artist before going through Ostrander’s website, I was very impressed by the breadth of Glover’s project and the vast array of media utilized to create a transmedia narrative.
After reading about This is the Internet and Ostrander’s analysis of it, I started thinking about other forms of transmedia storytelling I may have encountered in my personal consumption of media. One related narrative that came to mind was the band Malice Mizer’s conceptual album, accompanying film, and art book Bara no Seidou (Cathedral of Roses). Although it doesn’t compare to This is the Internet in terms of breadth of media used, it also (presumably) had a significantly lower budget and was directed towards a more niche audience.
There wasn’t a linear storyline to Malice Mizer’s conceptual neoclassical darkwave/gothic metal album Bara no Seidou, as much of the songs didn’t have lyrics, and the album was instead meant to represent musically and artistically the themes of loss and despair; largely influenced by the recent sudden death of the band’s drummer. Instead of releasing the album as a CD, the band instead created a book with ten sections, each section corresponding to one of the ten songs in the album. Included in each section was the lyrics of the corresponding song (if there were any); one or more poems relating to despair, death, or loss; and an illustration or artistic photo that one was supposed to look at and reflect on while listening to the corresponding song.
The physical CD was in the back of the book. The band then did two performances of the album in which they utilized a scaled down replica of a cathedral as a stage prop and a choir of veiled nuns for assisting vocals. Finally, they then wrote, directed, and starred in a silent black and white horror film, using the music from the album as the film’s soundtrack.
Although one could argue that Bara no Seidou was not necessarily transmedia storytelling as there was no linear story being told, it was certainly an artistic work that utilized several different forms of media across all modes in order to convey emotion. The actual music of the album utilizes the aural mode; the lyrics and poems utilize the linguistic mode; the performances, film and stage setup use the gestural and spatial modes; and the art and photographs in the artbook used the visual mode. Additionally, Bara no Seidou can be consumed in the form of film, music, poetry, art, or theatre, making it a transmedia narrative.
My current final project for this course is to create a portfolio centered around a social issue that uses several compositions across different modes discussed in class. For this task, I am trying to raise awareness about the current lack of adequate mental health care in Illinois, and to find a way to take action and help others do the same. I am designing and creating a website that will host information about the topic, and I plan to also create an infographic and a short video directing viewers how to take action, although more research is required in order to find out exactly what one can do to help.
I also need to find a way to direct people to my website; I’m contemplating using the design lab to create stickers with a link and QR code that I can then give to people. In this way, although my project isn’t a narrative or form of storytelling, I believe it would still count as a transmedia enterprise, as I would be utilizing the aural, linguistic, and visual modes to convey information, as well as the spatial mode in terms of my website design.
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