MAHINDRA TRANSMEDIA ARTS SEMINAR: Lance Weiler: Decentralized Storytelling — Where AI, the Blockchain, Code, and the Metaverse Connect

Lance Weiler, Director of the Columbia University School of the Arts’ Digital Storytelling Lab
October 28, 2021, 5 pm

We find ourselves in a unique moment where traditional systems are being decentralized. From banking to retail to education to entertainment – consumers, students, and fans are taking control. The blockchain is ushering in new opportunities for storytelling, collecting, and the monetization of digital assets. This, combined with advancements in AI, gaming engines, and mixed-reality-based technologies is giving rise to the metaverse – a collective shared space that has the potential to bridge the virtual and the physical in unexpected and powerful ways. The rapid democratization of technology has led to a new wave of immersive storytelling that spills off screens into the real world and back again. These works defy traditional constraints as they shift away from a one-to-many to a many-to-many paradigm, transforming those formerly known as the audience from passive viewers into storytellers in their own right – enabling them to craft and collect the stories and experiences that surround their lives. New opportunities and limitations offered by emergent technologies are augmenting the grammar of storytelling, as creators wrestle with an ever-shifting digital landscape, one where story and code collide.

metaLAB is partnering with the Mahindra Humanities Center to sponsor the Transmedia Arts Seminar, chaired by Magda Romanska and Hana Worthen.