Physical and Alternate Reality Narratives (PARN)

maja — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:48:17 +0000

The central focus of the PARN project is dealing with the possibilities and problems of creating, presenting and representing narratives in physical space. Storytelling is a fundamental human capacity and is widespread in a variety of cultural forms as well as being one of the ways in which, according to many researchers of learning and awareness, we make sense of the world as we experience and reflect it. As the acclaimed poet Simon Ortiz puts it: „there are no truths, only stories.“

FoAM's role in PARN is research & design of an alternate reality narrative, an emerging story-scape inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka's creed "the ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings":

With the advent of massive urbanisation, labour specialisation and new forms of entertainment, our relationship with nature has become frayed. This relationship can be re-invigorated by straddling the places where nature and culture are most distanced - urban and online environments. With alternate reality narratives (ARN), we look at engaging people in a new kind of immersive story, where nature and culture interact. The story embraces the innovative and participatory capabilities of new technologies, adapted to today's turbulent eco-systems and grounded in the cultural traditions of the past. The ARNs combine a range of contemporary storytelling media with diverse European urban contexts, cultures and people, through a rich story and speculative history.

PARN is coordinated by Time's Up (AT), in collaboration with FoAM (BE), Lighthouse (UK) and Blast Theory (UK). FoAM's additional allies, partners & advisors in PARN are Six to Start (UK), Foamlab (NL), Synfonie (UK) and Tale of Tales (BE).

With the support of the Culture Programme (2007 - 2013) of the European Union and the Flemish Authorities.

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2007

maja — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:10:09 +0000

Start: 2007-01-24 00:00 GMT+2

End: 2007-01-27 00:00 GMT+2

Stories within stories, presentation for the story-telling panel discussion with Paulo Coelho, John Osbourn, Gordon Crovitz, Robert Polet and Orville Shell.

http://libarynth.org/davos_stories

FoAM - Storytelling

Physical and Alternate Reality Narratives (PARN)

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2007