Tell me a story and I'll follow you anywhere, almost.

I've been thinking a lot about story lately - different types of stories and different types of circumstances.

Story Lust (aka Narrative Therapy) - something I have suffered from for many, many years and I only recently recognized. Like someone on a dirty weekend with a new lover, I have disappeared for whole weekends with books, entire seasons of TV shows and stacks of DVDs. It's usually a sign that I am feeling somewhat off when I disappear like this. Sometimes it's a desire for alone time, sometimes I am procrastinating, and sometimes I have stuff to work out in my head and I unconsciously pick stories that can help me figure it all out. At least, that's what I tell myself anyway.

A pleasant aspect of my mind is the ability to forget large chunks of narrative, so I can go back and rediscover the territory again, and again, and sometimes again. Maybe I don't actually forget. Maybe I just suspend my memory. You know, like when you suspend your disbelief watching most science fiction, reality TV or George Bush.

Interactive Narrative - what the hell are those two words going together in a sentence. I went to the CFC Media Lab to find out. My concepts of "interactive" and "narrative" were seriously challenged and I still don't really "know" what it all means, but I am determined to figure what it means, to me at least. A very helpful resource was the faculty member Siobhan O'Flynn and her blog about narrative.

Very, Very, Short Stories - wired.com ran an article in 2006 about 6 word short stories. Yes, that right, 6 words. Some of my favourite writers (books, film/TV, graphic novels) made delightful submissions. The economy was inspiring and surprising. To be able to transmit so much with so few words. Makes me remember with not so great fondness the hours I struggled with books like Honore de Balzac's Eugenie Grandet. About 75 pages to describe the protagonist's front room. I've heard of setting the scene, but this was a tad masochistic. Okay, it was written in French which sometimes uses more words. Sadly, I can't remember a thing about that story except the fact that it took a third of the bloody book to get past the front door.

Book Clubs (and the stories that inspire them) - I recently became part of a book club. I'm a total newbie to the idea. I'd heard about them but never had a chance to join one. For this club, we decided to tackle speculative fiction and promptly picked Eat, Pray, Love as our first book. Hey, that's not a speculative fiction book, I hear you say. Uh huh, right you are. Somehow, it just seemed right and resonated nicely with the book club members. I chose China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh for the second book. I am looking forward to the discussion as it has been a very enjoyable read and a welcome addition to the narrative therapy section of this past weekend. Retail therapy formed the other part.

Interactive Experience Design - my prototype group is trying to figure out what our big project will be. We've all be drawn to the amazing work by artists/designers such as Camille Utterback, Toshio Iwai, Golan Levin, faculty members (Matt and Susan Gorbet), and CFC Media Lab alumnae (murmur, Right or Left Unsaid). It's been an interesting challenge for our group on two levels: after having seen such great works, how do we come up with something completely different. Well, probably we don't. We will however find something that we feel passionate about and we will give it our own unique imprint; given the Media Lab and this program spring from the Canadian Film Centre (which is all about the story after all), how does narrative fit with our work? If you are interested in designing an interactive experience, how does story fit into it? What do you mean by story anyway? It's certainly not your traditional notion of story with character development, plot points and arcs. It's much more subtle and conceptual. Phew, thank goodness I went to art school. Crafting subtle and conceptual stories that hint at an underlying concrete narrative - gee, I believe I have had some experience at that. Some will get that thinly veiled reference. For those of you who don't, it's probably better that way.

If you ever feel the need for a narrative therapy weekend, here are some of my favourite sources.

• zip.ca
  
• library (DVDs and books)
• Chapters/Indigo
• Bakka-Pheonix on Queen West
• Used bookstores in Toronto and Ottawa
  
• Queen Street Video, sadly, only available to Torontonians. Glebe International or the Elgin Street Video Station in Ottawa are pretty good but QSV so far is the best.
• The movie network and the movie network on demand
• Veoh.com (particularly good for old British sci fi TV shows)
• Wikipedia
• Television without Pity
  
• Google and torrent trackers
• Beloved friends and family
• Your local rep theatre
  
• Cineplex, Galaxy or whoever owns and run the cinema near you these days