Call for Papers: Narrative and Semiosis

Special panel at the 11th World Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, Nanjing, China (5 – 9 October 2012)

Convened by Henry Yiheng Zhao (Sichuan University),
Paul Cobley (London Metropolitan University),
and Marina Grishakova (University of Tartu).

In tandem with the increasing awareness of the omnipresence of narrative in human environments, the conditions are ripe for a general semiotics of narrative. Clearly, this does not simply entail narratology, or a semiology of narrative in which merely the internal mechanisms of narratives are identified and analysed. Rather, in the face of contemporary studies of narrative - in the social sciences, cognitive science, postclassical narratology and systems theory - the relations between narrative and semiosis need to be considered on a much wider basis, including those to do with cognition, networks and systems.

This panel therefore seeks to address the following questions:

• What are the current relations between semiotics and narrative?
• Does narrative theory have a wider semiotic (rather than just a semiological/narratological) background?
• What are the details of this background?

We will be particularly interested to receive abstracts for papers which are concerned with the following issues:

• the role of semiotics in helping to find pre-conditions for narrative creativity/production – semiotic environments, conditions, tools;
• the nature of narrative as a networked phenomenon;
• the development of multi-tracking, navigating, networking, blending and enactivism in current narrative theory;
• the specific character of networking – distributed and blended (the idea that ‘there is nothing in the mind’; that ‘everything is networked’);
• proposals for solutions to the difficulty found by cognitive science in identifying the locations of network functions;
• the role of emotions in nodal points of networks (e.g. narrative and game-playing)
• the condition of narrative as experienced within a network;
• narrative and distributed cognition;
remediation – current uses of narrative and contemporary ‘content’ of narratives.

Papers on narrative in any medium will be welcomed.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, as a Rich Text Format document attached to an email, to the panel organizers

zhaoyiheng2011 @ 163.com
marina.grisakova @ ut.ee
p.cobley @ londonmet.ac.uk

by 27 February 2012

Main Congress website: http://www.semio2012.com

Storytelling with Display Advertising from Microsoft

This short video from Microsoft Advertising basically says that it used to be simple to tell a good story to sell products but technology makes storytelling difficult and complicated. However, they’re going to make technology work for you and thus storytelling gets simple again, if you partner with them.

How to Use Storytelling in Business: An Example

The Story

I went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. An unfamiliar man came through the waiting room door and called my name. He introduced himself as Ben, my new dental Hygienist. My first thought was, “He is the third Hygienist I’ve seen in this office in three visits. I hope nothing is wrong.”

Ben showed me to my chair. As soon as I sat down he told me that the previous Hygienist moved to Africa because her husband joined the Peace Corps. Ben added that he had no plans of joining the Peace Corps, or moving, and so I could expect that he’d be my Hygienist for a long time into the future. He then proceeded to very comfortably clean my teeth and he explained everything he was doing. I ended up feeling confident about seeing him at my next visit.

Dissecting What Happened

When I walked in and saw the new Hygienist, I began to question. That led me to make up a story about how something was wrong in the office that was driving employees away. Ben’s explanation was simple. The information he shared wasn’t epic. However, just giving some back story about where the last Hygienist had gone cleared up any negative thoughts about why the she left in the first place.

What’s more, Ben talked about his intentions for the future. By doing so he created a positive story in my imagination about my next cleaning. Instead of thinking about what had happened (the old Hygienist left) I ended up thinking about the future (returning to the office for another cleaning).

This was a good use of storytelling in business. I doubt Ben considered his actions “storytelling” but I’m sure he was aware of the need to tell his clients about the changes in the office and why they happened. 

How Do You Know When and Where to Tell a Story?

In the case above it is most probable that Ben had been questioned about the former Hygienist so many times that he just began answering the question before people asked. When people are invested in something they will ask questions about it. When you hear the same inquires over and over, that’s how you know you need to tell a story. If your story can convey a positive answer to those questions then you can build trust, especially if you appear to anticipate the question as Ben did. Leave too many questions unanswered and people will make up their own stories, which you cannot control! Being transparent and sharing information in the form of a story is a good thing because it affords you the opportunity to author the tales to your customers tell.

How Does Social Media Democratize Storytelling?

Two events recently made me consider how social media, and specifically the website/service Twitter, are changing the face of storytelling—particularly journalistic storytelling. The events were 1. OccupyPortland and 2. StoryWorld Conference.

1. Occupy Portland

Twitter: #OccupyPortland

I live in Portland. A group representing the OccupyWallStreet political movement decided to march to the Jamison Square public park in Portland’s gentrified Pearl District on October 29th at noon. Many hours later the Portland Police arrived to thwart the protest, which was still making noise after midnight. A group of 27 protesters were peacefully arrested.

Lots of people at the scene photographed, video taped, and tweeted about what was happening. There was also an OccupyWallStreet sponsored live video feed, which was stationed beside the broadcast television news teams. Because people were communicating via Twitter, folks watched the event in real time without having to endure television commercials. It is possible that the whole occurrence went down in a far more humane manor than might have happened had the “world” not been witnessing protesters and police collectively.

Those who watched online participated in a conversation about what was going on as it happened. They shared facts, rumors, opinions, ideas, pros and cons. Everyone was involved. It was sort of like watching a sporting event with the protesters and police as the players. Without social media the non-local “audience” would have had to rely on a commercial television broadcast or read about what happened after the fact. By being able to comment and contribute, spectators participated in the story’s creation.

2. The StoryWorld Conference

Twitter: #swc11

The 2011 StoryWorld Conference took place from October 31st to November 2nd in San Francisco, CA. Though I wanted to go, I was unable to attend. However, thanks to the large amount of people at the event who had smart phones and connected devices, I and many other would-be attendees were able to be virtual participants. Or jealous voyeurs!

I didn’t get to network at lunch or hang out after dinner but I did get to hear some of the key points, poignant lessons, and interesting discussion topics because many of the conference’s talkable concepts were repeated and synthesized through social media. By following it on Twitter, I got to see a comprehensive digest of the event—more information than I could take in. Because there was no central control over the tweeted conversation, the topics naturally flowed from the conference to my eyes. It was almost like being there. Almost. I did tweet with some of the people who were there and with others who wanted to be there. In that way we were a small part of the big story.

Because more and more people own or have access to wireless devices, more and more people are creating content. They needn’t be responsible to cover an event from start to finish. Instead they can craft a single photo or sentence and throw it in to the mix. Many individuals make up the complete story. Social media is changing everything.

Storytelling Campaign: First and Forever by Dr. Martens

Dr. Martens #FirstandForever storytelling campaign

I’m always on the lookout for storytelling stuff. On my walk home the other day I passed the downtown Portland Dr. Martens shoe store on Burnside. There was a sign in the window that read, “EVERYONE REMEMBERS THEIR FIRST TIME. TELL US ABOUT YOURS.” Beside that was a QR code.

The ad was for their #FirstandForever campaign. At the Dr. Martens website, a video commercial features young, tattooed lovers being romantic. There’s also a big yellow “share your story” button on the page. The premise is that customers can win merchandise by telling a digital story about their first pair of shoes or something related to the Dr. Martens lifestyle. Here’s some copy from the site:

I have mixed feelings about customer generated storytelling. Typically, fans gather around a topic organically. They build community by sharing authentic stories with each other. In this case, customers are brought together at the source of the product and the motivation for their storytelling is a free prize. Their tales may or may not be genuine. But who cares? While the work produced by DM’s customers may very well be a veiled plea for a free pair of shoes, some of the stories are quite interesting. Below is an entry by Mary Henjes:

After seeing that, it can’t be denied that customer story generation is a great way to get semi-organic commercials about a product out and onto the web. Inside of each story is a testimonial. It totally makes sense. It’s cheap and effective. Some get elaborate like this good example. What company wouldn’t want a blog post like that sitting on the Internet?

StoryTalk Categories

• Applied Narrative
• Art, Culture, Design
• Conferences & Festivals
• Opportunities
• Questions

Search this Site

View the Archive