The Story Lab is an undergraduate Media studio that ran in Semester 1, 2016. For more information on Media at RMIT, head to the Media Factory.

Studio Description

Storytelling isn’t what it used to be. In fact, stories themselves aren’t what they used to be. The stories we tell seem to have similar characteristics — a list of main characters, conflict, a beginning, middle, and end — but the way we tell those stories has changed significantly. We change up the structure, the register, the point of view. The advent of transmedia storytelling, as seen in the Matrix and Marvel franchises, is perhaps the greatest threat to traditional story. But does a change within a platform – or a switch to multiple platforms – necessitate a change in the narrative itself? What makes a story work? What makes it fail? Is transmedia really threatening traditional, linear stories? Are we beyond story altogether? These are some of the questions we’ll be exploring – and trying to answer – in The Story Lab. Stories old and new will be examined and analysed; the practice of storytelling, and methodologies of transmedia production, will be uncovered and evaluated. Students will create their own media objects, playing within media, and moving across digital and non-digital platforms. The Story Lab is a place to try out new storytelling methods, and work together to push the limits of what narrative is, and to explore what it might be.