I wrote the short story The Evolving Storycology Project in February 2007 after some prodding about what sorts of outcomes I was hoping for from this conference.
I’ve been thinking about this kind of story field conference for more than a decade — I began writing about story fields in 1993 — and visions of what might be possible have been emerging and mixing in my mind and spirit ever since.
This imagineering story — it reports back to you from 2015 — is nowhere near a complete vision, but it is one coherent one. If we came anywhere near doing what this story describes, I would be totally blown away. I suspect we’ll do a lot that is totally different from what it envisions — and I’ll still be blown away.
But if by any chance this story excites you, let me know. One of the interesting potentials of imagineering stories is using them to network with others who would like to see that particular dream come true….
Enjoy!
July 11, 2007 at 3:02 pm |
Tom, I finally read your excellent future history story. This mode has been my primary vehicle. You captured the spirit and potential. I, too, have been thinking about Story Fields for many decades, but never put a label to them. It is a very important meme, and needs further development.
I don’t know how much to write in a comment, as I am not sure what the access to it will be. So, I will probably repeat this in a post somewhere. I envisioned your “storycology” with a bit more process precision. I called it scripting/performing cycles. The scripting would be the story creation and distribution, but they would have behind them scripts for specific project implementation, including provision for constructive feedback. It was an upgrade of Lewin’s Action Research. Many scripts would be open for innovation, and there would be scripts for composing scripts. What whole system organization existed was to seaf the process and insure that no top down control attempts would succeed.
I feel that the “nature” of human motivation is such that simply making available stories for performance is not sufficient. I offer myself as one exemplar of this barrier.
May we break through on this at the Story Field Conference. nuet