Once upon a paradigm shift : interactive storytelling in a new media context

A story gives the gift of human attention, connecting us and touching our hearts to make us feel alive.1 The human brain looks for patterns in sound such as speech and music, in images it finds colours and shapes, recognising these patterns gives meaning. Just as we look for these patterns, it can be said that we also look for them in our lives and experiences and it is these wider patterns that we call stories. Stories are a large part of our lives, helping us to understand who we are and where we have come from, by creating, telling and re-telling them we can discern meaning and understand from our changing world. The technological change in recent years has been immense, affecting all aspects of communication. This research will consider why stories are an important part of communication, how they have developed and explore storytelling within the context of our digital future.