ii.6. Are.na Fictions
Issue No. 3
Are.na Fictions
Are.na Fictions is the output from a workshop designed around the visual organization platform, Are.na. An exercise in visual storytelling using the Web as its primary tool, this experiment was an opportunity to examine how the Internet is performed differently when people use it together in a shared physical space.
Participants were presented with three short stories by the author, Lydia Davis, and asked to build corresponding Are.na channels where they would reinterpret and reimagine the narratives using images found on the Web. Everyone gathered into groups around their chosen text, and participants reconstructed each story through a visual lens taking into account sequentiality and narrative arc.
Images from the Are.na Fictions workshop courtesy of Zilling Deng
During the workshop, participants talked and worked collaboratively as they collected and rearranged images to create new meanings. The outcome was three Are.na Fictions channels, each containing a sequence of images that tell their own version of their corresponding Davis story. These channels were then transformed into riso-printed pocketbooks that were mailed out to all those who participated in the workshop, acknowledging each person’s role as co-author of the project.
See these fictions as they appear on Are.na: Safe Love, Problem, & In a House Besieged.
—Edition of 35 copies
—Book format (closed): 4.375” x 7.125”
—Binding: hand-sewn saddle stitch
—Printing: Risograph on Cougar Vellum Text