Projects with The VESSEL Transmedia Storytelling Lab

The VESSEL Transmedia Storytelling Lab is a community initiative that focuses on using new media storytelling to explore the cultures, histories and environment of Elliot Lake and the surrounding area. The initiative investigates how media representation and counter narratives can progress community renewal and build civic identity. The Transmedia Lab works with community partners to develop digital media education and literacy programming.

The Ephemera Storytelling Box

The Ephemera Storytelling Box depicts a historical love story set in Elliot Lake between 1958 and the present. Created by a collective of writers, artists and musicians, the story is presented in the form of a memory box which readers can investigate and explore. Stage one of this project is the story art installation, which consists of the physical artefact. This was launched in January 2019 and first installed at the Gallery at the Centre in Elliot Lake. Stage two is a electronic literature interpretation of the storytelling box, due out summer 2019. To read more about the project, visit The VESSEL Transmedia Storytelling Lab.

The ESB Virtual Experience

Due out Autumn 2019, The ESB Virtual Experience is a interactive, 360-degree photo app that allows people to interact with the ephemera storytelling box via their computers or through virtual reality kit. This will allow readers to read the ESB story from the comfort of their own homes. Upon launch, the VESSEL team will be installed at a variety of participating locales with VR equipment so readers may experience the immersive version.

The VESSEL Project

The VESSEL Project is an alternate reality game set in a fictionalised version of Elliot Lake. A weekend-long festival where the town of Elliot Lake becomes the setting of a real-world ‘video game’ – where players, as themselves, solve puzzles/gather clues/overcome challenges while experiencing a story created and performed by community participants. Participants would include community groups, individuals, and businesses, all working in tandem to sustain an immersive story experience for players.

This would be the climax and culmination of a year-long community creativity project. Groups made up of citizens, led by professional artists, would come together to develop the fictional version of Elliot Lake which will be superimposed over reality. Creative digital media projects created by community members, supported by artists and an education initiative, would bring this world to life. These artistic endeavours would be used as storytelling material and artefacts in the alternate reality game, but would also become a virtual gallery of media arts celebrating the creativity of the community.

To read more about this ongoing project, visit The VESSEL Transmedia Storytelling Lab.

In January 2019, The VESSEL Project won a New Media Writing Prize. The Dot Award is awarded to a proposed project in new media and digital writing.

In July 2019, Artistic Director Kayt Lackie spoke about VESSEL as part of New Media Writing Prize event at The British Library in London, UK.