Telling the story through collaboration

I used to have dreams of being a published author. I spent my junior and senior years of college bow-elbowed to my clunky PowerBook, pecking away at what I hoped might be the next big piece of short fiction.

I grew frustrated by being bound to one form of expression, though. I wanted to include a soundtrack with each short story, complete with page-by-page cues to play a new song or cut to a certain chorus right after the conclusion. The written word, as powerful as it is, lacks the opportunity for its audience to have a multi-sensory experience. Movies, songs, theater, etc. all can employ multiple storytelling devices. I dug the possibility of combinations, collaborations.

Recently, our company hosted a creativity symposium. One and a half days of inspiration from creatives blurring the lines. I was captivated. One speaker especially resonated with me: Gabe Kean, founder of bornmagazine.org.

Born Magazine takes poetry and short stories and combines them with original music composition, design and interactive Web functions to create an original, collaborative, multi-sensory story. It's like an online datin gsite for great artwork. Amazing. Play "Part of the Old Brick Chimney Still Stood" as an intro into this incredible effort.