Disinfo Exclusive: DragonCon 2013 – The Transmedia of Tomorrow: The Art That Lies To Tell The Truth

DragonCon 2013 Exclusive: The Transmedia of Tomorrow
by James Curcio on September 2, 2013


Fiction and non-fiction, fact and myth, often aren’t opposites.

These lines blend a little more every day. When these things play such a crucial role in our news as well as entertainment media, and in a world where social media platforms are often at the front lines of cultural revolutions, it is increasingly necessary that these things are understood. Join us for a discussion on this topic, along with links to a variety of articles that expand upon and support the limited amount that can be discussed in a 45 minute panel.

This three person panel is a truncated transcript of the initial Dragon*Con discussion, moderated by David Metcalfe. The other two participants were transmedia artist James Curcio and Damien Williams, who you may have caught at one of many other panels at Dragon*Con this year including “How To Be a Comics Scholar,” “Devouring Selfhood: Zombies In Narrative,” “Gender, Race, and Identities in Comics,” and many others. Links have been added to provide further context. Full bios at the end.

David Metcalfe: The novel or fiction format provides a lot of developmental potential for ideas to foment, for authors and readers alike. Personal mythologies worked into a fictional format can take on a life of their own. How has your experience been with that?

Damien Williams: I don’t have much recent experience but in the heady days of mIRC, I built a number of storytelling personas as what Grant Morrison referred to as “Fiction Suits.” Narratives to live as, to wear to bring certain elements of my life. Recently, I’ve tried it out with a narrative of my life as a series of breaths, in The Immanence of Myth, and a future version of myself, on Twitter.

James Curcio: I think the very ideas of ‘fiction’ vs ‘nonfiction,’ or myth as untruth are major barriers in creating honest mythic work. Myths don’t begin as “myths”. They begin as something that genuinely speaks to us. Narratives directly affect our nervous system. I believe you talked about that in one of your pieces in Apocalyptic Imaginary. And “myth” isn’t a claim of truth or untruth. So let’s try to clear that up right away. (Note: Fiction vs non-fiction in literature | Myth vs. untruth)

There’s a larger issue here. There are many interesting cases where the lines were blurred, but… let’s see. For instance, Jenkem is a case where a complete fiction was picked up by the press. Soon every news station was reporting that kids are getting high huffing feces. Various real atrocities were collectively reported as ‘zombie attacks’ in 2012. Fact and fiction aren’t opposites but this raises certain questions in regard to journalism. Questions that I think Hunter S Thomas divined in a drug fueled stupor. What is the responsibility of the writer versus the journalist, right? And what about the fiction of a writer or artist’s persona? The documentary Kumare raises this issue in the context of religion. He lied to tell the truth. Some others just lie. There’s a difference though many can’t see it.

Read the full panel. 

[Take a Trip with us... Mythos Media.]

The Conventions of Conventions

If you absolutely must wear a costume,
go with HST: it gives you a sound excuse
to be the freak that you are. 

You will soon be reading a transcript of the single panel I had the opportunity to be a part of this year, but first I wanted to share some thoughts on the larger picture.

Covering conventions like Dragon*Con takes many skills that typical journalists lack. You have to keep jujitsu-like reflexes and be able to wrestle an alligator into submission-- no that's a pile of shit but you do have to have the liver fortitude of an ox. More importantly, you need to learn how to keep one foot in the party and the other in a state detached enough to provide external commentary later.

I spent several years of my life essentially hopping from one convention and festival to the next, and often found myself one of the only "embedded journalists," which is to say gonzo journalists, in attendance. Everyone else is too busy getting obliterated, or on the opposite side, struggling up a hill with a mountain of video equipment, and reporting on the event from a state so alien that they may as well be a bunch of British anthropologists writing about the pack of savages they've been living with. You have to go native.

Not that I'm going to complain about Cosplay,
aside from the people that think it gives strangers
the right to grope: it does not. 

Unfortunately, my experience this year was so short lived that I didn't really have the opportunity to reach cruising altitude. I showed up, did my thing, and had to turn right around and vanish into the myths... er, mists... like Batman. (Aptly enough- I got MRI results about my back while in transit and they weren't that great. But Bane broke his back and he healed in a dank and rotten hole in the ground, so anything is possible, right?)

So my real missive is going to have to wait for the Transmedia panel transcript, which should be running over at Disinformation any day now. But this to other would-be reporters, looking to explore the strange alter-culture that exists in this world of festivals, a world that is so much more than cosplaying, a world where the actual social rules and standards that exist in the rest of this culture shift, subtly or in the extreme--that is to my mind the real story, and yet no one ever talks about it. Alternative sexuality, culture, and identity undergoes such a mainstreaming process at these events that some people get whiplash -- especially those that depend on their very difference for their sake of identity. Let it go and for once let yourself become a part of the crowd, if that's what's natural.

But maybe I am (metaphorically) more like my least favorite superhero, Superman, whose real identity is the one in the costume, and who hides in plain sight the rest of the time. The first time I set foot at events like Pennsic, Dragoncon, Gaian Mind, and the like, I had the strangest sense that I was home in a way that I haven't experienced elsewhere. Not completely, of course, but more so than I've encountered in other social spaces. I didn't need to hide in plain view--even if my de facto state has been to strut my difference, here there would be no stares or awkward whispers. The actual genre(s) represented by these event didn't matter. And to the many other "pretender" conventions of all sizes, all the way up to the monolithic San Diego Comic Con, which has more of the air to it of an alter-culture strip mall than the so-called "real deal." I once again had to partially slip into my disguise.

These are events that I don't have to cosplay at. Where I can be myself. And that is what I always look to report on, while at the same time looking for others that seem more in their element. I look forward to the next time I can be at my home away from home -- and next time it's Dragon*Con, I intend to stay the whole time, goddamnit.

[Take a Trip with us... Mythos Media.]