Storyworld, gesamtkunstwerk, art ecology: creating narrative geographies in the metaverse

Official URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ist/ei/2016/00002016/00000004

This paper will bring together two terms originating from disciplines that at first glance may seem to be unrelated to artistic activity in Virtual Environments or Virtual Worlds: ‘Storyworld’ which is largely grounded in the field of Narratology, and Gesamtkunstwerk’ from the field of Aesthetics. These terms will be used as the theoretical framework that explicates on the creation of virtual, three dimensional ‘art ecologies’ for narrative purposes in virtual worlds. One such art ecology, created by the author, will be used as an example as to how such a narrative space has been built.