Leveraging blockchain technologies for interactive narration and world building

Abstract

The grant will support the development of blockchain literacy for the creative sector through innovative interdisciplinary exercises of "Blockchain Fiction" weaving together theory, research and practice. "Blockchain Fictions" will be developed through a public engagement approach via the platform Discord, in collaboration with Hong Kong creative companies and with the Hong Kong Blockchain Society. Chinese President Xi Jinping identified blockchain as a national priority in Oct. 2018 as he encouraged the development of blockchain technologies and innovations. In Hong Kong, blockchain technologies are gaining traction in an increasing number of economic sectors, and SCM students are poised to work in creative sectors where a sound knowledge of blockchain technologies and their applications becomes increasingly necessary. Blockchain and associated technologies can be used for monetization, creation, and collaborative practice. These practices are both situated in a specific economic context and distributed (mimicking the blockchain technology itself). Therefore, this project will benefit from a situatedness in the Hong Kong creative economy, thanks to a collaboration with the Hong Kong Blockchain Society), and from an immersion in the digital world of blockchain projects, in particular through the Discord platform. A collaboration with the Hong Kong Blockchain Society will afford an institutional approach enabling students to interact with the network of blockchain actors in Hong Kong. An agreement with the Hong Kong Blockchain Society (HKBCS) Talent Development Working Group will allow the students to harness a valuable enterprise experience and a recognised expertise in innovative pedagogical approach to blockchain.The world of blockchain is necessarily a digital one, and in this regard, one particular platform, Discord, has been the medium of choice for recent blockchain projects. It has enabled, notably, to build a dense blockchain narrative. The students will work in collaboration with their peers, as well as with the projects’ communities. Therefore, in order to understand how blockchain projects are developed in practice, the proposed project will include an immersion in the world of blockchain projects on the Discord platform, in particular, Hong Kong and Asia-initiated projects such as The Sevens. This will offer a practical knowledge of blockchain projects and how blockchain narratives are put into practice in the participatory environment afforded by Discord (Charrieras and Rakotonirina, forthcoming). Students will not be mere observers but actors of the exchanges and development occurring on this social media platform (Discord). This project will also contribute to the writing of a paper about the pedagogical applications of Blockchain technologies through the uses of the platform Discord in the context of creative media courses.