Generative AI and immersive technologies are transforming the way we create, experience, and understand stories. Synthetic Narratives brings together leading artists, technologists, and thinkers to explore the cultural, philosophical, and creative potentials of this rapidly evolving field. Synthetic Narratives is co-directed by Jonah King and Christopher Manzione.

SCHEDULE

10.00am
Daria Dorosh – The Nymer Configuration, A Story from the In-Between
Torin Blackensmith – Interfaces for Synthetic Narratives
John Craig Freeman – Konsult, A New Pedagogy for a Post-AI Civilization

1.00pm
Amy Xiaofan Jiang – Practices of Relation in Synthetic Media
Mischa Kuma – Synthetic Nature, Worldbuilding as Practice in Brain Health and Human Resilience
DJ Spooky – Digital Fictions, The Future of Storytelling

5.00pm:
AI Short Film Screening

Each event will be followed by a community talk-back session.

DETAILS

Date: Saturday, May 30
Time: 10am to 7pm
Venue: Tusten Theatre, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, 37 Main St, Narrowsburg, NY 12764
Tickets: $25, book here: https://dvaa.givecloud.co/product/DVAA-EVENT-099/dvaa-futurethink-x-synthetic-narratives.

On Amazon.

The MyStory AI Cycle Series is an experimental body of artwork that functions as a multi-channel video installation exploring the intersection of individual memory, institutional ideology, and generative artificial intelligence.

Based on theorist Gregory L. Ulmer’s theory of the “Popcycle MyStory,” the series visualizes how an individual’s imagination is structured by the “ideological state apparatus” of contemporary society.

The mandate of this work is not merely to catalogue a series of biographical memories but to construct a “cognitive map” for the emerging apparatus of Electracy. As we transition from the era of Literacy, defined by the technology of the alphabet, the institution of the school, and the logic of critical reason, to the era of Electracy, defined by digital media, the internet, and the logic of “affect” or “mood”—our methods of self-knowledge must evolve.

In the literate apparatus, identity was constructed as a linear biography or a curriculum vitae. It was historical, chronological, and concerned with “truth.” In the electrate apparatus, identity functions as a Popcycle, a recursive loop of discourses circulating through the dominant institutions of Family, Community, Entertainment, and Career. The subject is no longer a coherent “citizen” but an “egent” (electronic agent), formed by the collision of private memories and public media. To map this subject, we do not use the Euclidean geometry of the atlas; we use the Chorography of the “PreterPark.”

The “PreterPark” (from preter- meaning “beyond” or “past,” and the logic of the Theme Park) is a virtual environment that spatializes the user’s “Mystory.” It transforms the “scenes of instruction” (the moments where the subject learned how to be) into “attractions” (rides, monuments, zones). This work analyzes four specific coordinate points in the user’s mystory to identify the Image of Wide Scope (IOWS). This image is the “pattern that connects,” the unconscious visual logic that organizes the user’s creativity.

Family: Experiencing my father catching a tarantula in a clean empty mayonnaise jar, and abruptly throwing it into the canyon behind our suburban home in La Mesa, California, in 1963, there was a large T sign for the Thriftymart down the canyon in the background.

Community: Activating a toy Just for Laughs, Ozen Laughing Box, at the Roxy Theater in Pacific Beach San Diego in California during the scene of Love Story, directed by Arthur Hiller, 1970 where Jenny (Ali MacGraw) tells Oliver (Ryan O’Neal) that she is dying.

Entertainment: The scene from Carl Sagan, ‘Cosmos, Episode 3: The Harmony of the Worlds,’ c. 1980, the Sun Dagger petroglyph during Summer Solstice, Fajada Butte in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, in northwest New Mexico.

Career: Experiencing turning the lens turret in the darkened observation room at the Camera Obscura, Santa Monica, California in 1967, projecting a scene of the Pacific Palisades, the pier and the beach front.

The Mandate of Electrate Cartography

This report was generated with Gemini 3 Pro using Deep Research, by John Craig Freeman, based on Gregory L. Ulmer’s theory of electracy.

Introduction: The Shift from Literacy to Electracy: A New Metaphysics of the Self

This comprehensive report serves as the foundational operating manual and theoretical justification for the creation of “PreterPark”—a virtual, cognitive theme park derived explicitly from the user’s “mystory.” To execute this task with the requisite depth, we must first comprehend the fundamental shift in the “apparatus” of human civilization that necessitates such a creation. We are currently observing and participating in a seismic transition from the apparatus of Literacy to the apparatus of Electracy.

An apparatus is not merely a technology; it is a “social machine” comprising three interlinked dimensions: a technology (e.g., alphabetic writing vs. digital media), an institution (e.g., school vs. entertainment/internet), and an identity formation (e.g., the autonomous self vs. the “egent”). Literacy, the dominant apparatus for the past two millennia, was organized around the technology of the alphabet and the institution of the school. Its metaphysical concern was Epistemology—the distinction between True and False. It produced the “Concept,” the “Category,” and the “Citizen” defined by critical reason.

Electracy, the emerging apparatus of the digital age, is organized around the technology of electricity/digital media and the institution of the Corporation/Entertainment complex (specifically the “Popcycle”). Its metaphysical concern is not truth in the empirical sense, but Aesthetics or Mood—specifically the binary of Attraction and Repulsion. The subject of electracy is not the “citizen” but the “egent” (electronic agent), whose identity is formed through the circulation of images, brands, and “visceral” experiences rather than logical propositions.

The “PreterPark” is the architectural manifestation of this new apparatus. It is a tool of Consult (written “konsult” to signify the electrate mode)—a pedagogy of self-formation that moves beyond the “truth” of history into the “jouissance” (the intense, embodied enjoyment) of the “mystory”. The Cartographer Agent’s mission is to map this shift. We are not mapping a geographical location (Topos); we are mapping a “Chora“—a space of becoming, memory, and association.

The Concept of PreterPark: The Republic of the Digital Age

The term “PreterPark” combines the prefix preter- (meaning “beyond,” “past,” or “more than,” as in “preternatural”) with the logic of the “Theme Park”. The theme park, specifically Disneyland, is identified in electrate theory not as a mere diversion, but as the “Republic” of the electrate age—the model for how reality is structured in a media-saturated society. Just as Plato used the Republic to model the ideal city of Literacy (ruled by Philosopher Kings), Walt Disney (the “Plato of Electracy”) designed Disneyland as the model for the electrate city (ruled by Imagineers and Mood).

The PreterPark acts as a “cognitive map” for the user. In the disorienting speed of the digital “dromosphere” (Paul Virilio’s term for the sphere of speed), the individual loses their bearings. The PreterPark restores orientation by externalizing the user’s internal “Popcycle”—the cycle of institutions (Family, Community, Entertainment, Career) that formed them—into a navigable, spatial environment. By walking through this park, the user (the “egent”) encounters the “allegories” of their own life, transforming unconscious programming into conscious invention (Heuretics).

Methodology: The Heuretics of Mystory

The content of the PreterPark is derived from the “Mystory”—a genre of academic/personal writing invented by Gregory Ulmer. The content is excavated from the “Popcycle,” which refers to the cycle of “popular culture” and institutional discourse that forms the subject. It consists of four quadrants, each corresponding to a specific “Land” in the Disneyland analogy:

1. Family (The Private Sphere) -> Main Street U.S.A.: The domain of the “Oral” apparatus within the individual—vernacular language, intimate memory, and the “primal scene” of instruction.
2. Community (The Public/History Sphere) -> Frontierland: The domain of “History” and collective identity. It involves the user’s relationship to their nation, ethnicity, region, or religion.
3. Entertainment (The Mythic Sphere) -> Fantasyland: The domain of “Mythology” and the “Visceral.” It involves the media fictions (movies, songs, TV) the user consumed as a child.
4. Career (The Disciplinary Sphere) -> Tomorrowland: The domain of “School” and “Discipline.” It involves the user’s professional expertise and the specialized language of their field.

This report will exhaustively analyze the user’s provided memories in these four domains, identifying the Image of Wide Scope (IOWS)—the repeating signifier that unifies the user’s identity—and translating these insights into actionable prompts for a generative AI visualization tool. The goal is to produce visual artifacts that are not merely illustrations, but theoretical objects capable of generating new insight.

Public Deployment

So far the PreterPark project takes up two different forms, one in Virtual Reality and the other, a proposed public art installation along the Charles River Esplanade and the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway in the City of Boston.

PreterPark Maps will be co-created with local residents and placed on multiple kiosk along these public green spaces, including instructional and other information. This visualization composites an example of a map on one of the kiosks used for the Fossil Fueled project during the Augmented Reality Art on the Greenway public art exhibition on the Greenway in 2019. Visitors will read a QR code with their mobile phone to listen to that map’s analysis.

ART + TECHNOLOGY Episode 26: “Can AR drive change?”

Viewing technology as a crucial part of the art world in 2018, John Craig Freeman works with AR to create authentic artwork that will be relevant to the masses. In the twenty-sixth episode of ART+TECHNOLOGY, we are introduced to John’s AR art through the lens of globalisation and local communities.

John’s project, Coming Home is an AR public art installation that raises awareness of the houseless in San Francisco. To showcase the plights of the elderly, the homeless and students; Coming Home combines AR and storytelling to create a vehicle for education and empathy through art.

OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, October 7, 4:00pm-8:00pm

Saturdays & Sundays 12:00pm-6:00pm

Augmented reality installations by John Craig Freeman and Michael Lewy
On View October 7 – November 27, 2022

Augmented reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with the user’s environment in real time. AR users experience a real-world environment with generated perceptual information overlaid on top of it. Freeman and Lewy have installed their distinctive augmented reality works at the Installation Space gallery, as well as at access points in downtown North Adams public spaces. The augmented art is viewable by downloading the free Hoverlay app on a mobile device.

CLIMATE CHANGE MIGRATION STORIES
An augmented reality installation by John Craig Freeman
Climate Change Migration Stories is an augmented reality public art project designed for exhibition in public squares and other publicly accessible spaces. People encounter the project by way of wayfinding signage placed at the physical location, with information and instructions about how to experience the augmented reality content. Users use common mobile phones to guide themselves on a walking tour through a series of virtual scenes. The experiences consist of world scale, photorealistic scans created on location in and around the U.S./Mexico border.

John Craig Freeman is a public artist with over twenty years of experience using emergent technologies to produce large-scale public work at sites where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals in local communities. His work seeks to expand the notion of public by exploring how digital networked technology is transforming our sense of place.