Patricia Ryczko's Blog

The emotional core of the story – par... The emotional core of the story – par...

Storygeist – a bird’s eye view

STORYGEIST – Technology & Spirituality woven together by storytelling

And as our world is hurled into a wrenching acceleration of change, we believe that stories are essential to our inner development. A ritual which passes timeless values from one generation to the next. And encapsulate not only intellectual meaning, but also a beating heart which can feed our souls.

Join us and read this to get a bird’s eye view of our stories.

-Piotr (ed.), Kaja

This story appeared originally on the blog: Storygeist.

Storygeist – the idea & the mission

We started Storygeist with the intention of melding our silent reverence for Spirituality, our deep inquisitiveness for Technology, and our fiery fascination for Storytelling. Each of them very disparate disciplines. And it would seem at first sight, they present an impossible mix to be had.

But as the Sciences delve deeper into the impossibilities of Quantum physics, decipher the world of vibrations and frequencies, technology closes in on the ancient truths which the mystical traditions have spoken to us from the dawn of time.

As our world is plunged ever deeper into a maddening acceleration of uncontrollable changes, we believe that stories are essential to our inner development. A ritual which passes timeless values from one generation to the next. And encapsulate not only intellectual meaning, but also a beating heart which can feed our souls.

With this in mind, we hope you will stick around for a while and enjoy our inner cosmos of ideas, images and scribblings.

Stories in all of their glorious incarnations

From spoken and the written word, through painting, onwards to the infancy of cinema, and arriving in our age at the immediacy of the VR-medium, storytelling has been with us since ancient times.

And this is what we want to accomplish through this blog, take an incisive, sometimes even lightly philosophical look at storytelling in all of its possible incarnations. Whether it’s fiction, non-fiction, or just plain storytelling workshop, we want to share with you micro-narratives which not only communicate through the written word, but also through the power of the HTML5 and beyond it. Be it with animations, still images or sound.

“The emotional core of the Story” mini-series inquires if we should write from what we know, or jump into the unknown, an often scary territory which pushes us into self-discovery mode.

“Agatha unravelled” is a two part short story which revolves around one man’s need to come to terms with his grief, while he attempts to unravel the secret behind his wife’s death and how it connects with a world upending event named “The Fissure”.

Rene v3.2 – part 2

by Piotr Ryczko | January 23, 2017 | Story, Storygeist | 0 Comments

“Rene v3.2” – a short story about a female robot companion. A woman made only to fulfill other’s needs. Seen through Rene’s eyes, the story takes the worn cliche of the dangerous Artificial Intelligence, and turns it on its head. It asks if A.I.’s will be able to replace true human relationships? Especially the ones of the intimate kind. How might we treat them? How will the Robot Companion react emotionally? What rights will she have if abused? And is she less of a human if artificially made?

Read More

VR narratives revirtualized

When we delve into Storytelling, it can be through the lens of new technologies such as Virtual Reality. We would like to examine the possibilites heading our way, and how new tools will impact the way we communicate, and touch the audience emotionally.

Read up on our 5-part series “VR and the reimagining of Story” to read up on a hands-on analysis of how storytellers might translate their narratives into the new medium.

Virtual Reality and the reimagining of Story – part 5

by Piotr Ryczko | October 11, 2016 | Storygeist, Virtual Reality | 0 Comments

So you grab his hand, and scramble for the sliding doors. You shoulder your way across the jeering crowd. You are almost there, the way out to freedom, but as you reach the doors, they are gone. You whip your head around and realize you’ve been pushing the wrong way. But you are 100% certain the doors were on this side. No matter. So you make a valiant effort, and crash your way onto the other side of the subway. All this time Markus begs you to hurry. He is about to capsize, and every second counts. It’s your son goddamnit, and those bastards are everywhere, standing between you and your son’s life.

Read More

Virtual Reality and the reimagining of Story – part 4

by Piotr Ryczko | October 11, 2016 | Storygeist, Virtual Reality | 0 Comments

Your eyes blink open, then blink again. You attempt to grasp at a coherence, but the only thing before you is a dense fog. Your eyes shutter again and finally a smeared out vision coalesces into what looks like a hospital room. Now, if you could only remember how you got here, where is here, or who you are for that matter.

Read More

Virtual Reality and the reimagining of Story – part 3

by Piotr Ryczko | October 11, 2016 | Storygeist, Virtual Reality | 0 Comments

With the third part of this story, I would like to draft my own personal vision, a very rough crystal ball, of a new kind of movie/hyper-reality experience which I believe #VR is headed for during this decade. In my opinion this #experience holds so much promies on so many levels, that this just might be the place where much of the #screenwriting/ #actor/ #theater/ #film talent might be heading for.

Read More

Virtual Reality and the reiminagining of Story – part 2

by Piotr Ryczko | October 11, 2016 | Storygeist, Virtual Reality | 0 Comments

In this ongoing series about storytelling for VR, I would like to get more into the hurdles which the VR-medium poses on the storyteller, and how some people think it’s an obstacle, while I think this is only an advantage and holds the true power of this particular entertainment/art form. I also want to make a humble appeal to the future VR-filmmakers for a more sensitive sensibility in their tales. To create stories which search for, and question, something deeper, more humane, existential and morally complex, than what most games/interactive stories have to offer right now.

Read More

Virtual Reality and the reimagining of Story

by Piotr Ryczko | August 19, 2016 | Storygeist, Virtual Reality | 0 Comments

The beginning of 2016 saw finally a wide release of several technologies which have made VirtualReality available to the masses. Coming from a film background myself, with visual storytelling as the main cornerstone of my profession, I would like to take a look at the potential which these new technological tools might bring for us, the creators. I would also like to elaborate on how VR differs from film, what inherent obstacles this might throw our way, and what this entails for future VR-filmmakers.

Read More

The Infinite

When we touch upon Spirituality, we want to put the focus on inspirational narratives which stem from real world experience. From life itself, and from deeply personal practice, that is the spiritual path.

Our series “The cult of ego” puts under the scrutiny the multi-faceted nature of the Ego, how to recognise its illusionary manipulations, and how to approach it from the perspective of the Other, the divine being buried deep within us.

The mini-series “The fever for the sublime” is a retelling, albeit fragmented, of some of our spiritual experiences. Simultaneously, it attempts to inquire if spiritual practice can become destructive, why it happens, and what we can do to avoid this.

“Venture me out of the matrix” looks upon the Silicon Valley moguls endeavour to break us out of the Matrix, and how this meshes with the ancient ideas of the Gnostics.

Venture me out of the Matrix

by Piotr Ryczko | October 30, 2016 | Spirit, Storygeist, Technology | 0 Comments

Two of the Silicon Valley’s moguls latest project is to break us out of the Matrix, which they strongly believe exists and has the humanity enslaved. This is a perfect opportunity to look at the intersection of Technology and Spirituality and identify why these tech-billionaires have come to such a conclusion and what lies behind all of this, according to several ancient spiritual traditions.

Read More

Tech-zeist under the loophole

Our stories focus on the current changes in technology, and what impact they have on the society, the core family and the individual. When we focus on the future, it is always grounded in the now, backed or inspired by recent trends and influences.

The “Data mining our children” & “Digital Footprint” series examines the commercially cynical nature of the Big Data algorithms, and how they are being used to profile our children, from cradle to grave.

“Will A.I. explosion lead to massive unemployment?”-story examines what Automation Revolution means for our society and the potential decimation of the human work-force.

Venture me out of the Matrix

by Piotr Ryczko | October 30, 2016 | Spirit, Storygeist, Technology | 0 Comments

Read More

We are genetic Gods, but what about our children? (part 2)

by Piotr Ryczko | August 10, 2016 | Storygeist, Technology | 0 Comments

Are we not prepared to supply our children with all kinds of minerals, vitamins, diet supplements. All this in the name of a healthier future for them. If we go further with this thinking, then the whole raising of our children is actually about these kind of choices. The best of schools, the best toys, and the best teachers, caretakers. All in all the best opportunites we as parents can afford. Who would want to save money on that? Would you? We as parents, feel naturally inclined and responsible to provide our children with the very best. So you could actually make an argument, why wouldn’t you want to give the same to your child before it was born?

For more stories and in-depth insights, join us and visit the blog Storygeist.com

Patricia Ryczko's profile
8 followers