Diane Derr
PhD candidate at the Planetary Collegium, CAiiA Hub, School of Art & Media, University of Plymouth
Assistant Professor and Curator of the Innovative Media Studio at Virginia Commonwealth University-Qatar

Syncretic Narrative: A Method for Potential in Practice (2015)

Syncretic narrative, wherein information produced within the networked model of communication regarding a single event or set of relational events is integrated forming alternate, corresponding, connecting, and subsequent narratives in which the context of the original source is not diminished. As a process rather than a result it gives autonomy for understanding the complexity of information generated within the networked model of communication around relational events. The syncretic narrative has the potential to navigate and negotiate the construction of narrative as a fluid entity in its intersection and integration of generated information, constructing dynamic threads in the inter-textual narrative within generative and iterative constructs.

Considering an event, or a set of relational events, the content of narrative (A) and content of narrative (B) are produced within the network model of communication by broadcast media and social media respectively.
Narrative (A) and narrative (B) share a set of indices, which lead to the viewer’s construction of narrative (C). Narrative (C) would be syncretic, independent and variable. In this system the independent and variable production of the narrative by the viewer does not negate the original intention of narratives (A) and (B). Narrative (C) is not mutually shared among individual viewers. Additionally, a contrapuntal reading becomes inherently embedded within the process, which to say both the power and the counter power within the text are accessible and not place in hierarchical order of one another.
info:www.i-node.org