No Man’s Blog

The following is a guest blog post from the one and only Andy Whitlock. Thanks mate!

I recently came across a lovely term coined by writer Henry James ; a principle he called the ‘balloon of experience’. The thought, summed up by author John Guare is that “an audience will go anywhere with you, as long as you, the writer, keep your hand on the string.” It seems a shame though, to not include the more colourful description from James himself (in full here):

“The balloon of experience is in fact of course tied to the earth, and under that necessity we swing, thanks to a rope of remarkable length, in the more or less commodious car of the imagination; but it is by the rope we know where we are.”

I love this idea. There are immediately dozens of areas I’d love to explore in terms of how it applies to – and evolves for – modern storytelling. Although this exploration will be light, I can at least kick it off with a ‘pop’:

So Long Boys from Andy Whitlock on Vimeo.

In Pixar’s Up, Carl perhaps represents a new kind of adventurer, more attuned to the digital present. Rather than simply floating safely above – and away from – his familiar world, he is taking his world with him.

[Perhaps it’s a stretch to expand on such a simple, pleasant metaphor, but it’s fun trying]

Many of us spend our time devising experiences that ask people to behave in a new way. But more and more often, rather than coaxing them to temporarily float away from their daily comforts, that furniture can now be integrated into the experience. Facebook Connect, anyone?

In favour of drowning in my semi-baked metaphor, I’ll just say that one of the most important things in getting people to come on a new adventure is to softening the blow with some familiarity. It’s why we made the People Projects app in a Facebook environment (using their standard buttons/forms) and why – as a designer of theirs once told me –Motorola’s goal with the RAZR was to make something that looked new but familiar at the same time.

Lack of time means I need to abandon that thought there for now. But feel free to leap aboard and steer it in a new direction.

Thanks to Asi for inviting me to guest-blog here. *Squirrel!*