Never After Tomorrow
A short story I wrote in response to Elmgreen & Dragset's Tomorrow exhibition at the V&A Museum. I received special mention for my entry into the competition, which you can read about at the V&A's website.
While it is a relatively old piece of work now I think it was successful because it grappled with the sense of a person visible through the exhibition's mocked up apartment of a failed architect. There was a lot of environmental storytelling invested by Elmgreen and Dragset into the space. Obviously lots to relate to here with the likes of Punchdrunk's immersive theatre work, and the work of certain kinds of games with emphasis on narrative spaces (Dear Esther, Gone Home, etc.).
I'd like to think this story I wrote, and my investigation of the space, was a first step towards what my PhD research involves, namely attention and how it affects a narrative environment. My work is quite a bit more literal, but truly these sorts of narrative spaces in all forms leave key objects and moments in our heads unique to our own encounters with them. We make a version of a person or events gestured at in these spaces, never quite sure if it is whole. I mean that's all storytelling really. The meeting of creator and reader/viewer/player/whatever and the emergent "co-creation" which leads to headcanons, etc.