All Media for a Better Tomorrow

When I say we need "Fiction for a Better Tomorrow" it's not just writing but music, movies, art, games and more!

All art is a form of communication.

Through art we express, support or challenge worldviews.

Writing requires active engagement, the reader participates in creating the scenario through reading the text. The best writing draws the reader in so that they experience what it is like to be another character or to live through an event. An engaged reader will put themselves in the position of characters and develop an understanding and empathy that was not there before.

Visual arts are more open to interpretation, a viewer may find deep profound meaning or nothing at all or they may even find something in the work absolutely unrelated to the artist and their own motivations.

Music captures our minds and emotions, it gets into our muscles and makes us move. Music can lift us up and carry us away on a journey of both meaning and feeling or connect to memories and emotions already nascent within us.

Video is profoundly effective. With the audience in a passive posture is immersed in an audio visual journey. The versatility of the medium allows for a wide range of techniques to engage attention and play with sensory experience.

Games can combine any and all of these other mediums with both active and passive elements. The narrative can be more immersive and engaging than other mediums because the nature of a game includes audience participation and choice, modeling real world interactions. As a result games can have profound impact on our understanding, awareness and development.

The biggest movies, music, books and games usually cater to a common denominator to reach the widest audience because they have been created to be products. Much of the media we see is designed to push primal buttons, to elicit emotional response but are not always considering psychological development or well being.

What if our media was intended to be a transformative experience? What if it was intended to expand our horizons and challenge our assumptions?

What if media were a daily exercise towards universal social goals?

How can more of the art and recreation that we engage with be more beneficial to us as individuals and as a society?