The Importance of Story

In the Arcade Journal (Architecture and Design in the Northwest) Lynn Casey discusses the importance of stories.

From the article:

Stories have been with us from the beginning of time, and for good reason. They add substance to the challenges of everyday life, enthrall us with the range of human experience, and add texture to the objects that fill our days. So what happens in this brave new world of Web 2.0 — where the economy of a place called Second Life outpaces that of many small European nations? Is there any value to provenance, to craft, to the individual design?

The Internet has created a vast shopping emporium, allowing consumers endless selection and an incredible variety of price points. As digital commerce and communication continue to flourish and the simple commerce of vendor and buyer becomes reduced to bits on a chip, a vacuum has been created. Real touch, real time is becoming scarce — and we all know scarcity begets desire. The critical motivation for choice of non-commodity items is now one of relationship. Those vendors who can imbue their products with story and feed the hunger in the coming generations for history and connection will thrive.

Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, believes that the future belongs to those who can tell a story through their art, their work and their lives. He says: The era of "left brain" dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which "right brain" qualities — inventiveness, empathy, and meaning — predominate. The challenge lies in revealing the inspiration and passion that leads us to create meaningful art and design and then translating that into relevance for the consumer.