Defining 5D Storytelling

Five Dimensional Storytelling is a challenge to define.  Stories told in 3D images are easy to explain.  3D adds depth perception to images projected on to a 2D flat screen.  Even 4D stories are simple describe.  4D adds some sort of physical experience (like a seat that moves or vibrates in relationship to on screen action) to the 3D image based story.  But what is a 5D story?

In my conception of it, 5D doesn't just add yet another layer of experience on to 4D.  5D takes storytelling out of the dichotomy of storyteller/listener and creates an exchange between storyteller and audience that folds a story, origami style, into what is essentially an artistic interpretation of what mathemeticians theorize about the concept of a five dimensional universe.  I'll leave explaining that to the experts... 



The way I understand a fifth dimension is as follows:  infinity exists in the space of one nanosecond, all the mass of the entire universe exists within one atom, and all possible possibilities in time exist simultaneously.  Sounds ridiculous, and it is ridiculous from the four dimensional perspective we use our five senses to percieve.  But just as everything that is (i.e. has mass) exists simulatneously in the smallest measure (a nanosecond) of time (or duration, i.e. the fourth dimension), all time (past, present, and future) exists in the tiniest measure of the fifth dimension. 

And how do we measure the fifth dimension?  The same way we measure imagination, by what we create with it.  We can measure the fifth dimension by the choices we make and the chances that result from those choices.  The fifth dimension is where all the possibilities that we can imagine (and the consequences of those possibilities) reside.

And so 5D Storytelling occurs when the storyteller and listener establish a relationship of mutual creativity by making choices and percieving the chance experiences that occur as a result of those choices.  All four preceding dimensions of 5D Storytelling (1. written, 2. Audial, 3. Visual, 4. Live) offer unique opportunities for an audience member to make a choice that leads to a chance experience that is completely unique to that individual, yet inextricably linked to all the choices other individual listeners have made.  Now that's some storytelling for you! 

So how can we create a real-life experience of 5D Storytelling?  I believe I'll spend the rest of my life working on that.  5D Storytelling is a challenge to define because it can't be defined, but only measured in terms of what we use the concept to create.  So I guess we will have to just see what comes of it...