Read it and bleep: is virtual reality the future of storytelling?

A festival in New York last week afforded a glimpse at a new era of narrative collaboration. Will the concepts of reader and author soon be a thing of the past?

Two forces are sending shockwaves through the world of storytelling. The first is that digital technology now offers creative artists myriad platforms to tell their stories in new ways. "We are using code as the canvas," says Charles Melcher, book publisher and founder of the inaugural Future of Storytelling festival. In other words, whatever you can dream up, today's advanced software capabilities can make it happen.