Abstract

Abstract

Through an analysis of the television show Lost and The Lost Experience alternative reality game that developed from it, this article argues that the serial form that drives contemporary entertainment is creating an experience that spills the narrative action beyond the screen and into the social sphere. Meaning and coherence of the text becomes reliant on an audience that is capable of embracing multiple-media in order to extract more complex layers of meaning from the experience of the television series. Embracing the era of viral marketing and a new form of storytelling that relies heavily on social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, the series also transformed the cityscape itself into a theatrical space. This article explores how Lost and its extended fictional world produced a neo-baroque performative space for the audience just as baroque in nature as the historical Baroque.