In 2010, motion pictures and Web content as we know them will begin to change as The MIT Media Laboratory’s opens the Center for Future Storytelling, funded by Playmouth Rock Studios.

The Center aims to revolutionize how visual stories are told from major motion pictures to peer-to-peer multimedia sharing. The plan is to make stories more interactive, improvisational and social creating active participants out of audiences by using technology to bridge real and virtual worlds and allow everyone to make their own unique stories with user-generated content on the Web.

“Storytelling is at the very root of what makes us uniquely human,” said Frank Moss, Media Lab director and holder of the Jerome Wiesner Professorship of Media Arts and Sciences in a news release. “It is how we share our experiences, learn from our past, and imagine our future. But how we tell our stories depends on another uniquely human characteristic - our ability to invent and harness technology. From the printing press to the Internet, technology has given people new ways to tell their stories, allowing them to reach new levels of creativity and personal fulfillment. The shared vision of the MIT Media Lab and Plymouth Rock Studios allows us to take the next quantum leap in storytelling, empowering ordinary people to connect in extraordinary ways.”

The research center will also be looking at ways to enhance imaging and display technologies by developing next generation cameras that will make movie production more versatile and economic.

The program will be co-directed by three Media Lab principal investigators: V. Michael Bove, Jr., an expert in object-based media and interactive television; LG Associate Professor Cynthia Breazeal, a leader in the field of personal robots and human-robot interaction; and Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar, a pioneer in the development of new imaging, display, and performance-capture technologies.

With easy accessibility to the technologies The Center for Future Storytelling promises and a team of directors like those listed above, UGC could get a whole lot more interesting over the next few years.