I was honored to be invited to speak with Stuart Dambrot of Critical Thought TV around the possibilities of narrative design for social impact.
(The first two segments of the interview are here. The third and fourth will be available in a few weeks.)
Interview 1: Transmedia Activism
Interview 2: Transmedia Activism Field Notes
The 3 Rs: Co-Designing Narrative and Social Action
How I assess projects involving narrative and social action:
NAMAC: "What Makes a Successful Transmedia Story?"
NAMAC is hosting a Transmedia Salon on its site, this week, and asked me to address the question of what makes a successful transmedia story, alongside writers Ingrid Kopp, Nedra Weinrich, and Robert Pratten. Take a look at my piece here, and reposted below.
I just returned from the Berlin Film Festival this past week, where I attended the Berlinale Talent Campus/Power to the Pixel cross-media forums. The speakers at the forum were creators, producers and distributors investing in transmedia platforms such as Iron Sky, 18 Days in Egypt, Bear 71, Gaza-Sderot, and the Truth About Marika, among many others. What came clearly into focus from the juxtaposition of this range and variety of projects was that there is no one formula for creating a successful transmedia story in terms of style, architecture, or experience, but that (as obvious as this sounds) a strong and engaging story is crucial. This means that in order for you to achieve success with any transmedia platform, large or small, it is important to concentrate on a tight, engaging core story and from there, the architecture through which the elements of that story are extended.
In the case of transmedia activism and transmedia for social good-- the realms in which I primarily work-- the core of the story and the point should be about the change, the goal, or the solution. But there are different ways to conceive of "story.” One is the “traditional” notion of narrative, in which there is a plot with some sort of conflict and resolution; characters, including protagonists and antagonists; and a narrative point of view. Think of Another is to tell the story of the issue and affected communities through a “campaign” structure, where the elements extended through multiple channels are actions and solutions, as opposed to or in addition to story extensions. Think of Medecins Sans Frontiere’s “Starved for Attention” project, for example.
Participation and collaboration are also critical success factors. In fact, these are two of the factors that make transmedia such an interesting, potentially effective and disruptive innovation to social change efforts, in creating entry points into co-creation and dialogue. Social change and mobilization efforts require public and political participation. But in terms of actual social change, participation is an input, not an endpoint, and therefore community management and stewardship of the platform are important to flip participants and collaborators into sustainable action. Though not a “transmedia for good” project, take a look at the way Iron Sky was created through crowd participation in the director’s video “Producing with the Audience” for inspiration here.
I just returned from the Berlin Film Festival this past week, where I attended the Berlinale Talent Campus/Power to the Pixel cross-media forums. The speakers at the forum were creators, producers and distributors investing in transmedia platforms such as Iron Sky, 18 Days in Egypt, Bear 71, Gaza-Sderot, and the Truth About Marika, among many others. What came clearly into focus from the juxtaposition of this range and variety of projects was that there is no one formula for creating a successful transmedia story in terms of style, architecture, or experience, but that (as obvious as this sounds) a strong and engaging story is crucial. This means that in order for you to achieve success with any transmedia platform, large or small, it is important to concentrate on a tight, engaging core story and from there, the architecture through which the elements of that story are extended.
In the case of transmedia activism and transmedia for social good-- the realms in which I primarily work-- the core of the story and the point should be about the change, the goal, or the solution. But there are different ways to conceive of "story.” One is the “traditional” notion of narrative, in which there is a plot with some sort of conflict and resolution; characters, including protagonists and antagonists; and a narrative point of view. Think of Another is to tell the story of the issue and affected communities through a “campaign” structure, where the elements extended through multiple channels are actions and solutions, as opposed to or in addition to story extensions. Think of Medecins Sans Frontiere’s “Starved for Attention” project, for example.
Participation and collaboration are also critical success factors. In fact, these are two of the factors that make transmedia such an interesting, potentially effective and disruptive innovation to social change efforts, in creating entry points into co-creation and dialogue. Social change and mobilization efforts require public and political participation. But in terms of actual social change, participation is an input, not an endpoint, and therefore community management and stewardship of the platform are important to flip participants and collaborators into sustainable action. Though not a “transmedia for good” project, take a look at the way Iron Sky was created through crowd participation in the director’s video “Producing with the Audience” for inspiration here.
A simple platform is usually best, albeit not required to manage a successful transmedia-for-change platform. Large-scale projects aren't always necessary and can be distracting. They are also harder to finance, manage, and actualize. The point of an effective story isn't the bells and whistles, and technology for technology’s sake. A concentration on technology is important where use of the technology is the best way to ensure participation and enhanced interaction, but the point is still the story and its continuum of narrative from core to extension to action. Also, keep it simple and contained, but connect your story to the larger movement: This is key for telling the story of a system, and investing in systemic change instead of a single story/point solution. This the principle on which the forthcoming platform Lakou Mizik* is being produced (in development).
Finally, relevance, resonance, and respect are indispensable in a transmedia-for-change story, where focus should lie on the community of interest or the affected community before elements are tailored to participants, “players,” or audiences. There are of course instances where there isn't one community in particular, but the particular utility of transmedia in social change is that it allows multiple avenues for dialogue and the use of multiple stories to create empathy, humanization of the issues, and an attention to diverse perspectives. In create a community-centered story architecture, think about everyone who is in the community and ask yourself, what does each segment bring to the table, subsequently tailoring your story extensions to reach those segments. For an example of how this can be done, see 18 Days in Egypt. *
Disclosure: I am currently working on this project.Simon Staffans' "One Year in Transmedia"
Transmedia designer Simon Staffans created an ebook entitled "One Year in Transmedia," a collection of his own and others' posts, and interviews with transmedia specialists, to present a comprehensive industry snapshot in 2011 and beyond. Simon asked me to give an interview on what I believe is the future of transmedia, and its applications to social change and social innovation. I was honored to have my interview close out the book.
Here is an excerpt of that interview. (For the full text and for the rest of the book (a worthwhile read), please download the book here.)
Q: A lot of transmedia evolves around fiction, around mythologies and fantasy and suchlike. Youʼre an advocate for transmedia activism; how do you feel transmedia can help when it comes to social issues?
A: [First, there] is a distinct opportunity here in using narrative and a designed experience to guide activists, influencers and members of the general public into your story universe and create engagement and action toward a solution. (When I analyze a story universe for social change, I think first in terms of an ecosystem of issues, social and cultural conditions, communities and solutions-- and not only about the narrative arc of the story.) As a community of storytellers and activists, we can move beyond awareness and outreach to engagement and action. A great example this year was Medecins Sans Frontieres' "Starved for Attention" campaign, which used a variety of media, film, video, objects and photos created by a number of authors and distributed via web, tablet, and real world installations to create a number of advocacy points that targeted a range of stakeholders and moved them in a nearly seamless fashion from story to their desired action...
Second, transmedia strategies, in allowing diverse and multiple authorship, have the potential to create better streams of participation for "local voice"-- i.e, voices coming from an affected community, to tell its own stories and participate in solutions-building. This year, I'd point [as examples] to 18 Days in Egypt, 3 Generations, [and] The Invisibles...
Third, setting out a transmedia strategy may be an innovative way to create a co-creation network and to build community-centered collaboration. Creation networks are an interesting way to think about two things: (1) combining community-driven solutions (bottom-up, grassroots) with resources and capacity (top-down, institutional)...
Fourth, transmedia answers the question, "How do you tell the story of a system?" There's a danger in social change when you tell a story from one perspective or from one node in the system. True social change comes when solutions are systemic, and transmedia itself is a social innovation that allows us to view our ecosystem and create stakeholder engagement around systemic change. The advantage to transmedia is that it helps us tell the story of a system by presenting multiple voices on a number of stories extending from the core over a number of distribution channels...
Q: How has the transmedia activism industry or movement evolved during the past few years?
A: When I first started writing about transmedia activism and examining social action projects through its lens in 2008, there was no identifiable community of colleagues investing time, resources or thought into it. Today, it's still a relatively young construct-- it's more of a strategic framework than an industry or a movement yet-- but over the past 18-24 months, a number of creators and institutions have come to recognize the potential that transmedia has when applied to social change, and so there is interest in investing in tools and technologies that advance the field. Philanthropic institutions like the Ford Foundation and the Sundance Institute have started funding transmedia projects, which is cause for celebration. On the other hand, we haven't yet built a field in which there are a set of norms or business models. We have limited capacity globally, in terms of the numbers of strategists or practitioners who have experience in the design principles of a transmedia strategy, or the subject matter expertise in social innovation or social change. We need to build a community of practice if we're going to really create effective partnerships and implement sustainable solutions.
Aside from work I've been doing this year, MSF's Starved for Attention campaign and 18 Days in Egypt excite me for the reasons I stated above. Lance Weiler's "Pandemic"-- which debuted earlier this year and has inspired some interesting collaborations in social change for him--and his recently launched "Robot Stories" are really interesting. I love the work Breakthrough has been developing for their Bell Bajao campaign, which is rather less involved than Lance's work, but highly engaging and sometimes cheeky, always striking the right tone for the very serious subject of ending domestic violence. GMD Studios' work with the Smithsonian gives me hope that there are going to be more interesting transmedia collaborations between cultural institutions and experience designers. And the launch of the Mobile Media Toolkit (from MobileActive.org, for which which I sit on the Board of Directors) was particularly exciting in providing guidance on local, independent content creation through mobile phones. Finally, I was head over heels for PunchDrunk's "Sleep No More" -- while this is not a "social change" project by any means, it is one of the best immersive, interactive experiences I've ever had in New York City. I'm hoping someone will create a Hitchcock, Fellini or Jean Cocteau transmedia experience, or bring alive more Shakespeare plays, or other classic movie, theater or literary experiences soon.
Q: Do you see anything within the field of transmedia that you are especially looking forward to in 2012?
A: I was happy Brian Clark addressed the question of business models at Henry Jenkins' site. The founding of StoryCode from Transmedia Meetup NYC is a positive development in this direction, and I'm hoping we as a community delve more deeply into discussions and answers on the evolution of business models and systematically supporting a community of practice.
I'm interested to see how we move forward on personal storytelling as an element of social change campaigns, whose potential is expanding with platforms like Cowbird; and the potential for effective content curation, as Vadim Lavrusik describes in his piece "Curation and amplification will become much more sophisticated in 2012." In my own work in field-building, I want to continue to align concepts of transmedia to social innovation and design. I would like to continue to work with nonprofits and institutions to themselves experiment with and adopt transmedia storytelling in both communications as well as program design. And I want to build on discussions that I started in collaboration with StoryCode this past fall on the potential of transmedia in emerging markets, for economic development and creative sector capacity, and community-centered solutions-building. We launched a series with Africa, and hopefully will also explore the Indian film industries and Latin America in 2012.
On the content side, related to that last point, I'm looking forward to working closely with a forthcoming project called "Lakou Mizik," a transmedia platform for musicians in Haiti, and in continuing to build the platform around Who Is Dayani Cristal?
Q: If you would hazard a guess, where will transmedia be in 2015, and transmedia activism?
A: I think it's the way we'll all be communicating and creating rather regularly, so will we even need the term "transmedia" anymore? At any rate, in three years, I think "narrative design" will become an essential function across a variety of sectors (for-profit and non-profit), and that transmedia storytelling will be leveraged by more of the creative arts fields, like music, dance and theater, and by more cultural institutions. There will be more global efforts and projects, and more investment in
global co-productions in terms of creative content and financial investment.
And I'm hoping we who work in the interstices between the creative and nonprofit sectors will have learned a lesson from the 2011 political revolutions and social movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, Greece, India, Mexico, the US and beyond. I hope we invest in the strong convergence between both (perhaps seemingly converse) individual storytelling and collaborative production, and look to
technologies and institutional structures globally that support free and secure expression, a vibrant civil society, and thriving cultural economies. I hope.
Here is an excerpt of that interview. (For the full text and for the rest of the book (a worthwhile read), please download the book here.)
Q: A lot of transmedia evolves around fiction, around mythologies and fantasy and suchlike. Youʼre an advocate for transmedia activism; how do you feel transmedia can help when it comes to social issues?
A: [First, there] is a distinct opportunity here in using narrative and a designed experience to guide activists, influencers and members of the general public into your story universe and create engagement and action toward a solution. (When I analyze a story universe for social change, I think first in terms of an ecosystem of issues, social and cultural conditions, communities and solutions-- and not only about the narrative arc of the story.) As a community of storytellers and activists, we can move beyond awareness and outreach to engagement and action. A great example this year was Medecins Sans Frontieres' "Starved for Attention" campaign, which used a variety of media, film, video, objects and photos created by a number of authors and distributed via web, tablet, and real world installations to create a number of advocacy points that targeted a range of stakeholders and moved them in a nearly seamless fashion from story to their desired action...
Second, transmedia strategies, in allowing diverse and multiple authorship, have the potential to create better streams of participation for "local voice"-- i.e, voices coming from an affected community, to tell its own stories and participate in solutions-building. This year, I'd point [as examples] to 18 Days in Egypt, 3 Generations, [and] The Invisibles...
Third, setting out a transmedia strategy may be an innovative way to create a co-creation network and to build community-centered collaboration. Creation networks are an interesting way to think about two things: (1) combining community-driven solutions (bottom-up, grassroots) with resources and capacity (top-down, institutional)...
Fourth, transmedia answers the question, "How do you tell the story of a system?" There's a danger in social change when you tell a story from one perspective or from one node in the system. True social change comes when solutions are systemic, and transmedia itself is a social innovation that allows us to view our ecosystem and create stakeholder engagement around systemic change. The advantage to transmedia is that it helps us tell the story of a system by presenting multiple voices on a number of stories extending from the core over a number of distribution channels...
Q: How has the transmedia activism industry or movement evolved during the past few years?
A: When I first started writing about transmedia activism and examining social action projects through its lens in 2008, there was no identifiable community of colleagues investing time, resources or thought into it. Today, it's still a relatively young construct-- it's more of a strategic framework than an industry or a movement yet-- but over the past 18-24 months, a number of creators and institutions have come to recognize the potential that transmedia has when applied to social change, and so there is interest in investing in tools and technologies that advance the field. Philanthropic institutions like the Ford Foundation and the Sundance Institute have started funding transmedia projects, which is cause for celebration. On the other hand, we haven't yet built a field in which there are a set of norms or business models. We have limited capacity globally, in terms of the numbers of strategists or practitioners who have experience in the design principles of a transmedia strategy, or the subject matter expertise in social innovation or social change. We need to build a community of practice if we're going to really create effective partnerships and implement sustainable solutions.
Q: What has been the most exciting or fulfilling or encouraging transmedia experiences youʼve encountered over the past year?
Aside from work I've been doing this year, MSF's Starved for Attention campaign and 18 Days in Egypt excite me for the reasons I stated above. Lance Weiler's "Pandemic"-- which debuted earlier this year and has inspired some interesting collaborations in social change for him--and his recently launched "Robot Stories" are really interesting. I love the work Breakthrough has been developing for their Bell Bajao campaign, which is rather less involved than Lance's work, but highly engaging and sometimes cheeky, always striking the right tone for the very serious subject of ending domestic violence. GMD Studios' work with the Smithsonian gives me hope that there are going to be more interesting transmedia collaborations between cultural institutions and experience designers. And the launch of the Mobile Media Toolkit (from MobileActive.org, for which which I sit on the Board of Directors) was particularly exciting in providing guidance on local, independent content creation through mobile phones. Finally, I was head over heels for PunchDrunk's "Sleep No More" -- while this is not a "social change" project by any means, it is one of the best immersive, interactive experiences I've ever had in New York City. I'm hoping someone will create a Hitchcock, Fellini or Jean Cocteau transmedia experience, or bring alive more Shakespeare plays, or other classic movie, theater or literary experiences soon.
Q: Do you see anything within the field of transmedia that you are especially looking forward to in 2012?
A: I was happy Brian Clark addressed the question of business models at Henry Jenkins' site. The founding of StoryCode from Transmedia Meetup NYC is a positive development in this direction, and I'm hoping we as a community delve more deeply into discussions and answers on the evolution of business models and systematically supporting a community of practice.
I'm interested to see how we move forward on personal storytelling as an element of social change campaigns, whose potential is expanding with platforms like Cowbird; and the potential for effective content curation, as Vadim Lavrusik describes in his piece "Curation and amplification will become much more sophisticated in 2012." In my own work in field-building, I want to continue to align concepts of transmedia to social innovation and design. I would like to continue to work with nonprofits and institutions to themselves experiment with and adopt transmedia storytelling in both communications as well as program design. And I want to build on discussions that I started in collaboration with StoryCode this past fall on the potential of transmedia in emerging markets, for economic development and creative sector capacity, and community-centered solutions-building. We launched a series with Africa, and hopefully will also explore the Indian film industries and Latin America in 2012.
On the content side, related to that last point, I'm looking forward to working closely with a forthcoming project called "Lakou Mizik," a transmedia platform for musicians in Haiti, and in continuing to build the platform around Who Is Dayani Cristal?
Q: If you would hazard a guess, where will transmedia be in 2015, and transmedia activism?
global co-productions in terms of creative content and financial investment.
And I'm hoping we who work in the interstices between the creative and nonprofit sectors will have learned a lesson from the 2011 political revolutions and social movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, Greece, India, Mexico, the US and beyond. I hope we invest in the strong convergence between both (perhaps seemingly converse) individual storytelling and collaborative production, and look to
technologies and institutional structures globally that support free and secure expression, a vibrant civil society, and thriving cultural economies. I hope.
Where Is Your Line? Interview
Where Is Your Line? is a fantastic campaign from Nancy Schwartzman, empowering youth leaders to end sexual violence. The campaign's blog runs a cheeky and informative section called "Badass Activist Friday." I'm proud to be included in the Badass club.
After reading this post, read about the campaign's latest success, the "Circle of 6" app.
Here's a repost of my interview with the campaign:
Lina Srivastava: Badass Activist Friday
It’s Friday, and we all know what that means! Interviews with your favorite badass feminists and activists. Whether social media queens and kings, creative artists, sex educators, or just kick-ass personalities, these people harness righteous anger, instigate movements and inspire cultural change. We’re here to honor them and their work, but more importantly, to highlight how we can all get up, plug in, and Just Start Doing.Today’s badass is Lina Srivastava. Lina studied law at New York University and now has her own consulting firm for transmedia activism. As a consultant, she has been involved in the production of documentaries such as Born into Brothels and The Devil Came on Horseback. Currently, she is the organizational strategist for VODO and 3Generations, and member of the Board of Directors for MobileActive and Global Grassroots.
And here is what she had to say to us!
Your background is in law. Can you tell us about how you came from there to activism, and this specific form of it? Did you go to law school with activism as your ultimate intent, or did this career develop somewhere along the way?
I didn’t go the law school with a specific goal of activism in mind, no. In high school, I had developed strong passions for the arts and culture, and for human rights activism. As I moved through college and then law school, I did have a vision to work in the public interest field, but I wasn’t sure what form that would take. I had majored in biology in college and had done coursework in philosophy and bioethics, so when I went to New York University School of Law, my thought was to eventually dedicate my work to global public health policy. But because I had a science background, I got sidetracked into intellectual property law.
The practice of law never sat well with me, though, from the very beginning. I’m very glad I have a law degree– frankly, it gives me facility with legal constructs and strategic frameworks (my science background and legal education have given me the foundation for the strategy consulting work I do now) and gives me a sense of confidence as a woman running my own consultancy. But the subject matter, the endless hours of working, and the lifestyle all put me off. The most significant reason that I left, though, was the feeling that I wasn’t contributing to a larger social justice movement, to something for the benefit of disadvantaged communities. I’ve always felt obligated and driven to apply my experience and knowledge to create a more just, livable and fulfilling society. And I wasn’t doing that in the law firm.
So I resigned and took a year off to travel, write poetry, dance Flamenco — to reconnect with everything dear to me personally– and to think about what mattered most to me, and where I felt I could apply my skills most effectively to “change the world.” It was during that year that I connected back to the dual missions of culture and of human rights that I had developed in high school. The question now was how to combine those two.
The answer came three years after having quit the law. I had gone through an “apprenticeship” of sorts with Michaela Walsh, the Founder of Women’s World Banking and a doyenne of microfinance, and then my first Executive Director position of a Spanish foundation contributing to development work and access to education issues in India. I was subsequently hired as the Executive Director of Kids with Cameras, which was started alongside the documentary about it, “Born into Brothels.” Suddenly, the combination of the arts, media, and storytelling with rights, aid and development all fell into place.
That experience led me to understand the power of cross-platform content creation and distribution in social change. Cultural identity and cultural expression are too often overlooked as essential elements of social transformation, and so I eventually started working in transmedia storytelling, social innovation and design, examining how those constructs could help me best apply cultural assets to systemic change.
Can you explain to us what transmedia activism is and how it works? What is its specific approach and what do you hope to achieve by using this approach? What sets it apart from other forms of activism?
“Transmedia Activism” is a framework I conceived in 2008-2009 and have been refining since (with help from a number of great thinkers in the field). It is a construct for social impact through storytelling by a number of authors who create content for distribution across multiple forms of media, to raise awareness and influence action around a particular core narrative and set of solutions to a social challenge. A transmedia universe around a social issue creates a number of entry points for activists, influencers, policymakers and members of the general public to participate in dialogue, create shifts in perception or culture, and engage in direct action. The specific approach to creating a transmedia universe has to be customized to each social challenge — essentially, you have to start with the question, “What are we trying to change?” and then “Where does this fit into the larger movement or campaign?”
The advantage to transmedia activism (and more broadly, transmedia for social good) is that it helps us tell the story of a system. True social change comes when solutions are systemic, and transmedia itself is a social innovation that allows us to view our ecosystem and create stakeholder engagement around systemic change.
The other advantages to transmedia — and what I hope personally to achieve– is that because it’s a participatory co-creation framework, we are able to create avenues to source local voice and highlight locally relevant and resonant culture. The more perspectives to a story, the more human the story is, the easier solutions are to uncover. Second, it lets us use narrative more effectively as a tool in aid and development, human rights, and community livability.
Where do movements for feminism and social justice intersect with the different platforms for storytelling and creative expression? How do they engage with and benefit from one another?
All social movements throughout history, at their base, live and die on their stories. You need to bring a movement to its basic components: What is the challenge? Who is being affected? How do we create empathy? How do we posit and act on solutions? And where the feminism and social justice movements intersect with storytelling and creative expression is where they have been most able to bring people into direct action. This is true regardless of the media used or the platform over which the media travels. But we now have access to amazing and rapidly evolving advances in technology and communications platforms, and so we have the ability to spread messages, stories, and calls to action with speed and reach. So the movements need to get creative with how they talk about the “ecology” of their challenges and solutions, because people all along the spectrum of involvement and influence want to engage, want to contribute, and want to be part of the conversation. That’s what gets commitment. And that’s why The Line’s campaign, and particularly the “Circle of 6″ app, is so exciting.
Have you had to deal with any stereotypes or cliches when it comes to employing this mode of working? Transmedia story telling was made popular by, and is still mainly used in the context of computer games and comics. Have you had to break down any walls when it comes to using transmedia narratives in such a radically different way?
There are quite a few, yes, but the one factor I’ll talk about here is where platforms and technologies are seen as solutions themselves to social ills, not the vehicles or catalysts of social change. In the realm of transmedia activism, it doesnt make sense to fall too deeply in love with the technology before the solution; in other words, if your planned app doesn’t contribute to the solution for the community, don’t build it. It’s more important to look to the affected community than to the community of transmedia creators and their needs when you’re engaging in activism. Of course, creators need tools to do their job effectively, and new tool of media creation and production are essential to that, so we need to invest in field-building through those tools, as well as support and training for creators. But solutions for the affected community– hopefully articulated by the community itself– should take priority when thinking about the elements of a transmedia platform.
What project are you currently working on?
I’m working on a few at the moment. In the realm of transmedia and social change specifically, I’m the strategist for two start-up nonprofits, BYkids and 3 Generations, and am helping produce or providing strategic guidance for three projects; the first concerns systemic poverty and human rights along the US-Mexico border and in Central America; the second is about child homelessness and arts education in the US; and the third is about culture-based regeneration in Haiti with Haitian musicians. What I look for when I say yes to working with a project are: (a) Having at its core the use of local voice, in direct partnership with the platform creators; (2) Using the platform to move beyond awareness, to connect audiences and change agents to commit to a particular worldview, advocacy or action, by using these local stories and art; and (3) The potential to cross borders or silos using a number of platforms to foster transformation. I have a really great job and I hope this field continues to thrive.
Transmedia in Emerging Markets: Spotlight on Africa: Business, Film and Activism
I recently have had the privilege to work with the new organization Storycode to create a panel series called Transmedia in Emerging Markets, to catalyze discussions around the potential role of transmedia storytelling to build vibrant cultural sectors and leverage local voice in developing economies, as well as current trends in investments, business, civil society programs and media production that may allow for transmedia business models to flourish in emerging markets.
We launched the series with a "Spotlight on Africa: Business, Film and Activism," which I curated and led at Storycode's presenting partner, the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Joining me for the evening were G. Kofi Annan, Hugo Soskin of 18 Days in Egypt, Franco Sacchi of the Nollywood Workshops, and Layna Fisher of the Sierra Leone International Film Festival. An important connective thread among all the presentations is the harnessing of local voice and local storytelling, and the tremendous economic and cultural possibilities arising from this.
The videos of the event are below. The program starts at 5:00 in the first video, so please click through to there. My introduction and discussion with Kofi starts at 8:00 minutes in the first video. Kofi brings us through a thorough discussion of the consumer base in Africa, and current activity in the technology, media and business sectors, as well as the role of local storytelling in presenting the diversity of images and stories in Africa.
Videos from Layna and Franco start at 9:20 in the second video. Layna speaks about filmmaking, distribution and the potential for transmedia to broaden the reach of the Sierra Leone International Film Festival, and interviews media creator Vicki Remoe about the state of digital filmmaking. Franco presents the history and richness of the Nollywood film industry, the second largest in the world. [Note: Since the audio quality of Layna's video is poor, her standalone video is embedded at the end of this post.]
A brief presentation of additional projects relating to storytelling and to transmedia activism concerning Africa starts at 45:00 of the second video. My discussion with Hugo begins at 49:30, and covers 18 Days in Egypt, the forthcoming transmedia activism project harnessing local storytelling from citizens and activists in Cairo during the Egyptian revolution, as well as technological innovations in group storytelling.
[Layna's video from the evening]:
We launched the series with a "Spotlight on Africa: Business, Film and Activism," which I curated and led at Storycode's presenting partner, the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Joining me for the evening were G. Kofi Annan, Hugo Soskin of 18 Days in Egypt, Franco Sacchi of the Nollywood Workshops, and Layna Fisher of the Sierra Leone International Film Festival. An important connective thread among all the presentations is the harnessing of local voice and local storytelling, and the tremendous economic and cultural possibilities arising from this.
The videos of the event are below. The program starts at 5:00 in the first video, so please click through to there. My introduction and discussion with Kofi starts at 8:00 minutes in the first video. Kofi brings us through a thorough discussion of the consumer base in Africa, and current activity in the technology, media and business sectors, as well as the role of local storytelling in presenting the diversity of images and stories in Africa.
Watch live streaming video from transmedianewyorkcity at livestream.com
Videos from Layna and Franco start at 9:20 in the second video. Layna speaks about filmmaking, distribution and the potential for transmedia to broaden the reach of the Sierra Leone International Film Festival, and interviews media creator Vicki Remoe about the state of digital filmmaking. Franco presents the history and richness of the Nollywood film industry, the second largest in the world. [Note: Since the audio quality of Layna's video is poor, her standalone video is embedded at the end of this post.]
A brief presentation of additional projects relating to storytelling and to transmedia activism concerning Africa starts at 45:00 of the second video. My discussion with Hugo begins at 49:30, and covers 18 Days in Egypt, the forthcoming transmedia activism project harnessing local storytelling from citizens and activists in Cairo during the Egyptian revolution, as well as technological innovations in group storytelling.
Watch live streaming video from transmedianewyorkcity at livestream.com
[Layna's video from the evening]:
Lina Srivastava Presents Transmedia Spotlight on Africa
Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 7:00 PM
Join us for an exciting *first ever* discussion of
Transmedia in Emerging Markets. Lina Srivastava leads a fireside chat
with producers actively working in that space, including Hugo Soskin of 18 Days in Egypt, G. Kofi Annan of Annansi LLC, Layna Fisher of the Sierra Leone International Film Festival, and Franco Sacchi of the Nollywood Workshops. Focusing on
transmedia/integrated media strategy and the potential for its use in business, film and activism, Lina and the speakers will present case studies from Africa. For more information, click here.
Announcing the SVA DSI Masters' Program, Fall 2012
Design for Social Innovation at
the School of Visual Arts is the first MFA program for designers and
graduates in other disciplines who want to harness the power of design
to create positive change and impact.
An
inaugural cohort of 25 diverse, extraordinary students will become
leaders in solving real world challenges, beginning in the fall of
2012.
Happy to be on faculty next year. See http://dsi.sva.edu for more.
Applications due January 15th, 2012
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