Ownership, Collaboration and Participation

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The Flynn Center for Performing Arts received the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Innovation grant. As a MFA graduate student, I have been given the tremendous opportunity to work with their Innovation Lab through a partnership with the Emergent Media Center.

I recently attended their 5-day Intensive Week at the Airlie Center in Warrenton, VA. The goal of the intensive week was to investigate ways to stimulate a deeper engagement with their diverse community of stakeholders through online communication strategies. This innovative process would strengthen and embrace new media through the variety of ways we interface with the community.

Arts organizations are confronted with rapidly evolving online user generated content and it is essential that they use new media tools.

Audiences are yearning for a meaningful and participatory online experience. They are no longer satisfied to simply observe. Ben Cameron, Program Director, at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, also attended the intensive week. He stated, “Audience members are hungry for unmediated conversation.”

During the Intensive Week we metaphorically described this extended engagement as “Animating the Arc.” This would extend our communities’ experiences before, during and after the events, utilize video, interactivity and an enriched social media strategy, increasing the communities’ ownership, collaboration and participation in the artistic experience.

Chad Bauman, the communications director at Arena Stage in Washington D.C was graciously able to attend the retreat. His knowledge and experience helped increase our understanding of three major components needed for the undertaking of this innovation journey.

1. Organizational integration: How does an organization improve internal communication to expand on individual exceptional work? How can an organization embrace partners and stakeholders through multi-channel interconnectivity?

2. Mobile integration: Smart phones are becoming a key method to reach out to arts organizations. In order for ease and accessibility, an organization’s website must be smart phone friendly.

3. Social Media integration: The Web. 2.0 environment is friending, blogging and tweeting at a rapid rate. Organizations must take an active role in this online space in order to “Animate the Arc,” especially to engage younger demographics.

My experience with the Flynn has been extremely rewarding. They are at the leading edge for arts organizations in this country. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to help their mission of expanding relationships, deepening engagement and sharing experiences with their communities. I was inspired by the diverse and collaborative innovation team members including, John Killacky, Executive Director of the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, board members, and staff. Their passion and motivation was electric. It is my pleasure and honor as an MFA graduate student, working with the EMC, to support the Flynn internally and externally by embracing new media in this innovative process.

Check out:
http://www.flynncenter.org/

Friend:
The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts on Facebook

Can technology change the status of women in the world?

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Can technology change the status of women in the world?

That was the underlying question of the workshop I participated in at the United Nations during the week long Commision on the Status of Women conference.
All this new technology is great, one participant from Zimbabwe said, but how does it help an impoverished woman from the countryside? An impressively eloquent and passionate high school aged girl in the audience spoke about how the Internet is used for trafficking girls all over the world.

My response was that new media is a tool, and that like any tool, can be used for good and bad. I used the example of how video games; which have a reputation for being violent and mindless; can, like BREAKAWAY, be a vehicle for spreading positive and meaningful messages. I also replied that although the Internet may not be able to directly change the life of an illiterate woman in the countryside, others can use the powers of this highly connective medium to create awareness, raise money and facilitate change.

Nonetheless, the fact that these issues are so real and so easily overlooked really hit me. The digital divide grows by the day. Knowing this, how can we sit back and ride the tide of new technology further and further away from shore?

What good is giving a laptop to a boy who cannot read? How can organizations use open source tools if they don't know about them? These are some of the other questions that lingered for me.

The solution seems somewhat obvious -- tools are only what we make them out to be. Without the knowledge of how to use them, they provide no value. You can not just drop a pile of laptops in a village and leave. Putting literacy software on their computers is one solution, having educators facilitate the process is ideal. For just this reason, thanks to a new round of funding from the UNFPA, we will be developing a facilitators guide to travel along with BREAKAWAY.

What are your thoughts and ideas about this? Do you feel any obligation to help bridge the digital divide? How can we best use the tools at our disposal to help others?

Many thanks to Jimmie Briggs from Man Up and UN Women for putting this together!

Watch the video!

MFA in Emergent Media OPEN HOUSE - March 4th

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Another MFA Open House is around the corner! Though the application deadline for full financial aid consideration has passed, the program is still accepting applications on an individual basis. If you've been thinking about pursuing an MFA, now is the time to find out more. Thinking about next year maybe? Dip your toes in... get a feel for the program.  Thinking about this year? Dive in and find out what possibilities await you!

For out-of-towners, consider spending the weekend to explore the Burlington area or hit the slopes at renowned nearby mountains. Seven Days newspaper has a great calendar for events, music, theater, and art.

Look forward to seeing you there! RSVP via this link or on Facebook.

OPEN HOUSE - FRIDAY, MARCH 4 5:30 - 8:00 PM

Join us for an MFA Open House!  Meet Program Director Ann DeMarle, MFA faculty, staff of the Emergent Media Center, and current MFA students. This is a perfect opportunity to find out more about the MFA in Emergent Media program and answer any questions you may have. A representative from Graduate Admissions will also be present to talk about the application process. Refreshments will be served. This is a drop-in style event, however a presentation on the program will take place at 6:00 pm.

• Friday, March 4th, 2011. 5:30 - 8:00 pm
• Emergent Media Center at the Champlain Mill, 20 Winooski Falls Way, Winooski, VT 05404
• Parking is available on street and in nearby parking garage. Parking garage access on Cascade St.

MFA in Emergent Media OPEN HOUSE - January 26th

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Please join us for an MFA Open House!  Meet Program Director Ann DeMarle, MFA faculty, staff of the Emergent Media Center, and current MFA students. This is a perfect opportunity to find out more about the MFA in Emergent Media program and answer any questions you may have. A representative from Graduate Admissions will also be present to talk about the application process. Refreshments will be served. An optional tour of the Emergent Media Center in Winooski will take place at approximately 7:30 pm.

• Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
• Hauke Family Campus building, Room 005 (Building #25 on campus map)
  Champlain College campus, Burlington, VT
• Parking is available in campus lots and surrounding streets. You do not need a permit to park for this event.

Please RSVP by contacting Kathleen Ray at (802) 383-6602 or kray@champlain.edu.

Want more information about the MFA in Emergent Media? Visit http://mfa.champlain.edu

Keeping Up!

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So admittedly it has been a long pause since I've posted here last. Yet it has also been a long time since I've gotten serious friend, vacation, or exercise time (not a habit I recommend). Which in some sort of internet way means, I wish I had been sharing all that has been going on at the Emergent Media Center with our EMC followers!

Often these days, I wonder if it would be simpler if I just put a stop to our collective creative thinking—then keeping up would get so much simpler. But truthfully there is much that needs doing, so many that can benefit by what we do, and so much that is worth doing! If we hold our collective breathe then the speed of change will make us obsolete. Likewise the value of the education we are creating would be less so.

Our EMC students (over 200 in two years) such as Kate Baxter walk out the door with classroom learning but also a fuller understanding of how their classroom knowledge applies to the world and with the skills to make visions reality.

It has been a very busy semester.

We progressed forward on or concluded a long list of projects this semester:

• Google Earth mapping of Burlington and the campus (which continues on this summer) driven by Ray McCarthy-Bergeron and Alex Keyes,
• the Virtual Vermont Archeology Museum project with star student now grad Mike Fowler,
• two projects driven by amazingly creative teams of students: 1) conversion of the Information Literacy game for the iPhone and 2) the movement of data from our Polhemus Motion Capture device to Maya and our game engines,
• and moving the United Nations game to end violence against women from concept into beta Breakaway.

Overwhelmingly the students reported that these projects were among the most valuable of their educational experiences—providing portfolio experiences, tying together classroom learning with real world outcomes, providing relevance that they could recognize, and pushing them beyond their comfort zones into accountability onto a formerly unknown scale.

We traveled to Saint Lucia, New York City, and Milan, Italy presenting, testing, and recording with the poorest of poor and with some of the most influential. We brainstormed with groups and thinkers such as the likes of Ben Cohen on concepts that could impact ways of viewing actions. We built upon classroom learning and applied it to sponsors' projects with real world goals—projects where failing or non-complete's were simply not an option.

And among ourselves we struggled with: our ideals of leadership and transparency; balancing productivity and insight in a learning/productivity structure; pipelines for production; continually changing teams/workforce; cohesively managing and producing as a cohort of millennials, next gens, and baby boomers; and producing work with professionals and world leaders on world impacting projects.

So it was a very busy 4 months. The summer looks even busier.

Our game, Breakaway, with the UN has found an international soccer star, Samuel Eto'o as its champion and launches in three weeks for the FIFA World Cup, the Google Earth project continues with the city of Burlington, other projects are in the pipeline to include internal Champlain College web projects, projects such as the Governor's Institute of Vermont in Information Technology for teens,

and the launch of the MFA in Emergent Media—bringing an entirely new dimension to learning within this real world, multi-dimensional format.

So much to look forward to—and if I'm lucky I will keep our readers informed and I'll schedule in some friend and exercise time!