Traveling again! Off to Sweden and LA :D

Hellooo!

Just letting you know I’m traveling again, and maybe in your direction! 🙂

I’ll be teaching the cross-media design course for 6 weeks at Umeå University in Sweden. I gave some guest lectures there last Sept-Oct and had a ball. So now I’ll be back teaching an entire course where the students will create a cross-media project in teams. FUN! 😀

I’ll also whip over to be on a panel at Transmedia Hollywood.

Transmedia, Hollywood is a one-day public symposium exploring the role of transmedia franchises in today’s entertainment industries. Transmedia, Hollywood turns the spotlight on media creators, producers and executives and places them in critical dialogue with top researchers from across a wide spectrum of film, media and cultural studies to provide an interdisciplinary summit for the free interchange of insights about how transmedia works and what it means. Transmedia, Hollywood is co-hosted by Denise Mann and Henry Jenkins, from UCLA and USC, two of the most prominent film schools and media research centers in the nation.

The topic this year is Creative Relations, and Henry invited me to speak on a panel where I’ll talk about the influence of commerce on design.

Panel 2: Creative Economies: Commercial vs. State-Based Models
In the United States, transmedia production has been often coupled with issues of promotion and branding, because of the ways that production is funded in a Hollywood studio or network television models. But, around the world, in countries where there is strong state support for media production, alternative forms of transmedia are taking shape, which are governed by different imperatives (cultural, educational, artistic). How has transmedia fit within the effort of nation-states to promote and expand their creative economies? What can commercial media producers learn from these alternative models and approaches? How might these developments further expand our understanding of what transmedia is and what it can contribute to the language of storytelling? What are the advantages and disadvantages of creating transmedia content under these different kinds of creative economies?

I’m so looking forward to catching up with everyone in Stockholm, Umea and LA! Come say hi! 🙂