New Publication: Hand Made High Tech

In 2011, I was commissioned by if:book Australia to write an article on transmedia writing. The article, ‘Do You Have a Big Stick?’,  has now been published in their first ebook: Hand Made High Tech, along with a great collections of essays on writing.

Throughout 2011, if:book Australia commissioned essays from ten Australian writers on the future of writing and reading in a future tilted towards the digital. Each writer drew on his or her experience in fields diverse as publishing, transmedia, gaming, and comics to observe the changes taking place in ‘books’ and discussing where this might lead for authors, readers, and reading culture. High Tech Hand Made is the result.

Download the collection now, in EPUB, Kindle, and PDF formats. Yay!

2011 World Tour: Sweden, The Netherlands, Canada & USA :)

The only international travel I’ve agreed to in the last year has been the Transmedia International Masterclass in Marseille. That was a great experience not just because of the location, but because it was the first transmedia event I had been to that was primarily directed to emerging game developers. It was lots of fun and really interesting. But now I have agreed to travel to a few places again, and what a trip!

Umeå University, Umeå & Skellefteå, Sweden – 25th Sept-10th Oct
My first stop is Umea University in Sweden. Karin Danielsson Öberg has invited me to be a Research Associate at the Department of Informatics for a couple of weeks. I’ll give presentations and workshops on transmedia philosophy, writing and experience design for the department, and students of Cross Media Interaction Design. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this! This is a lovely full-circle for me, as my first trip overseas was in 2007 to give a keynote at the First International Conference on Cross Media Interaction Design in Sweden. Interaction design, experience design, service design, are all areas I have been drawing on for years with my understanding of transmedia design. I’m sure filmmakers, TV makers, etc, think I speak like an alien, but in UX (specifically service design) the issues and approaches all make sense. 🙂

Cyfle, Wales, UK – 26th Sept
While there in Sweden, I’ll also be giving a presentation (remotely) to the multiplatform students at Cyfle in the UK. They seem like an active bunch and so I look forward to hearing where they are at. I was invited by the lovely workshop coordinate Paul Burke for this one.

I’ll drop home for a few days and then I’ll be off again to:

Cinekid, Amsterdam, The Netherlands – 17th Oct-20th Oct
I’m thrilled to be speaking at the Cinekid Conference about Acclimatising to Transmedia. Jeff Gomez has spoken there, and so I’m following up with a discussion about the various approaches to make transmedia work in environments that are either amenable or not to transmedia. A transmedia approach challenges existing siloed mentalities and production processes. There isn’t one way of doing transmedia because people vary in their understanding of it. There is the ideal transmedia process, and there is the one most of us have to work with. So this is a discussion about the rainbow of activities we all engage in to make it work.

I then fly to LA, and then to Canada for:

International Women in Digital Media Summit, Stratford, Canada – 23rd Oct-25th Oct
This is an event I’m delighted to be invited to. The iWDMS event is about “exploring digital media content creation, emerging technologies and business models, and the role of women in digital media globally”. So not only will we be talking about fascinating topics, but we’ll also be discussing how we make this work as women. And check out my co-panelists!

A New Creative Process?: with Frank Boyd, Creative Director, Crossover; Christy Dena, Director Universe Creation 101; Jill Golick, multiplatform storyteller, RubySkye PI; Marcia Martin, Senior Vice-President, Creative Content, GlassboxTV; and Caroline Tyre, Director of Programming, TELETOON Canada Inc.?
The Future of Transmedia Content: with Christy Dena, Director, Universe Creation 101; Ana Serrano, Executive Director, Canadian Film Centre (CFC); Tessa Sproule, Executive in Charge of Digital Programming, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)?; and Anita Lee, Producer, National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Back in LA, I’ll be visiting colleagues at USC, and around, and then:

Cal Arts, Valencia, USA – 27th Oct
I’ll be giving a presentation to Jon Reiss’ students at the California Institute for the Arts. Cal Arts is all about independent thought, independent artistic practice, and so I’m really keen to talk about the highly personal and intimate potential of transmedia projects.

DIYDays, LA, USA – 28th Oct
Then I’m presenting at Lance Weiler’s DIYDays. Lance gave me free reign, and so I’m jumping into two of my loves: Writing and Experience Design.

Storyworld Conference, San Francisco, USA – 30th Oct-2nd Nov
The final work stop of this tour is the Storyworld Conference. This is also a little full-circle for me as I’m on the board of this event that is run by Alison Norrington. Alison was a student of mine when I mentored her many years ago. I’m really excited about catching up with so many transmedia people at SWC, it is going to be a great chance to be surrounded by people who are all in the same area rather than having to explain yourself to industry people who are just getting their head around the Internet. I’ll also be on a few panels at Storyworld:

New Business Models – be small, think big, move fast: with Christy Dena, Director, Universe Creation 101; Ian Ginn, Founder, Transmedia Learning Network; Kevin Franco, Founder, Francomedia; Alison Norrington, StoryWorld Conference Council Chair, Founder, storycentralDIGITAL; Mike Knowlton, Founder, Murmur.
Streets that Tell Stories – How Pervasive Gaming Engages Audiences: with Dan Hon, Interactive Creative Director, Wieden + Kennedy; Constance Fleuriot, University of the West of England; Hazel Grian, Creative Director, Aardman Digital; Jeff Hull, Creative Director; and Christy Dena, Director, Universe Creation 101
Narrative Design Discussion: with Stephen Dinehart, Chief Wizard, Narrware; Jeff Gomez, CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment; Geoffrey Long, Transmedia Producer, Narrative Design, Microsoft Studios; and Christy Dena, Director, Universe Creation 101.

I’m then flying to Philly for a few days to see my brother and his family (yay!), and then home 🙂

If you’re in any of those locations and events, make sure you come up and say hi!

CFP: Crossmedia Innovations: Texts, Markets, Institutions, Education

I often get invites to be a part of books on trans/cross-media, but rarely have the time to be a part of them. When the call for papers is open, I share the details. So here is one for the scholars out there:

CALL FOR PAPERS

Edited book: “Crossmedia Innovations: Texts, Markets, Institutions, Education”

Editors: Dr. Indrek Ibrus (Tallinn University), Dr. Carlos A. Scolari
(University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)

To be published by Peter Lang

The book is supported by First Motion consortium (see:
http://www.firstmotion.eu), which is an EU funded initiative aimed at
supporting the audiovisual industries in innovating with crossmedia
output. The focus of the edited book will be on how crossmedia output
constitutes and effects many of the most central innovations in modern
media industries. The book will trace what are the innovative
crossmedia forms like, what are the innovative institutional forms of
production, how are the markets changing relatedly, and, lastly, what
are the new ways of educating industry professionals to produce and
innovate crossmedia output. By encompassing all these interrelated
aspects the book is envisioned to offer a holistic take of the role of
crossmedia output in innovating the modern media industries, markets
and culture.

The rationale of the book relies on the recognition that
digitalisation and convergence of existing media platforms into
seamless networks of devices and platforms across which increasingly
sophisticated and multimodal forms of content can travel has created
an historically unprecedented situation for the media industries.
Their content can be consumed on a variety of platforms creating new
opportunities for establishing contacts with audiences. Hence,
crossmedia content is increasingly a priority for broadcasters (Erdal
2009; Evans 2011; Perryman 2008; Villa 2010). Similarly, Transmedia
Producer is the newest addition to the recognised professions by the
Producers Guild of America. Such developments indicate how much hope
the industry invests into crossmedia as constituting the core
innovation strategy for media institutions (Bechmann 2007; Bolin 2007;
Dena 2009; Jenkins 2006). The aim of the proposed book will be to
critically investigate the nature of such innovations from a variety
of perspectives.

We expect 800 words abstracts that are responsive to one of the
following sub-themes of the book:

– Crossmedia innovations: textual (analyses and conceptualisations of
innovative crossmedia forms and narratives how are textual forms
innovated?).
– Crossmedia innovations: economic (the economic gains and challenges
that relate to crossmedia strategies and output; branding; the
politicial economy of crossmedia).
– Crossmedia innovations: organisational (analyses of the ways how
different kinds of media institutions are reorganising themselves and
innovating their practices for the crossmedia output).
– Crossmedia innovations: pedagogical (how to teach crossmedia
production or transmedia storytelling, relevant case studies).

Please add 100 words biographical note to the abstract. Please send
the abstracts as email-attachments to the following address:
crossmedia@tlu.ee. In case of any questions please contact Indrek
Ibrus on the following email: indrek.ibrus@tlu.ee.

DEADLINES:
– Deadline for 800 words abstracts: September 20, 2011
– Invitation notifications sent to authors: October 15, 2011
– Deadline for completed manuscripts (6000 words): February 29, 2012
– Acceptance letters sent to authors: May 31, 2012

Dr Indrek Ibrus
Lecturer of media innovation and creative industries
Head of Crossmedia Production MA Programme
Tallinn University Baltic Film and Media School
S=FCtiste tee 21, 13419 Tallinn, Estonia
Mob: +372-56978885
BFM website: www.bfm.ee
Personal research website: www.mediainnovation.eu