Workshop 4: Evolution
Workshop 4 began with a few exercises designed to demonstrate the power of crowds compared to individuals. For the first one we all formed a circle, turned to the side, and proceeded to all sit down on the person behind you's lap. This didn't really work as well as it was supposed to.. you got the idea though and it was certainly very funny to attempt! Secondly we lined up in order from tallest to shortest (I immediately headed for the short end! :P) found the person who was the median height (Lockie) and all had to make guesses as to his actual height. This was to prove that the average of a group of guesses would be more accurate than just one guess alone.
Newtown Girls:
We then began the formal part of the workshop with a talk by Emma Keltie, the designer and creator of the hugely successful web series, 'Newtown Girls'. Having never watched the show myself, I was particularly interested in how they grew the show from a tiny project with no funding into what is now a global success which is entering into a highly sought after 2nd season. It was also inspiring to hear about Emma's belief in the project and how she wouldn't give up until she got her message heard. I was also really interested in how Emma used the kickstarter website to raise $10,000 worth of pledges to get the project off the ground. This is a really cool idea that I hadnt heard of before and is definitely something I will keep in mind if I ever need funding for my own projects.
35 Degrees, 17 South:
My favourite part of the workshop was a talk on the multi-reality location based game '35 Degrees, 17 South'. Karla Conway was the game creator and director, and was a very enthusiastic and interesting lady to listen to. Over the past 2 years, she has been developing the concept which combines digital gaming, augmented reality and live installation performances into a live gaming adventure through the Sculpture Garden of the National Gallery of Australia. This is something that I would have been really interested in experiencing had I heard about it earlier.
X-Factor Transmedia Group Project:
We were then broken into small groups base on our star signs and discussed how everyone was going with the their characters. We then had to develop a marketing concept which was based on 3 of Beth's sustainability initiatives:
Winter is coming: dress for the weather and be climate clever
Ressies furniture recycling sale
UC community garden
My group was the Taureans and our main idea was to have a jumper drive, where people could come and buy swap and sell jumpers. By giving more people greater access to jumpers, we hope to encourage people to rug up and reduce their heating use. Lockie also had a cool idea to create the 'Baggy Jumper' - a bag which conveniently unzips to double as a jumper. With this, whenever a student starts to feel cold and is thinking of turning on a heater, they can unzip their backpack and put on their jumper instead!
Overall these were the most interesting guest speakers so far and therefore made for a very engaging and interesting workshop.