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Erica Hargreave

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You are here: Home / Archives for Bridging Media

Bridging Media

Science and the Arts Are Not Polar Opposites

October 25, 2012 by Erica Hargreave Leave a Comment

I often have people look at me with surprise when they learn that I am a scientist.  “But you are so creative???”

This attitude towards science, has always perplexed me, as a true scientist is highly creative … these are after all our Out-Of-The-Box thinkers.  Just look to history, and you’ll see that some of our greatest scientists were highly creative and accomplished artists ~  Leonardo da Vinci for example.  I mean for heaven’s sakes, it takes a creative mind, like that of Galileo, to challenge the perception of our whole world view in the 1600s from seeing it as a sphere, as opposed to flat.

 

Leonardo da Vinci’s Paddle Boat, as photographed by Érinn Cunningham.

 

I was reminded how perplexing I find this disconnect in people’s minds between science and creativity when I was sitting in a Merging Media session this morning on successful tech start-up business tools, presented by the Canadian Film Centre.  The tools were basically apps for building a business plan (Business Model Canvas) and to apply the Scientific Method to your business plan (Validation Board), or in the case of this room, your storytelling project. I started getting excited at the idea of the Validation Board (although it did strike me that a such research, experimenting and hypothesizing should be a given to any transmedia project). That is when the presenter started to discuss what a pain and how dull working through the Scientific Method is.  This was intended to be their way of saying that even though they hated the process, it was useful to the success of their project.  How this impacted me, however, was with incredulance that the Scientific Method would be treated as a dull necessity.  The Scientific Method is both a creative process and an engaging one.

 

A Slide of the Validation Board

 

Now, not everybody may get as excited about the Scientific Method as I do.  That aside, when teaching, you don’t want to set your students’ minds at odds with the process you are asking them to partake in, and given that this room was comprised of a good deal of academics, I am sure I was not the only one offended by the poor treatment of the Scientific Method. Put on my  storytelling hat, and the notion that the storytelling community would not understand something labeled in scientific terms is equally as offensive. Furthermore, having been involved in organizing many of the original events in Canada on bridging the traditional media and technology communities, encouraging storytellers and technologists to work together to build transmedia, this attitude creates a step backwards in that conversation.  It puts the two groups at odds, which is not where they should be, especially given that we were at a transmedia conference. I am happy report that once we started to apply the discussed applications to select projects in the room, the participants of the Master’s Class were highly engaged in the process. They enjoyed it and saw the benefits of it.

I look forward to continue to build transmedia in the manner it should be, in which both the storytellers and the technologists (scientists included) are treated with the creative respect that they both deserve.

Filed Under: Blog, Opinions Tagged With: art, Bridging Media, merging media, science, transmedia

Three Women in Tech I Admire

March 25, 2009 by Erica Hargreave 1 Comment

Apparently today is Ada Lovelace Day.  I didn’t know about this day until a few hours ago when Tris Hussey told me about it. For those of you similarly unaware, Ada Lovelace Day is a day in which we honour women in tech that we respect by writing a blog post about them.

The day is named after Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. Ada is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage‘s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the “first programmer” since she was writing programs—that is, manipulating symbols according to rules—for a machine that Babbage had not yet built. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities – from Wikipedia

Ada Lovelace - The first computer programmer and 19th century mathematician by Aristocrat.

 

Pretty amazing to think of anyone, female or male, being so advanced and forward thinking.  She did this in the early-mid 1800s, whilst I myself am only just learning to code.

When I think of the women in technology that I have interacted with in the past year and a half, it is pretty difficult to limit this post to one woman.  There are so many women in tech that I respect and are amazed by.  I know last year I was impressed with all the women that were involved in putting Bridging Media together with Meg and I. I want to make this celebration special, however, so I am going to highlight three women whom I was fortunate enough to recently share a panel with at the Women in Film Festival New Media Day – Monica Hamburg, Carol Sill and Gillian Shaw.

 

Photographed by Tris Hussey

 

Monica Hamburg, because she never seizes to surprise me with how many ways she can use social media to bring a smile to my face and a chuckle to my belly.

Carol Sill, because she was one of the first people to introduce me to blogging and social media.  Even though she came from a world of traditional media, she immediately recognized the value of emerging and social media, embraced it whole heartedly, and shared it with those around her.

Gillian Shaw, because she is a testament to the fact that we can bridge traditional and emerging media, and by altering the manner in which we tell our stories, we will see media evolve rather than die.

Ladies – I do hope we get to do the second half of our panel, sometime in the not so distant future. I feel most fortunate for knowing and sharing with each of you.

Filed Under: Blog, News, Opinions, Stories Tagged With: Bridging Media, technology, women

A Fitting Ending to a Week of Puppetry

July 27, 2008 by Erica Hargreave Leave a Comment

I am taking a break from the reality for the next few weeks and enjoying some time being entertained by the imagination of youth.  This past week, I was fortunate enough to spend it with a most creative group of tweens exploring the magic of puppetry!

All Lit Up by erica.hargreave.

I always find amazing what kids come up with from the simple ideas that I give them.  This group of tweens was no different – the stories, their creations and their humour continually brought a smile to my face.

Also I discovered a few new tricks of my own and some great activities to do with my friends kids and my new niece to be (when she is a few years older).  Will post a few of those ideas here later this summer and more detailed versions in Cloverleaf Country and on the Ahimsa Media Educator’s Page later this year.  But for now ….. I saw this on my partner in Bridging Media, Megan Cole’s blog and thought it was quite a fitting way to end my week of puppetry.

Thanks Megan!

Filed Under: Blog, Random Thoughts Tagged With: Bridging Media

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