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Project CONNECT creates a voice
Press Release 10 August 2011
Project CONNECT creates a voice to be heard with transmedia storytelling
New Zealand transmedia company, Big VOICE, is
creating a new wave of documentary, advertising and
authentic storytelling skills to create potent content and
experiences that provide a VOICE for businesses,
individuals, groups and organisations to cut through the
clutter.
“The world we live in is no longer a simple one. Artists are businesses, entrepreneurs collaborate with creative industries and marketing is integrated with social communication. The line between art, filmmaking and advertising is smudged. The wall dividing business and the creative sector has shifted,” so says Serena Stevenson, director of transmedia company, Big VOICE and the instigator of Project CONNECT.
Project CONNECT will be launched at a unique interactive, multi-media event on 27 August that will showcase how a multi-dimensional story can be created and told collectively.
“There’s a whole new way to tell stories from dye sketches on cave walls to oral storytelling, scrolls, books and documentary. We live in a post-advertising world in an age where storytelling has become global and collective,” she says. “We’re using Project CONNECT to cross the boundaries of traditional media forms, creating a transmedia storyboard and exhibition relevant to today’s multi-faceted world that invites participation and content from everywhere.”
The official Big VOICE Project CONNECT launch is a side event to We Can Create and starts at 6.30pm on 27 August at the BizDojo in the Ironbank Building, 150 Karangahape Rd, Auckland.
Event collaborators include anyone who can
upload content via Guests will view
a large public projection by Unguarded Intersection and be
encouraged to experience it from an unexpected, transplanted
perspective. Avante-pop musician, Stevie Starr will invite
his audience to manipulate his backing tracks using modified
Wii remotes to bridge the traditional divide between
performer and audience. From old fashioned oral
storytelling by Eleni Papadopoulos to a Skype based game of
chat-roulette from Virtuo, and an immersive QR code
experience by Transmedia NZ, Project CONNECT will develop a
live story of human connection today from collaborators,
people who send in their contribution via the web and guests
at the actual launch location, Serena Stevenson
says. “We use high end digital technology, design and
filmmaking. Presentation pieces will be interwoven, much
like chapters in a book or scenes in a film. Participants
who come to the launch can bring along their phones or
communication devices, and something physical that
represents connection for them – it might be a photo, a
card, a poem, or a piece of fabric so they can co-create and
be part of the magic.” Big VOICE is using a range of
technology and media to launch Project CONNECT to the public
and provide a vehicle for participants to submit their
thoughts, voice, images and text to the project via the
FaceBook site. “It doesn’t stop with the launch
event. Transmedia storytelling evolves and we’ll continue
to add content or chapters with Project CONNECT via
Facebook, Twitter and a variety of other media platforms
that will culminate in a global story of human connection in
2012,” Serena says. To participate go to
For more information please
contact: Serena Stevenson, Director Big Voice M: +64 21
749191 E: About Project CONNECT •
embraces co-creation within the professional creative
industry. • one of the first multiplatform
global creative projects launched in NZ. •
collaborative story sharing using a multimedia technology
platform • way story will interweave through
various creative/design disciplines. •
content made by creative businesses with no exchange of
money Projec • involves the VOICE of the
public by linking their creative input through the story of
CONNECTivity Launch • 6:30 pm 27 August
at @ 150 Karangahape Road, Level 2 IRONBANK Building •
Is it free or by invitation • Guests will be
invited to participate and interact with various creative
platforms with the opportunity to add their VOICE. Everyone
will be taken on a real time journey through physical,
viral, sound, sight and touch media that amplify our
experience of the ways in which we
CONNECT. Collaborators Designers: Big VOICE
combines participation with technology to facilitate the
VOICE of businesses and organisations, enabling them to
share their message in a more effective way. Big VOICE
believes in the collective, collaborative process of
creativity and the power of authentic story telling.
Through Project CONNECT we have invited you, some of
Auckland’s innovative creative professionals, and the
global public (via Facebook) to actively participate in the
creation of a multimedia exhibition launch event that will
give VOICE to a specific themed topic. This is the VOICE of
Connection. Website: www.bigvoice.tv
Creative
collaborators: Virtuo is an intelligent collective of
experts in serious experimental play. Multi-disciplinary and
multi-talented, we generate bespoke creative solutions and
specialise in new and emerging technologies. In keeping
with our collaborative and open creative philosophy, Virtuo
will be working on several aspects of Project CONNECT
including: * Creating a map that visualises the
connections between people within Project CONNECT
* Skype/Chat Roulette-based exhibition installation
* Enhanced exhibition publication in collaboration with
Threaded Media and Big VOICE * Immersive Mobile QR code
experience in the exhibition space in collaboration with
Transmedia A:M/P:M and Big VOICE * Mobile documentary of the
Project CONNECT event that will be integrated with the
exhibition print publication in collaboration with MINA,
Transmedia A:M/P:M and Big VOICE. Website:
www.virtuo.co.nz/en/ Transmedia A:M/P:M aims to
support the development of a transmedia production community
in New Zealand, to share ideas and knowledge and create
opportunities for collaboration and creation. Transmedia
A:M/P:M will be devising an immersive QR code experience for
visitors to the Project CONNECT exhibition (in collaboration
with Virtuo), and co-creating a mobile documentary of the
Project CONNECT event (in collaboration with MINA,
Transmedia A:M/P:M and Big VOICE). Website:
www.transmedia-am.net Threaded Magazine, founded by
graphic designer Kyra Bradcock, it is has grown in
readership and status since its inception in 2004. Threaded
Magazine is a visually arresting collaborative design
publication that has established a unique creative platform
to offer insights into best practice across the creative
industries and bridge the gap between established and
emerging practitioners. One of the key objectives is to
produce a publication that is all about people as designers.
Who they are and what drives them to do their work. For
'Project Connect' Threaded will create a publication, which
documents and celebrates the notion of 'creative
collaboration' and the journey of co-creation this
exhibition inspires over the course of this week. Website:
www.threaded.co.nz STEVIE
Starr is an avante-pop musician who has been described as
"Like Sigur Rós if they hung out with Radiohead in a
Horowhenua forest". His electronic tinged compositions,
inspired by the Estonian composer Arvo Part, are based upon
his experiences; hitch-hiking around NZ and Europe, playing
gigs at the Starclub in Hamburg, meeting Maori tribal elders
at Waitangi, dossing with crab farmers, and drinking with
locals in the towns and cities that he visits, hoping one
might offer him a refreshing beverage in exchange for a tale
or two. With towers of TV sets Starr will be creating a
virtual TV station, (Stevie Starrmart) which displays
vintage images of advertising propaganda and animations.
During his performance at "Project CONNECT" the audience can
manipulate the backing tracks which Starr plays to using
modified Wii remotes, in an attempt to bridge the gap
between performer and audience. Website:
www.thesteviestarr.com Paul Stothers principally works in graphic design. He
utilizes typography, illustration and photography that
reference and reinterpret elements of popular culture. He
has also been involved in underground music culture as a DJ,
producer and promoter. For 'Project CONNECT' Paul's work
represents his experiences connecting with people through
music while tapping into his love of typography. By
meditating on a popular lyric from the Vanilla Ice song 'Ice
Ice Baby' Paul's interactive installation reveals layers of
unintended meanings. Website:
Ministry Of Green are
sustainability strategists. They strive for holistic
sustainability through innovation - using a trans
disciplinary approach and blending scientific inputs with
creative problem solving. Ministry of Green's work at
'Project CONNECT' will pose questions of how we connect with
and value our natural environment. ‘What’s the value of
your footprint?’ is an interactive installation which
connects your own human footprint with your
world. Website: www.ministryofgreen.co.nz
Margaret Lewis
believes it’s not just about fashion. She lives a life
surrounded by textile - in particular wool. It’s in her
room, in her car, on her desk, in her handbag... Creating a
style where craft meets couture, Margaret Lewis’s designs
start from a technique or a piece of handwork or sometimes a
piece of found fabric. With that starting point, items are
then upcycled, recycled, recut or made from scratch, using
original designs. The craft work is done by hand and using
skills that could have learned with her nana. But that was
way too uncool then. So much of what she does now is learned
from books and people of her nana’s generation who are so
generous with sharing their learning. The gift in making
these kinds of works is connecting existing objects and the
brand-new, young and old, traditional and contemporary in
ways that weave new stories. Project Connect allows Margaret
Lewis to pull strands of different stories together and
build new connections. Website:
www.facebook.com/dml.wear.craft.meet.couture Unguarded
Intersection is a collaborative group that specialises in
exploring new and innovative ways of presenting moving image
through large-scale public installations. They specialise
in public projection events which examine the environment in
which we live. A consistent feature of Unguarded
Intersection’s work is the theme of transplanted
experiences. By taking an experience out of context, the
viewer is invited to reflect on the nature of experience
itself. Unguarded Intersection is: Michael Brook, Kim
Fogelberg, Fiona Milburn and Mark Schafer. Smoke (2003)
examined the indistinct nature of memory. It suggested that
common cultural experiences, such as a New Zealand Summer
spent at the beach, form a modern collective memory.
Personal experience mixes with images from: film,
television, home movies, news events, photographs, etc.,
until our individual memories reflect a collected vision of
our past. With Smoke (2011), Unguarded Intersection takes
this further. Today's technology connects us as never
before. We now live our lives globally: our experiences are
global; our influences are global. The sharing of memories
has become an experience in, and of, itself. Our memories
reflecting an internationally collected vision of our
past. Smoke is a physical installation, which digitally
projects images onto smoke contained within an everyday
casement window, thus creating a dreamy 3D
effect. Website: WHYBeanie is the
umbrella for the creative outcomes from an extraordinary
experience Eleni Papadopoulos had between March 2010 and
March 2011. Through connecting she was invited by 52+
friends to come and stay for a week with each. The Universe
delivered project52. WHYBeanie stands for ’Where Have You
Beanie’, and is the chosen title for the inspiring
creativity born from this amazing experience. A book is
under way, sharing the diverse and interesting aspects of
project52. Other creative outcomes are being developed in
collaboration with friends. The Beanie was an integral part
of her journey. At Project CONNECT, her exhibit will
portrait a setting that represents the experience of
project52. She will be telling her story orally - the old
fashioned way - sitting down with participants - telling the
story or part thereof and answering many questions that
arise from such a unique experience. Oh, and she will be
making a Beanie! Website: www.artika.co.nz
Dominique Rowe has worked
in radio, print, and TV. After stepping onto the career at
TIME magazine, she moved into travel, arts and culture
writing, and is currently focusing full-time on her own
imprint, ink*horn Creative, which works closely with clients
on a range of projects ranging from branding, advertising,
and advertorial, to sales and marketing collateral, to
sponsorship pitches, websites, and business plans. Recent
creative work has included projects for W Hotels Worldwide,
NZTE, Sisley, and fashion conglomerate GRI. Her television
career probably reached its zenith presenting the weather
report every evening for two years, on a terrestrial Chinese
English-language broadcaster to an audience of potentially
hundreds, accompanied by a cameraman with chronic wind.
Both physically, and metaphysically, Dominique sees her
career as a microscopic plankton, floating sometimes without
direction, sometimes purposefully, through the murky depths
of New Zealand’s heady media world, gigantic misshapen
microscopic brain in tow. Whilst this is not exactly the
future of intellectual domination and breathtakingly
expensive shoes she once had in mind, she is nevertheless
fulfilled in the task that she has set herself: to write
merciless machine gun copy that explodes in people’s
faces. She once dreamt of marrying a rakish professional
ball-sports player purely for his body/ money. However, she
has since found her perfect man, and thus, and now finds
herself beavering away in New Zealand, making avant-garde
neckpieces with Number 8 wire and drinking moonshine in her
spare time. The Cut Collective is five like-minded
individuals with varied personal histories in art making.
After working spontaneously and informally together over a
number of years the Cut Collective was formed in 2006 to
add an element of permanence and recognition to this ongoing
collaboration. Cut Collective’s practice ranges from
commissioned artworks to gallery exhibitions, public murals,
commercial design and illustration and apparel. The Cut
Collective has an inclusive philosophy, recognizing the
value in collaboration and actively promotes this through
its working relationships with other artists. They have
been involved in many different exhibitions both here in New
Zealand and overseas. And have in the last three years
completed significant exhibitions at The New Dowse, the
Auckland Art Gallery and the Dunedin Public Art
Gallery. For 'Project Connect' The Cut Collective will
be visually interpreting Dominique's writing in a
typographic manner with an aspect of digital documentation.
Blog: http://cutcollective.tumblr.com/
Website: http://cutcollective.co.nz/ Mute Off
Productions brings focus to the things we know but aren’t
being heard. For Project CONNECT Mute Off, with their dance
performance, will carry and hold the value of time and place
and what we can do with it to find ourselves while falling
into another. Project CONNECT Partners: ATEED One
of Project CONNECT’s valued partners is Auckland Tourism
Events and Economic Development. They are passionate about
working with Auckland’s diverse creative sector to foster
growth and innovation. ATEED works within networks and
groups in the tourism industry to promote and create
business plans. Their strategies and action plans support
investments in economic infrastructure. ATEED also aims to
improve the effectiveness of local government activity that
influences the tourism industry. Through their expertise in
the industry, ATEED are able to form networks and involved
in sector representative groups. Website:
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/ABOUTCOUNCIL/HOWCOUNCILWORKS/CCO/Pages
/tourism_events_economic_development.aspx We Can
Create New Zealand’s biggest creative industry event for
2011, curated by communications agency The Church, We Can
Create features both up and coming talent and seasoned
professionals over two days of seminars surrounded by
satellite events and exhibitions. It's an annual celebration
of all things art and design - graphics, fashion, animation,
illustration, motion graphics, typography, sound design,
live audiovisual art, interactive and experiential
marketing, fine art, music, product design and more. Big
VOICE’s Project CONNECT is a featured side event of the
popular ‘We Can Create’
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