Tag Archives: storytelling

Stories From This Week

24th May 2020

An alternative perspective on (the ending of) confinement, from The Economist –  ‘Yet, in myriad ways, confinement will continue as it always does. Alarms ring at the start of the day, and watches are strapped on, to submit to the limits of time. Bodies are roped with belts and ties, forced into unkind shoes and crammed into the narrow bounds of buses and tubes. Children, brushed and tidied, are packed off to school. And this, of course, is the daily round that many have been pining for.‘ (reg may be necessary).

At the end of Mental Health Awareness week, which also included World Meditation Day, a few related pieces 1) Described as “next generation meditation that unfolds like a beautiful dream”, GABA is a unique mashup of soundscapes, storytelling, and meditation; 2) How visual communication can help with mental health; and 3) love this proposition from Mary Portas : Welcome to The Kindness Economy.

‘Whiteboarding the New Rules.’ Writing a new workplace culture when there’s no workplace. ‘Hard to leave with any doubt that things aren’t going to be the same again. This is obviously consequential. When Glassdoor ask the elements of a job that most appeal to candidates workplace culture comes top, higher than leadership, pay, career development and work-life balance….and related – ‘The Office Is Dead. Get ready for the commercial real estate apocalypse.’

Is there a new ranking or value system for holding companies and public figures accountable? Did They Help?, an independent watchdog website that keeps a running record of brands’ good and bad deeds, seeks to provide this.

Really like this perspective. Are video calls good for equality?

From NoTosh. ‘The learning that students around the world are doing now is not optimal and, ordinarily, we wouldn’t choose it – notwithstanding its unintended benefits – so why are we calling the learning “remote” or “online” rather than “crisis”?’

‘As advertisers continue to eschew outdoor campaigns during quarantine time, a new global outdoor initiative from the U.K.’s Grand Visual and Talon Outdoor, is utilising unused billboard space across the world for a user-generated campaign. #sendinglove.

‘The time to beat is now less than 26 hours. A sub 28-hour Cannonball Run was once unthinkable.’ America’s most illegal record has been obliterated.

If we are going to be eating out, then we are going to be eating  differently. Here are some new dining formats for the (near) future.

‘Rain on rooftops, crunching gravel: the strange appeal of ‘Slow Audio’. First there was slow TV – now radio and podcasts are getting in on the act with ambient recordings of forest walks and bird calls.’

When we need to be at home or perhaps, now, travelling less extensively; this fabulous Outside Stimulator, is a godsend. Crowded or remote, the choice is yours.

The New Influencers, are heroes of the front line.

Love this piece from the BBC (HT @neilperkin) Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them. So true.

Vimeo Pick of The Week – Quarantine – A tale of confinement (3’33”) ‘Puberty is a peculiar time, characterised by enormous changes, insecurities and questionable choices. Now imagine if you add a global virus to the mix.’

From Marketoonist. Communicating in a crisis (Hey, where’s your face mask?)

We Are Social finds new meaning for Home in IKEA’s anti-homophobia drive. ‘For those who do not always feel welcome.

Ten Stories We Have Enjoyed This Week

5th October 2014

1) The compelling Future of Storytelling conference, took place in New York last weekend. Sadly I couldn’t make it and if you couldn’t either here is the blog of the event.

2) Yahoo ( Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle ) has closed the Yahoo directory – the original search system that made it so successful and from which it takes its name.

In the end, the word Yahoo! did roughly describe it as a web search directory. The term “hierarchical” described how the Yahoo! database was arranged in directory layers. The term “oracle” was intended to mean “source of truth and wisdom”. And “officious” described the many office workers who would use the Yahoo! database while surfing from work.

3) From the New York Times – Why Rumours Outrace the Truth Online.

Take the bizarre but instructive example of the woman who claimed to have had an implant to add a third breast – clearly an example of an implausible story that was too good to check. Initial reports circulated widely on social networks, totalling over 188,000 shares. The story was quickly discredited after it was reported that a three breast-breast prosthesis had been previously found in the woman’s luggage, but the articles reporting that it was false never attracted even one-third as many shares as the initial false reports.

4) Interesting ( because it’s relatively rare ) positive perspective on the power of anonymous social media – Confessional in The Palm of Your Hand.

Many of us are addicted to sharing status updates on Facebook, photos on Instagram, and thoughts on Twitter. But real, raw honesty is tricky online. It’s hard to say what you really think when your true identity is attached, especially if your post could get you in trouble, either now or years down the line. 

I took a rather different view recently – Whisper and our Withering World of Communications.

5) Can’t be bothered to read the small print? Well neither could this group of Londoners who inadvertently agreed to hand over their first born child…in exchange for Internet access.

6) So, there is an app for everything right. …… ? Good2Go seeks to assist with a discussion about what constitutes consent between two adults. Not sure this sounds like a great idea and will anyone use it?

7) The Rise of Slow TV This concept has been around a while. In the nascent days of multi-channel TV in the 90’s, I used to get home after a night out and watch a narrow boat move very slowly across an aqueduct, on some fringe satellite channel ( exciting, huh?) The Slow TV of today is even less energetic.

Slow TV is not scripted or heavily edited; it is more concerned with movement than with tension, contrast, or character. The iconic slow-TV program isBergensbanen: minutt for minutt the real-time recording of a train journey, from Bergen to Oslo, in 2009. That show was nearly seven and a half hours long, and consisted mostly of footage from the train’s exterior as it moved. 

8) The growing fascination with virtual sporting action… A record 41,000,000 people play fantasy sports games in the US and Canada alone. In the car recently, when my three children were discussing the potential of a new Brazilian signing for the football team we support, my 10 year olds first comment was – ‘I wonder what his rating will be on FIFA 14’. The starting point and conversational currency for his generation is imaginary, rather than real sporting activity.

9) The latest ‘big’ virus is Shellshock. This is why it could be even worse than Heartbleed.

Heartbleed affected software used by servers to encrypt and secure communications. The flaw allowed attackers to get sensitive information such as encryption keys or passwords from vulnerable servers that could be used to secretly access the system later, for example to steal personal data. Shellshock allows an attacker much more power. They can use it to take complete control of a system even without having a username and password. Exploitation of the vulnerability is simple and doesn’t require advanced skills. 

10) Look again. There is more happening with these clever 50 logos than first appears.

Will Social Media kill off the art of storytelling?

13th June 2012

Social interaction and audience involvement with content creation (or storytelling) – be it across live events, television, cinema, theatre etc… is very much in the ascendant, as brands look to more closely engage with their customers. A word of warning though – never confuse ‘crowd sourced content creation’, with the fine art of storytelling. They are two very different things.

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