hangzhou crazy
Workshop Facilitation, Design
Every project tells a story. In the summer of 2019 I joined 14 international artists, designers and teachers in a four-week collaboration with 15 faculty from the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, China. Pairs of teachers offered month-long workshops across a broad of topics all related to the theme of play as part of the Young to YOUNG festival.
My workshop was called Narrative and the Design of All Things and the course took a close look at the mechanics of storytelling across media, exploring connections between new media, technology, and narrative experience. We discussed and dissected examples ranging from the design of fine arts to comic books, games to interactive fiction, from tarot cards to immersive theater from smart mobs to flash mobs. Emphasis was placed on frameworks and tools that could be applied to any project, whether or not students thought it was narratively driven.
After a brainstorm session the students decided on ‘crazy’ as a theme. I wanted to contribute something to the show so I focused on the students, the artists, to celebrate their risk-taking and, ideally, reinforce the theme. Kudos to them for participating in my impromptu photo shoot that showed their wild side.
