The Imagination Age is DIP’s blog chronicling the evolution of a new global culture and economy through art, technology and business.
Archive for the ‘featured_projects’ Category
The Imagination AgeTweet
by DIP on Wednesday, 10 November 2010 | 
No Comments | Tags: creative solutions, Imagination Age, innovation, networksThe Imagination Age
Battery Dance CompanyTweet
by DIP on Sunday, 27 June 2010 | No Comments | Tags: battery dance company, cultural diplomacy, cultural relations, dance, jonathan hollanderBattery Dance Company
DIP is collaborating with Battery Dance Company on a new cultural relations project exploring new ways to make global cultural relations work accessible to arts organizations throughout the United States and the world. The project was funded by a grant from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.
Battery Dance Company performs at Space on White. Video by Rita J. King
The above short documentary was recorded and produced by Rita J. King as part of Battery Dance’s May 14 participation in Space on White, a new collaborative art space in Tribeca in New York City. The video is a montage of a series of interpretive dances featuring Battery Dancers Oliver Tobin, Robin Cantrell, Carmen Nicole and Sean Scantlebury who joined forces with visual artists John Kessler, Prawat Laucharoen and Jody Rasch to present site-specific dance at Space on White. Also featured in the video is Battery Dance’s Artistic and Executive Director, Jonathan Hollander.
We first met Jonathan at a Cultural Diplomacy retreat at White Oak Plantation where we learned that Jonathan’s efforts go well beyond providing a home for modern, independent dance in Lower Manhattan, but around the globe in some of the most remote corners of the world exploring how dance can serve as a bridge for cultural relations.
Jonathan’s commitment to cultural collaboration is local as well. He was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal about his participation in the creation of the Lower Manhattan Arts League, an effort to create more synergies between arts organizations in New York City.
Battery Dance Company’s impact and reach, finding inroads for cultural dialog through teaching and sharing dance has, in the last year, gone from, among other places, Uganda to Ghana and Algeria. The below clip is from the YouTube stream of the US Embassy in Algiers.
Battery Dancers were recently interviewed on Algerian television.
I asked Jonathan a question I saw tweeted recently by one of the British Council’s TN2020 fellows: “Some dance forms imply a set of values, esp in the south side of chicago. So, how do you find neutral forms for dialogue?”
His response: “I guess my reaction to this ‘neutral forms for dialogue’ is that modern dance fits the bill perfectly because it is a constantly changing, evolving form that can stretch in all kinds of directions. For example, when we gave young dancers the opportunity to be creative within the form and architecture of modern dance, they dove into the process … in Cambodia, Ghana, Algeria, Uganda, Swaziland, Germany, Taiwan, New York City public schools.”
The British CouncilTweet
by DIP on Wednesday, 23 June 2010 | No Comments | Tags: british council, cultural relations, mike hardy, storytellingThe British Council
DIP has developed a new cultural relations platform in collaboration with the British Council. This project is presently in closed beta.
Understanding Islam through Virtual WorldsTweet
by DIP on Tuesday, 22 June 2010 | No Comments | Tags: al andalus, cultural diplomacy, cultural relations, digital diplomacy, islam, IslamOnline.net, james k. glassman, Lounsbery Foundation, second life, Understanding IslamUnderstanding Islam through Virtual Worlds
Rita J. King recently spoke about the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project at the 2010 Business Innovation Factory (BIF-6). Here’s the video:
(Rita J. King also presented the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project at the 2009 O’Reilly Media Gov2.0 Summit and Expo, for which she was recognized with the first-ever Gov2.0 Award. You can view that presentation here.)
Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds
“With this report, Josh and Rita have illuminated a new path–a definite intelligible plan–for practical public diplomacy in an area of supreme urgency. Furthermore, they have done so by elevating humanity’s most distinguishing feature: the imagination.“ – Joel Rosenthal, President, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Cover page of the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds policy recommendations.
On January 29, 2009, Dancing Ink Productions Rita J. King and Joshua S. Fouts released the findings from the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. The project was funded by a grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. The findings included a trilogy of actionable items available in digital format here. By releasing three types of reports — policy recommendations, documentary video and graphic book — we hope to make what is still a very new medium as accessible as possible.
The idea for Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project was hatched with a very specific idea in mind: How could people learn about other cultures in an authentic, experiential space — specifically, how could we learn about cultures that self-identified as Muslim? We chose the virtual world of Second Life for many reasons, among them that it is the best international platform — more than 70% of its users are from outside the United States. Our goal was to to see what we could learn about Islam — not by inviting particular people with particular perspectives into Second Life, but rather to follow the trail of what was already happening culturally in the space that might yield new insight about Islam.
Read the Press Release announcing the project findings here and here.
Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project findings:
- “Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds” a series of actionable policy recommendations assessing the potential value virtual worlds for digital diplomacy. (Download PDF.) Mirror version on the Carnegie Council website here.
- “Collaboration, Community and Culture” is a mini-documentary produced in collaboration with Ill Clan Animation studios highlighting some of the findings. You can view this at YouTube or download a broadcast quality high-res version here (warning: 1gb file). Mirror version on Carnegie Council website here.
- Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds graphic book, which chronicles the yearlong quest in the style of a graphic novel. You can view the graphic book on Flickr here or download a PDF of the graphic book. It also looks good through this viewer. Hard copies can beordered at cost from Blurb.com (Dancing Ink Productions will not profit from the sale of this book, the posted cost is Blurb’s print-on-demand cost). Mirror version on Carnegie Council website here.
Watch the short documentary (low-res version) on YouTube:
Comments on the project:
“With this report, Josh and Rita have illuminated a new path–a definite intelligible plan–for practical public diplomacy in an area of supreme urgency. Furthermore, they have done so by elevating humanity’s most distinguishing feature: the imagination.”
– Joel Rosenthal, President, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
“The project’s use of Second Life virtual experiences, where internet users can interact with each other through avatars to engage in intercultural dialogue, is indeed a pioneering initiative.” “A ‘second life’ for public diplomacy in the Middle East,” by Prof. Muhammad Ayish, Abu Dhabi’s “The National”
“Joshua and Rita are THE great explorers of new possibilities and media for public diplomacy.”
– Tish Shute, propietor of UgoTrade.com and TishShute.com
“A fascinating clash of best intentions and actual spiritual desires, transplanted into the virtual realm.”Wagner James Au in New World Notes.
- Pictured: Eureka Dejavu, avatar of Rita J. King in hijab before the virtual hajj.
Read Rita J. King’s remarks from the January 29, 2009 release of the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project, delivered at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
Read Joshua S. Fouts’ remarks from the January 29, 2009 release of the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project, delivered at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
In case you missed the event, you can watch the complete video on the Carnegie Council website. Carnegie Council has also uploaded the complete event transcript.
- Evan M. O’Neil, managing editor of PolicyInnovations.org at the January 29 event.
The Carnegie Council has uploaded edited excerpts from the January 29, 2009 release Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project. Each video is about a minute and a half long.
Non-Violence in Virtual Worlds — Rita J. King
Creativity in Virtual Worlds — Rita J. King
Online Diplomacy — Joshua S. Fouts
