Storytelling Across Platforms: J.J. Abrams And Gabe Newell

In a fun back-and-forth conversation two of my favorite producers, J.J. Abrams, film and Gabe Newell, games, give the keynote speech at the 2013 D.I.C.E. SUMMIT and discuss how different platforms change storytelling. 

Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Why Sci-Fi Author William Gibson Loves Japan

William Gibson, the author responsible for popularizing the term "cyberspace," explains why Japan is the country closest to the future: 

The Japanese seem to the rest of us to live several measurable clicks down the time line. The Japanese are the ultimate Early Adaptors, and the sort of fiction I write behoves me to pay serious heed to that. If you believe, as I do, that all cultural change is essentially technologically driven, you pay attention to the Japanese. They've been doing it for more than a century now, and they really do have a head start on the rest of us, if only in terms of what we used to call 'future shock' (but which is now simply the one constant in all our lives).

 

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Tony Kushner: Does Theater Still Matter?

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner makes a strong case for theater's role in modern society.

Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Jad Abumrad: How Did Radiolab Happen? Gut Churn

What's gut churn? At the 99U Conference, Radiolab creator and host Jad Abumrad describes it as the radical uncertainty that's a core part of any creative process that really pushes the envelope. You're entering unknown territory, and working without a map.

Using examples from Radiolab's own evolution, Jad shares the benefits of negative feedback and how we can look out for "pointing arrows" that can help guide our work (even when it hurts).

Jad Abumrad is the host and creator of Radiolab, which reaches roughly 2 million people per month. He's been called a "master of the radio craft" for his unique ability to combine cutting edge sound-design, cinematic storytelling and a personal approach to explaining complex topics, from the stochasticity of tumor cells to musical languages to the mathematics of morality. Jad studied creative writing and music composition at Oberlin College in Ohio. He composes much of the music for Radiolab, and in the past has composed music for film, theater and dance.

In 2011, Radiolab received a Peabody Award, the highest honor in broadcasting, and Jad received the prestigious MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.

Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Are You A Hipster? Do You Think Video Games Are Art? And Other Important Questions

PBS Idea Channel began this year with a quick look at New Year's resolutions and has continued the work they started last year, asking interesting, eccentric and often hilarious questions and pretty much twisting the worlds of pop culture, technology and art. Needless to say, I love the Idea Channel. 

 

Video Games have finally made it to the Museum of Modern Art, so we thought we'd celebrate and put together a list of our top 5 most artful video games! Not our favorites, mind you. These are the ones that are packed with significance and emotional weight. How does your own list compare with these 5?

 

We all hate hipsters, right? They seem so smug and arrogant, with their ray bans and scarves and ironic t-shirts. Even those who clearly are hipsters still recoil at the label. Embracing irony over earnestness, the key to hipsters is not just what they enjoy, but how they enjoy it. Borrowing from other subcultures, (see: Handlebar mustaches and flannel shirts), hipsters reappropriate these fashion elements as their own. But don't we all do that? Our own fashion came from somewhere, and certainly has been refined. Do we all have a little bit of hipster blood in us?

 

Will Space travel change our perspective on the human condition?

Space, also known as The Final Frontier, has been in our collective dreams and fantasies for decades. Who wouldn't want to blast into space, experience zero gravity, or walk on the moon? But with limited funding to NASA, the day that had been promised to us for years (in addition to flying cars and hover boards), seems no closer now than it did 30 years ago. Could private research and funding be the future of galactic exploration? And maybe once we are all able to see the earth from a distance, we'll all gain some much needed perspective. So keep on truckin' Elon Musk, for humanity's sake.

 

New Year's Resolutions are incredibly hard to keep. Watch this special episode to find out why!

 

Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.