Communication: I'm friendly and approachable. Writing or speaking, I can get my point across clearly.
Creative thinking: I can organise information and ideas in original ways, picking the best medium to tell a great story.
Collaboration: Working with some really awesome, passionate people has taught me to be an enthusiastic team player.
Curiousity: I'm an explorer of the world, constantly learning.
This project required rapid creative thinking and iterative content development in response to audience feedback. We created a game which enhanced the conference experience for delegates.
Webstock Game is an excellent example of my strong work ethic and the tireless dedication I give to projects I'm working on. Overnight between the two days of the conference I stayed up till 2am making crucial changes to the website to make the game better for the second day!
The selection of images below represent some of the content contributed by players to our flickr group over the course of the game.
I developed a postmortem site, replacing the original game webpage.
The Case of the Midnight Note is an example of my skills in writing, documenting and organising content. The story was told through many different formats - some of them interactive!
Our work was featured on TVNZ Media 7. The first three minutes of the segment below give a good overview of the story and our motivations. The second half of the clip describes the Webstock conference which is relevant to both Collective Noun projects.
The images below are a selection from an annotated flickr set I've created that gives a look "behind the scenes" and discusses some of the exceptional work done during The Case of the Midnight Note.
The midnightnote.com website is still online, featuring a reverse-chronological record of the story, including weekly plot summaries.
My career has consistently challenged me to improve and consolidate my knowledge. My current and past jobs show my ability to quickly learn new skills and make sense of unfamiliar subjects.
Whether organising orientation programmes for students in Christchurch and Wellington, or creating video and text for the web, I've worked hard to provide superb learning experiences in any format.
Some of the videos I've created while in my role as senior tutor are available for viewing online. Some of the library research resources I've made for students can be seen on flickr.
I've studied playful online environments, with an emphasis on audience-driven storytelling (through Machinima and role-playing). I've also completed research into the design of user experiences in virutal environments. My Master's degree has given me practical professional skills, while allowing me to continue to explore these existing academic interests.
People create meaning and identity through the stories they tell and are told. Henry Jenkins describes how important personal storytelling is, in the video below: "As average people develop the ability to tell their stories, we're seeing different perspectives emerge ... we're seeing groups challenge the dominant media images that have been constructed for their lives".
People like Shelly Bernstein at the Brooklyn Museum have done amazing work to bring the voices of visitors into the museum space, for example using video capture kiosks to allow visitors to contribute their own stories in response to an exhibit. I am serious about exploring these kinds of ideas, and would love to help Story Inc create interactive, participatory experiences for visitors.
My final research project for my Master's in Library and Information Management was titled Virtual World Libraries, Challenges and Strategies.
Since then, I've become interested in exploring ways to embody digital, virtual information in physical spaces. Exhibition design seems an excellent place to explore this, and Story Inc’s work seems to have already found interesting ways to do this, especially through use of video. In your earliest work with Golden Days and also with your most recent work on ZEALANDIA, video has been used to give a really entertaining depth to the exhibition space.
Brenda Chawner — Research Supervisor and Manager
Information Studies Senior Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington
Brenda was my supervisor during my master’s research project, and later my manager when she was the Programme Director in 2009.
brenda.chawner@vuw.ac.nz — 04 463 5780
Elizabeth Russel — Manager
Architecture and Design Library, Victoria University of Wellington
Elizabeth was my manager during my time working at the A&D Library.
elizabeth.russell@vuw.ac.nz — 04 463 6269
Clarion Julie Wells — Collective Noun Collaborator
Web Master, Law Society of New Zealand; HITLab researcher.
CJ was Project Manager on ‘The Case of the Midnight Note’. We are also currently working together on a new Collective Noun collaboration with DigitalNZ and HITLab.
clarionjulie@gmail.com — 021 420 622
