And, well, I bloomin' loved it.
I have always been interested in how effective alternative media is and in some cases it is more effective and reflective of people's views than traditional, mainstream media. I studied Journalism and then Political Communications for my MA and these are things I think about a lot. I think it's generally accepted that traditional journalism and communications works in a certain way, i.e. we all know that the Daily Mail has a very right wing agenda and is consistently authoritarian and conservative in its views and that generally speaking the Guardian is left-leaning and liberal. You don't need a degree for that but university enabled me to learn about a lot of the ideas that the RSA animates series explores but in a more traditional setting. Doing this in traditional academic setting was amazing, and I feel very lucky to have had that experience. But I find myself interested in alternative media to communicate the big ideas to everyone: I really think education should not be a privilege. And really, who can afford a university education now that the government have given it massive pricetag? Well, save yourself a fortune, do yourself a favour and watch all these videos right now.
What I think I like about this type of media is that it normalises and democratises the 'big' ideas and learning about them. And it injects some fun into the issues! With these animations, complex ideas about politics, psychology and social issues become exciting, visual and easily comprehensible. This is exciting for me. I think these concepts should be readily available, accessible and visually exciting.
I think these videos particularly hit a chord because I also love illustration. I would really like to be able to represent what's in my mind on paper in a visual way and I think it's magical to see concepts and images represented by someone's skilled handiwork. There's something quite real, authentic and tangible about this. I am really interested in visual arts and play around with textiles and colours a lot and this type of communication appeals to my creative side, I suppose. In these videos the artist always uses a bit of humor or plays around with words so that 'the root of the problem' becomes a an image of a tree. Obvious, yes, but clever too, especially when the rest of the illustration and talk gets animated around the image of the tree.
So anyway, this is all by way of telling you how much I love what the RSA and Cognitive Media have done with these talks and I'm not afraid to say it.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, something funny occurred and Cognitive Media ended up illustrating something I tweeted about. So cool! So the day it was announced that Fabio Cappelo was stepping down as England football manager, there was also a piece on the 6 o'clock BBC news about the economy and quantitative easy. They used a Cognitive Media illustration, with Stephanie Flanders' voiceover to explain the concept. I tweeted Cognitive Media to say how great I thought this was and I also tweeted a joke (a not very good one) about how I thought Stephanie Flanders should be the new England manager and 'oops, I think I've got my news stories confused'.
I told you it wasn't a very good joke, I can practically hear you rolling your eyes already.
The point is, Andrew, who tweets for Cognitive Media, is their Director, and happens to be the hand you see drawing those illustrations in the RSA Animates series, was on Twitter at the time I was tweeting. He read my tweets and had an idea for a Visual Improvisation or 'VizProv'. And I got excited.
His idea was that if Stephanie Flanders was England Football team Manager, she would surely apply quantitative easing as one of her tactics. This is what that looks like when you've got the fantastic illustration skills Andrews possesses and the imagination to turn my tweet into this interpretation:
As a fan of Cognitive Media, this made me really happy and excited. My whole family had a good laugh about the idea in thisVizProv. Thanks Andrew! Now to get it printed and framed.
Seriously though, if you have any funny ideas or concepts for Visual Improvisations, tweet @cognitive_media - it's a very fun experience!
Herein ends the geekery.