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Project Type: Children's Transmedia Storytelling
Project Wiki Role: Director @ USC Annenberg Innovation Lab / Children, Youth & Media Research-Design Track |
In the author’s words, flotsam is “Something that floats. If it floats in the ocean, it may wash up on the beach, where someone may find it and be astonished, and share the discovery with someone else”
Wiesner’s Flotsam is a wordless picture book that opens a portal into the magical world of the deep blue ocean. Through the lens of an underwater camera that travels far and wide, we see the wondrous, fantastical and unexpected life of the creatures that reside under the surface of the ocean. When the camera washes up on the shore, the finder must add his own story to the narrative and throw the camera back into the ocean so someone else can find it, thus perpetuating the idea of shared storytelling.
Flotsam creates a narrative that invites children to participate in the creation of their own stories that are informed by their unique imaginations. Flotsam is the perfect avenue to explore children’s transmedia storytelling because its overarching story is replete with rabbit holes that can segue into parallel stories that can be told collaboratively on transmedia platforms. The project will create a series of prototypes that extend the original printed book into a transmedia experience for children and their families and distribute and commercialize it with partners Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, author David Wiesner and The Alchemists.
Wiesner’s Flotsam is a wordless picture book that opens a portal into the magical world of the deep blue ocean. Through the lens of an underwater camera that travels far and wide, we see the wondrous, fantastical and unexpected life of the creatures that reside under the surface of the ocean. When the camera washes up on the shore, the finder must add his own story to the narrative and throw the camera back into the ocean so someone else can find it, thus perpetuating the idea of shared storytelling.
Flotsam creates a narrative that invites children to participate in the creation of their own stories that are informed by their unique imaginations. Flotsam is the perfect avenue to explore children’s transmedia storytelling because its overarching story is replete with rabbit holes that can segue into parallel stories that can be told collaboratively on transmedia platforms. The project will create a series of prototypes that extend the original printed book into a transmedia experience for children and their families and distribute and commercialize it with partners Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, author David Wiesner and The Alchemists.
Findings from the Creative Team Deconstructing the Flotsam Story
Flotsam Transmedia Play Experiment: CRUNCH Lunch
T is for Transmedia
ARTICLE: Transmedia and Education: How Transmedia is Changing the Way We Learn
ANNENBERG INNOVATION LAB REPORT: Flotsam Transmedia Play Experience
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT: Marseille Film Fest
CRUNCH COURSE: Flotsam
ANNENBERG INNOVATION LAB REPORT: Flotsam Transmedia Play Experience
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT: Marseille Film Fest
CRUNCH COURSE: Flotsam