An image from Feed Me a Story, a project selected for POV Hackathon 2 (Jan. 12-13, 2013).
POV Hackathon 2 is getting underway this weekend. In a series of blog posts, we’re introducing you to the participating filmmakers, developers and designers.
Feed Me a Story is a transmedia project that encourages the sharing of secret family recipes in a documentary-style food truck, video cookbook and Web application.
The Feed Me a Story team participated in the first POV Hackathon in August 2012. The POV Hackathon 2 team includes filmmakers Theresa Loong and Laura Nova with designer Pam Jue, developers Steve Bussetti, Adam Chromicz and mentor Shana Cohen.
» Feed Me a Story on Vimeo
» Follow @feedmeastory on Twitter
Theresa Loong is a filmmaker and interactive media professional whose work has been exhibited worldwide. She directed the documentary Every Day Is a Holiday and has produced digital media projects with AMC Networks, nymag.com and Food & Wine magazine. A Harvard graduate, she has lectured at New York University and The New School.
POV has such a great reputation for telling stories and working with filmmakers, so I wanted to participate in the POV Hackathon 2. It’s a great opportunity to be surrounded by other filmmakers, digital storytellers, and content creators in a unique environment. As a documentary filmmaker, I hope to experiment on our web interface with a knowledgeable developer to create a fun, accessible way for users to participate in the Feed Me a Story project.
Laura Nova is an artist and associate professor in creative art and technology at Bloomfield College in New Jersey. She received Lower Manhattan Cultural Council funding to create The Crescendo Project, an interactive praise-singing machine. She holds a master of fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was a Rotary scholar at Goldsmiths College.
We wanted to participate in the POV Hackathon 2 because the Hackathons are great motivation for getting work done in a compressed amount of time. We work well under pressure. We would like to resolve the conceptual framework for the website, resolving user navigation issues to create an uncluttered, accessible, and informative experience.
Pamela Jue, initially wanting to become an artist, pursued her BFA in Studio Arts at NYU. Following an unexpected and fortuitous path, she worked as a UI and visual designer in San Francisco and Shanghai for the past five years. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Interaction Design at SVA.
The idea behind Feed Me a Story hit close to home. My personal interests involve engaging people of different backgrounds to share their stories to diminish language, political, cultural, and physical divide. I think this project is an exciting and clever way to get people to interact. As a designer, I’m looking to have fun at the POV Hackathon and gain insights working with different kinds of people to produce something outside my comfort zone.
» Personal Website
» Follow on Tumblr
» Follow @psjue on Twitter
Steve Bussetti is a Senior Software Engineer currently working for the Freelancers Union of New York. Previously, he has helped build the digital systems for media oriented companies, from stock photography to music licensing and streaming to eBook publishing.
I am a fan of the documentary genre in general, and have always been interested in building digital media. When the opportunity to participate in the POV Hackathon 2 came up, it seemed like a great, fun opportunity. Having worked in the past with photographers and musicians in my capacity as a software engineer, it’s always been extremely exciting to build technology driven by a creative perspective. I suspect the same will be true of working with filmmakers, which I’ve never had the occasion to do before this Hackathon.
Working as an engineer through the last decade, Adam Chromicz helps companies large and small utilize their engineering strengths to overcome the challenge of creating innovating products that impact peoples’ lives. An engineer by trade, Adam has completed a Masters degree in Design Science at the University of Sydney and an undergraduate degree in Computing in the Arts at University of California at San Diego.
I don’t get to write code much anymore, so the opportunity to participate in the POV Hackathon 2 is an exciting way to be back in the game with a group of outstanding and creative people. Living in places where the media was very government controlled also left me with a profound respect for those who take it upon themselves to tell a story and I feel lucky to be involved, even in a small way. The future of storytelling is a big theme in the work I do with Hot Studio, in industries as disparate as digital magazine publishing and set top box design. I see worth in every little experience to push the envelope and try something new.
Shana Cohen is a literary agent with Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, Inc., working in science fiction and fantasy, young adult, narrative non-fiction and memoir. She has spent the last few years focusing on eBook strategies, including converting the agency’s out-of-print books to electronic books, and has recently been appointed QED (Queen of Everything Digital).
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