Through the Petri Glass

✨⚡Stories Zapping SuperBugs!! ⚡✨

 I’m still buzzing from an electrifying two-day narrative arc with fellow artists and experts at “Through the Petri Glass” 🧫, a workshop I co-organized with the Global Strategy Lab and the Immersive Storytelling Lab, hosted by the Wellcome Trust in London.  

Creative types of every stripe came together to explore how to turn drug-resistant infections into irresistible stories that amplify the impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) 🦠 on lives and livelihoods:

📚 Novelists brainstorming with 👩🏾‍⚖️ policy boffins!

✍️ Illustrators swapping sticky notes with 🔬 scientists!

🏛️ Curators collaborating with 👩🏽‍🎤 comic writers!

🎭 Dramatists vibing with 🕶️ AR artists!

We explored transforming invisible threats into indelible narratives that could literally save lives, and learned about the inspiring work participants are already doing – from uplifting performances in marketplaces and clinic waiting rooms in Uganda (Mercy Kukundakwe), to cutting-edge VR visualizing disease from the patient’s POV in the UK (Sarah Ticho), to super-cute cartoons illustrating the cultural context of AMR in Thailand (Kanpong Boonthaworn), to radio dramas and graphic novels imagining an antibiotic apocalypse in a not-too-distant future (Val McDermid and Sara Kenney).

A few brave social scientists joined us, engaging with and enriching the creative process: thanks to Director of the Global Strategy Lab Mathieu JP Poirier, strategic comms master-chief Demetria Tsoutouras, policy wizard Isaac Weldon, and stalwart research assistant Uswa Shafaque for taking the time to participate.

Massive respect and thanks to all the artists and allied visionaries who made this confab such a roaring success: Becky McCall, Emily Scott-Dearing, Kanpong Boonthaworn, Lisa Jamieson, Liz Callegari, Lucinda Jarrett, Madhushree Kamak, Mercy Kukundakwe, Sara Kenney, Sarah Ticho, Sheldon Paquin, and Val McDermid.

Props to the mad live-scribing skills of We Are Cognitive's Patience Rose Nottingham, Elena Gamper and Alex Gilmore.

Deep gratitude to our hosts at Wellcome and the team there who paved the way and/or joined us on the day: Steven Hoffman, Layla Fazal Deverson, Addie Tadesse, Danielle Olsen, Madeleine Weaver, Janet Midega, Rebecca Manaley, Sian Bird, and Sumitra Upham.

But most of all, huge thanks to our fearless leader Caitlin Fisher, Director of the Immersive Storytelling Lab at York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, for nursing the germ of this idea into full-blown, mind-expanding reality.

See below for the event's culminating webinar, "The Power of Art & Storytelling in Tackling AMR: Raising Awareness & Sparking Action."

 

Future Makers Week – TMU X UHN

Update Oct 10: Here's the event recording! My Shadowpox talk starts at the 10:25 mark, followed by Dave Evans speaking about The Vale: Shadow of the Crown (no shortage of shadows here!), then we both sit down with host Victoria Evans for a panel discussion and Q&A from 43:30. 

(Love that YouTube's flagged the video with a Health Canada COVID-19 vaccine link: "When you search or watch videos related to topics prone to misinformation, such as the moon landing, you may see an information panel...." Fact-checkers are go!)

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I'm excited to be speaking about Shadowpox this Thursday, October 10th, on a panel titled "Fusing Gameplay & Healthcare," led byUHN's KITE Creates as part of their mission to "build bridges between innovators in healthcare and creative industries." 

Victoria Evans will be hosting, and David Evans will be presenting on The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, an audio-only video game that won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Video Game Narrative.

The event is presented by Future Makers, "an ever-evolving initiative dedicated to fostering curiosity, dialogue, experimentation, and innovation at the intersection of creativity and technology." Co-created and led by The Creative School at TMU and the City of Toronto's Creative Technology office, Future Makers "empowers the creative community through education, collaboration, mentorship, and thought-provoking conversations to shape the future of the entertainment industry."

Click here to book, and come say hi to Shadowpox technical director Lalaine Ulit-Destajo and me at the booth afterward!