Harnessing the power of the imagination, through World Design, to build a better Canada.
This is the speech I gave at the Walrus Talks: We Desire A Better Canada May 15th 2017. We had 7 minutes to talk about the future of Canada. I wanted to connect the dots between my work in VR, film, world design, activism, and the #Canada150.
Hi everyone, my name is Paisley Smith, and I am a filmmaker, a Virtual Reality director, and a world designer.
Today i’m very pleased to be talking to you about how to harness the power of the imagination, through world design, to build a better Canada.
This year my family moved out of our home of 20 years. During the move, I found this business card:
I somehow convinced my parents design and print them in bulk for me when I was 8 years old.
The cards say “Paisley Smith” “Inventor Extraordinaire” in curlz font.
I was pretty sure my inventions were going to change the world.
While my work today is definitely not what my 8 year old self had in mind … i’m not exactly… an inventor extraordinaire…
I do feel that my work is, at it’s essence, inventing.
World design is a process that creates the details of the story world first, and then develops the individual stories and characters that exist within this world.
The idea is, that by thinking through the details, the stories that emerge from this world will be strong enough to be experienced and explored across media platforms…
This process can be used to create fictional content, or applied to the real world.
Story becomes a way to predict and solve issues on a personal and on a global scale.
So what does this have to do with the future of Canada?
American author Walidah Imarisha, writes in the forward to Octavia’s Brood:
“The decolonization of the imagination is the most dangerous and subversive form there is: for it is where all forms of decolonization are born. Once the imagination is unshackled, liberation is limitless.”
Someone had to imagine a future where women had the right to vote, before it became a reality.
Freeing your imagination is a NECESSARY ACT of resistance.
I believe it is our duty as Canadian citizens to deep dive into our best resource — our imagination, and work towards a better future for all of us.
We need to look beyond what we have been programmed to see.
Politicians, activists, parents… these are a few of the people whose vision of future possibilities drive their work. — — You may not even realize you do this every day.
Have you ever considered what a better Canada would look like for you?
How about the person sitting next to you??
Instead of telling you my vision of the future tonight, I thought I would run you through a simple tool I often use in my world design practice that helps to identify where there is room for innovation.
The key to freeing your imagination is not judging your thoughts as they lead you to new ideas, feelings and questions.
So, What are you carrying with you tonight?
Maybe you have a purse or a bag, or maybe you are traveling light. Let’s quickly list everything you have on you:
Keys, lipstick, drivers licence, glasses, tampons, breath mints, iphone, worry dolls, ramen stamp card, whatever.
Is there is anything that you have with you that makes you feel something? Frustration, embarrassment, joy?
Something you would not want the person next to you to know about maybe?
These feelings are our clue that there is a greater meaning to be revealed in this object.
Choose something that speaks to you… .
Where did you get it? What does it do? Do you need it it? Why do you hold on to it?
Matisse said that to look at something as if you had never seen it requires great courage.
Let’s imagine we are in Surrey, British Columbia, 200 years in the future.
What does this object look like in it’s future form? Is it more useful? Does it still exist?
Now, what does your day look like carrying this object in this future Canada?
What if you had the ability to build and explore the future you just imagined?
My work in Virtual Reality first began when I met Nonny de la Pena in the World Building Media Lab at the University of Southern California.
Nonny is the first person to use Virtual Reality as a tool for journalism, placing audiences on scene and allowing them to witness real world events.
I began producing for her, and we created a number of room scale interactive Virtual Reality experiences, including Project Syria.
What convinced me of the power of Virtual Reality was watching people take off the VR headsets, incredibly moved, and needing to talk about how the experience affected them.
Virtual Reality is an extremely powerful tool as it can directly impact the emotions of the audience.
VR can be a way to FREE OUR IMAGINATIONS.
Not only can we visualize our worlds, but we can experience them.
Virtual reality then is a mirror to look back at our own human experience. We can examine our own realities AND more importantly, see the perspective of other people.
Inspired by this use of technology, I began to use VR to examine the my own life.
Homestay, is a VR documentary I am creating with the National Film Board of Canada’s interactive studio.
It is a personal story of coming to terms with a suicide in my family.
For me, letting an audience move through my emotional journey themselves, and to take a look into my life is terrifying, but I hope that by sharing my experience, we can open up a dialogue and see how our individual lives are a part of a larger system.
What if you were able to look at a future of Canada in VR, interact with the changes and shifts you made, and see them before it happens?
What if you could share your vision of a future Canada with your community?
What if your community could share it’s desired future with other communities?
Your world becomes a vehicle for change. The possibility for connection and innovation are endless.
Some of you tonight may have tried Virtual Reality experiences, and have felt it’s power for storytelling. Many of you however, have not.
At this point in time we are still working on making technology accessible to all creators.
While VR is amazing. we need to remember that it is not the only way to free our imaginations.
I love world building because it is accessible to everyone.
We do not have to rely solely on technology to tell strong stories that make real world change.
But we do need to take a chance, to take step away from what’s known, and create something new.
We are Canadians. We have a unique perspective within this world, and I know each of us has a story that could lead to a better country for all it’s citizens.
If we can imagine our own versions of a better Canada, and these SHARE these futures, we can begin to work toward them.
The secret is… we are all inventor’s extraordinaire. Thank you!
