Talking Eyes Media uses interactivity to explore a mile-long mural in Newark
I had the pleasure of working with Julie Winokur for years during my time at the websites of NBC News. Because of those great experiences, we approached Julie and her team at Talking Eyes Media to work on a Verse Interactive Original about public housing that we’ll be releasing soon.
What became apparent in our initial meetings about that project is that Julie REALLY thinks interactively. We had to work hard to push the technology so that we could keep up with her ideas.
It was our pleasure to hear a few months later that she decided to use VERSE for her own project, a long-term collaboration between Talking Eyes Media, VII and Rutgers-Newark called “Newest Americans.” The project explores immigration and identity through videos, photo essays, fiction and non-fiction. The Atlantic is an additional distribution partner.
The goal of the project is to create an on-going media laboratory where people can explore, learn and even generate their own stories about immigration and identity. Given the aim of the project, “That’s why Verse is so great. It gives us that flexibility,” Julie said.
Specifically, they applied Verse to their coverage of a more than mile long mural in Newark, NJ. The challenge? “How do you experience this mural if you’re not at the mural?” Julie asked. The mural comprised the work of 18 artists that each had interesting stories of their own.
“I don’t see how you could have as thorough and as accessible a treatment of this public art piece if you haven’t done it in an interactive way. And if you like their work — we can offer a link out to them,” Julie said.
The project wasn’t without challenges. Most of the art was painted at night, making it technically difficult and at times, dangerous for their shooting partners, Dreamplay, who shot the footage of the mural along a busy local highway. Also producing and editing the many interactive components that would make up the finished Verse story took more time than expected.
Originally, they started with the driving tour and jumping off points to artist’s profiles, but they realized that viewers might not realize why the mural was happening. So Chapter 1, the overview, was born which includes cool aerial footage as a sidebar feature.
The Pathfinder was the last step in the creation process. They used Pathfinder because they wanted to re-circulate viewers to artists they may have missed during their first viewing, while also offering a slideshow of the various artists’ individual works. The ultimate mission: multiple ways to get to various features, while not being cumbersome. “You’re also trying to get into a viewer’s head and answer, ‘How would I watch this?’” Julie said. “It’s a circular way of thinking.”
Julie’s pro tip to new Verse users is to shoot long video portraits, since they come in handy for Q and A loops.
There is a subversive goal in all of this for Julie. We’ve all heard talk of the public not appreciating long-form content online. While our data show the opposite of that trend for stories that use Verse, Julie added that interactivity allows you to “do something long, but it’s deceptive because it’s presented in a way that’s snackable. I really appreciate it. It’s a sneaky way to get deep thoughtful substantive work across. It just doesn’t look like that’s what it is.”
We were thrilled to learn recently that The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Newest Americans a Community Conversations grant.
Written by VERSE Executive Producer, Meredith Hogan
