Digital Interventions Panel Discussion as a part of the Digital Narratives PhotoEx Lab

DIGITAL INTERVENTIONS PANEL DISCUSSION AS A PART OF THE DIGITAL NARRATIVES PHOTOEX LAB

Earlier in May, Magnum Foundation partnered with the Brown Institute for Media Innovation to host Digital Narratives, a two day lab on innovative approaches to visual storytelling for social impact. The lab was located in Columbia’s new Tow Center for Digital Journalism, which provided an inspiring environment for collaboration between selected Columbia journalism students, documentary photographers, and designers. Together, these varied practitioners worked to expand the photographer’s projects through the utilization of innovative technologies, collaborative tactics, and design strategies.

To kick off the lab, the Magnum Foundation partnered with Aperture and the Brown Institute of Innovative Media to host Digital Interventions, a panel discussion moderated by Phil Bicker, featuring artists Lina Srivastava, Jonathan Harris and Christopher Allen. Their discussion addressed many of the central themes of the lab, including the shifting landscape of documentary storytelling, the challenges of utilizing emerging tools, models for creating sustainable practices and the importance of engaging the right processes to enhance and support your subject matter. Each panelist gave a brief presentation of their current work, which included Lina’s new augmented reality comic, Priya’s Shakti, Jonathan Harris’s joyful explorations of data in We Feel Fine, I Love Your Work and The Whale Hunt, and Christopher Allen’s collaborative, multi-year project Living Los Sures.

To echo panelist Jonathan Harris - its a very interesting time for photography when we loosen what photography means.