I asked Bill Weaver whether he’d like me to liveblog his talk, and I mentioned that I’d be liveblogging but also adding my own commentary to his speech, so here are my notes and some semi-verbatim transcriptions of Bill’s speech.
| Message at Midway |
(10/21/2009) |
| 8:43 |
Bill Weaver (Media That Matters)
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| 8:44 |
Bill has been in the media business for almost 40 years, mostly documentaries, etc. One of his big passions is Media That Matters. Happens at Hollyhock. Kind of off the grid, away from the cocktail parties.
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| 8:44 |
The goal is to have deeper conversations about what we’re doing in the world – that’s really necessary. it’s a lot of fun and what we find is that it’s a great foundation for meaningful projects and collaborations. Today Bill is going to talk about one. |
| 8:45 |
Chris Jordan – internationally renowned photographer and TIFF presenter. He presents great photo collages. Chris’ work is almost perfect media, in the words of Bill. |
| 8:46 |
Bill asks – how the heck do we find the motivation to find solutions to enviro problems given that we have so much work. Chris Jordan invited Bill and two others to join at Midway.
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| 8:48 |
Midway is mainly known as a bird sanctuary (albatross). Chris went there to take photos, but in a different state (dead). 5 tonnes of plastic get into the stomach of albatrosses (sp?) per year. They search for food, find the plastic floating on the ocean, and eventually they become so full of plastic that there is no other nutrition. At least 40% of the chicks have fatalities due to death by plastic.
Besides documenting this tragedy, they spent a lot of time on how media could be used to give out this message. |
| 8:50 |
Chris Jordan – makes photographs of mass consumption – unveil social issues that are invisible at the first glance. |
| 8:52 |
— We are watching one of Chris Jordan’s small documentaries – where he speaks about how he craves for change, and how he witnesses this craving for change. |
| 8:55 |
Bill asks – what is our media diet? What toxic messages are we being fed? It keeps rolling in his mind – what new possibilities can media and journalism offer in these times? |
| 8:55 |
Bill believes that media is the magic of today. art is one of the most refined forms of this magic (agreeing with Chris) – if we want to build resilience in our cities and ourselves we should support the arts! The arts incubate new ways to shape our world. |
| 8:57 |
We have to make sacrifices so we can survive. As we go into this day, let’s think about the albatross and its sacrifice and let’s see if we can build a new story.
Rauls comment – very empowering presentation by Bill Weaver. |
| 8:57 |
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Posted in bridging media and academia.
By Raul Pacheco-Vega
– October 21, 2009
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Continuing the Discussion