Defining the American of 2060
On April 20, 2018, our Civic Paths team traveled to Chicago, Illinois to continue our Civic Imagination work as part of the "Define American Film Festival."
By Rogelio Alejandro Lopez
Where Imagination and Citizenship Meet
On April 20, 2018, our Civic Paths team traveled to Chicago, Illinois to continue our Civic Imagination work as part of the "Define American Film Festival." Define American is a immigrant media and culture non-profit, founded by undocumented Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. The organization combines storytelling, media, and culture to influence public discourse and enact social change, particularly in the areas of immigrant rights, refugees, citizenship, and national identity. Notable projects include the documentary film "Documented" (2014) about Vargas' own immigration story, and the "Superman is an immigrant" campaign which tapped into comic books to spark conversation around identity and citizenship. On day two of the 3rd Annual Define American Festival, Civic Paths conducted a slightly modified version of our "world-building" workshop - meant to scale up for larger groups.
Learning to Imagine Together at Scale
Our team was set to facilitate a worldbuilding workshop with most of its core parts, mainly collective brainstorm and storytelling. However, expecting a slightly different venue in the form of a large auditorium and potentially more participants than usual, our team explored new ways to adapt our method to this occasion. The first modification came in the form of a real-time word-cloud-generating platform called MentiMeter, which allows users to submit one-word responses to a provided prompt via smartphone web browser. Once submitted, these responses are then displayed in real-time as word-clouds through a monitor or projector, with more frequently submitted words appearing larger. The idea was that this platform could allow our team to translate our usual whiteboard/butcher paper and marker brainstorm approach into a format more accomodating for larger groups. Potential prompts included: How do you define being "American" in 2060, in one word? What values should shape the world of 2060?
Read more here.
(photo of artist Bria Royal)
