Everyone Can Be Web-Native

Last semester I taught a web projects class in Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts MFA program that, in addition to covering some CSS/HTML and web design production basics, focused on web native storytelling. The students in the program are mostly already kick-ass non-fiction media makers and so I was excited to see what they would do when confronted with a web-based platform. Two of the newest and most user friendly tools we looked at that allow for nearly instant web-native gratification are Zeega (still in alpha) and Mozilla’s Popcorn Maker (a GUI for working with their popcorn.js library). A few folks tried out Zeega. Here are just three of the great projects that came together in class (best viewed in Chrome or Safari):

Camilla: An Interactive Fairytale by Ryan Daniels
An observational, interactive story about a girl who grew up in an upper class household in Brasil and is confronted with her complex identity.

The Egg Trade by Laura Hadden
Audio interviews reflecting different perspectives on the egg donor industry.

The Haitian Situation by Tennessee Watson
A painting made as a gift is an animated interface for an interview with an American Colonel who was responsible for Haitian refugees at Guantánamo Bay in the early 90s. The non-interactive version can be seen at the Guantánamo Public Memory Project.