Tanya tells her experience of being an aspiring actress in 1998 in Chicago Illinois, a young women who because of the forces around her, helped shape an idea to start a Theatre Company. Her world of work was then controlled by the perceptions of others and their expectations of what she should be and what role she should play as a Latina Actress. Expectations that often judged her culture, her gender, her race and ethnicity. Expectations that didn’t showcase and champion her artistic talents or the life stories she felt were not being told. Instead they judged her – casting call after casting call. These experiences led Tanya to the idea of creating a theatre company.

Through a collaboration that started between Coya Paz and Tanya Saracho that grew into an ensemble of 10 women from diverse Latina/Hispana backgrounds, Teatro Luna in 2000 was born. A theatre company formed through on group of women each sharing stories and experiences, an ecological system of collaboration and cocreation based on sharing. The sharing of stories, from which the group learnt. Creating meaning in who they were, what they were doing and in this, created a voice and the power to share with hundreds of people who came to see their productions, the stories of Latina/Hispana women and their communities.

Why was this collaborative group so important to each of these women and the formation of the organisation that is known as Teatro Luna? Tanya states it very eloquently: “In the group there were no outside forces telling us women could not be funny.” It became a supportive and dynamic collaboration that evolved from the interactions of a group of artistic women, cocreating a creative process, a process formed from discussion, sharing and learning about the stories of others, stories of Latina/Hispana women with the central idea of telling these stories through the medium of Theatre.

Teatro Luna is Chicago’s first and only all-Latina theatre, organized for the purpose of exploring the varied experiences and cultures of Latina/Hispana women, showcasing their creative talents and telling the often political, social and emotional stories of their communities. This is a wonderful and insightful story on how collaboration through the power of stories when shared both within and outside our organisational communities, shared through communication, shapes us. And as I spoke about in my last blog post everything communicates not just the words we use.

Please share this video and the story of Teatro Luna.

Tanya Saracho from Arts Alliance Illinois on Vimeo.

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Kelly

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The first, the difference between brand and branding. He eloquently alludes to a brand as emergent from conversation, as organic through interactions over time, an image, and it is over time that these interactions shape our image of something – in this case a brand. That brand management is the process by which an emergent brand image is influenced – not controlled, and the role of public, private enterprises in this.

The second, the emergence of brand image. Brands have always been emergent, emergent over time in our minds in how we think, interact with and talk with others about them. However now with growing user-generated social technologies from Facebook to YouTube, Twitter and blogging platforms, a brand is not just emergent in our minds/perceptions or between other of our immediate social circles, but increasingly emergent from a partnership between public-private enterprises and the wider community on a mass scale. A brand is emergent from community conversations, community interactions, a social web of people bought together by their interest and/or action about a brand.

The third, the importance of brand community. This view of a brand emergent from community lends itself much to the the thinking of Albert Muniz and Thomas O’Guinn in their (2001) paper on Brand Community. Wherein a community sharing similar rituals and traditions, history and moral responsibility form a community around a brand, what they term a brand community. A community that regulates and inspires the brands meaning and in this can also harm the brand image.

And lastly, how everything communicates. Everything we do, say, share and cocreate communicates – be it the image of a person, place, organisation, movement, idea or product. These interactions cocreate meaning over time, something not new to social anthropologists interested in media and social research. However, today social and search technologies play an increasing role in their aggregation for search, retrieval and mass sharing.

As everything communicates, and social/search technologies give greater emphasis to the communities of conversations, with this comes new mindsets and digital social literacies. Literacies not just for professionals in organisational communication who attempt to ‘manage’ brand image (and more often than not think they own the brand and thus try to control it), but also the digital social literacies of personal-professional communication across most industries and professions – teachers, artists, politicians, nurses, doctors to name but a few.

In summary, this an interesting example and philosophy of emergent branding through/from community, using the example of Rebranding Greece. Here is the video. Please share.

Smiles

Kelly

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Dr David Theo Goldberg & Dr Heather Horst from UCHRI opened the conference outlining the digital media and learning initiative Digital Media and Learning Research Hub that was launched over 4 years ago with the idea to bring together scholars, practioners and society with a focus on ‘education and learning’ through, with and about digital media technologies.

With this they pose a number of questions for consideration over the new few days:

1. Are young people learning differently because of digital media?
2. What does learning or what will it look like over the next 5, 10 15, years?
3. How will/does education  prepare our children for the 21^st century?

Interesting questions to reflect on, which I’ll no doubt revisit on Sunday, when the conference has come to a close, but the conversation will surely continue. But here I raise perhaps another question to ponder about when thinking of participation and inclusivity in learning communities to include ‘ALL’ learners:

4. How will/does education (about, with and through digital media) prepare us (adults, teachers, educators, parents) for the 21st century and esp. for (youth) community engagement and learning?

Learning and education does not stop when we move beyond a youth classification. I’m excited by this focus of the conference, but also will reflect in the context of all communities – youth, younger adults, formal, informal for ‘life-long’ learning. Developing skills, knowledge and dare I say it ‘expertise’ for participation in these diverse learning communities about, through and with digital media.

Why? So we can ALL participate in this emerging socio-technical culture that is influencing learning and education, esp. with youth and younger adults who are more deeply emersed and participating.

Be it from an education, government, public policy or business community – developing skills and understanding learning and knowledge of digital media in ‘adult education’ (e.g., higher education, ongoing professional development), also calls for consideration. For can these communities of learning practice be separated? Should they? Or in effect … what can we learn from each other?

This is the very nature of participation in learning communities … we are all learning and educating …  and sometimes we (adults) are the student, sometimes the teacher … esp. when it comes to digital media!

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They want community members to debate theatre, to see and comment on theatre, and what goes on behind the scenes.

So what better way then to start in the digital space – through an online social network http://www.nationalthreatrewales.org

Creating a Digital NTW Community Network

NTW teamed up with NativeHQ to build an online community based on a Ning Network to enable an ongoing dialogue and conversation around theatre in Wales. It is an open network, so everyone can be part of the community be it audiences, actors, artists, directors, writers and collaborators.

Visual Design: Using the visual design by Elfen, it is clean and fresh, looking like an unfinished typed manuscript in style. Dotted lines represent no set-boundaries. It is not overbearing in clutter or too polished – it is raw! Albeit the use of a very bold colour scheme.

Navigational Design: In functionality it is clean and easy to use. Simple and meaningful naming conventions enable simpe page traversal and function navigation and use.

Value Design: In human value it provides a number of key functions to bring the community together. Often at these sites people ask ‘what can I do?’

Here members of the community can create a profile and connect to, blog about, discuss with, comment on, and share information, video, photographic content. They can share and converse about their craft. It is their space to have a voice about English language theatre in Wales.

With already 167 members, the community site that is the National Theatre Wales poses to engage and challenge even the most avid theatre buff!

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The Housewarming!

Last night in the Castle Arcade (Cardiff) was the housewarming for the National Theatre Wales (NTW) which included the launch of the theatres new online community network. From a branding, a technology and theatre perspective, this is very exciting!

Take a very inspiring and innovative theatre organisation (NTW), a passionate creative design team (Elfen), and a social web duo (NativeHQ), who understand what the social web is all about, and you get a fantastic meeting of minds, values and creative genius.

Together they have created http://www.nationaltheatrewales.org

The NTW Idea!

NTW is non-building based organisation with the aim to develop English-language theatre in Wales. From first impressions they value theatre as without boundaries, as social connections and as part of a community. Read the NTW newspaper for more insight:

[issuu layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml showflipbtn=true documentid=090520141257-392b9ba7d25f493bae0b33aaa62a5e2a docname=newspaper username=nationaltheatrewales loadinginfotext=National%20Theatre%20Wales%20Newspaper showhtmllink=true tag=respond width=420 height=304 unit=px]

Branding a Theatre Without Boundaries!

With Elfen, NTW wanted to create a visual brand identity that was fluid, flexible and represents the creative freedom of the new NTW.

What they created – three boxes with dotted lines – is fresh and provides a rawness that underpins creativity and community in theatre.

This is very rich in insight about theatre in Wales, especially in a time when many corporate design, entertainment and media houses favour glossy polished and fixed visual brand identities.

Why do they seek fixed and polished? Many are trying to communicate values of completeness and assure perfection in their offering. But we all know – theatre is not perfect or fixed, it is an experience! Every performance is different!

It is as if NTW and Elfen recognised that it is the community – wherever they are and whoever they are – thay define the theatre, not just a glossy visual brand on a page!

Visual Identity Development!

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