BAF13 - RSA

The RSA talk was kind of interesting, I'm not gonna lie (even though I feel like I should be honest and tell I also may or may not have fallen asleep at some point. ehem.)

Sara Wishart, an online innovation developer, was telling about what the RSA is doing. The Royal Society of Art makes students resolve world issues through design through competitions. The briefs of the Student Design Awards this time are Creative conditions, Moving pictures, Water for all, The daily diet, Human by nature, Fair play, Mobility city and Heritage by design. The awards challenge emerging students to tackle real-world social, economic and environmental issues through design thinking. They encourage animators to communicate world changing ideas though curiosity briefs.

Judging criteria consists of the following:
- Social and environmental benefit: 15%
- Research: 20%
- Design thinking: 20%
- Execution: 15%
- Magic: 30%

Animation needs to speak to social impact: for example, Greenpeace using Lego against Shell.

One of the shorts shown was The Power Of Empathy



The short uses the audio of a lecture about empathising with others instead of trying to give people useless advices. I must admit, it spoke to me in a way animation shorts usually don't. I watch a lot of shorts in my free time on internet but most of the time they are just for entertainment. Using the audio of a lecture discussing such an important issue which a lot of people deal with on a daily basis, gives the the short another vibe, while still being entertaining.
Another fun thing I liked about the video is that the animation style which at a first glance really reminded me of Julia Pott, an animator who also uses recorded audio of, in her case, conversations she ignited with people to tell their stories.