As we count down the days until Media That Matters 2014, check the CMSI blog to learn more about our #MTMDC panelists and why they engage with media that matters.
Daniel Burwen, Creative Director at Cognito Comics, will be speaking at Media That Matters 2014 on the panel Image Matters: Graphic Ways to Visualize policy, history, news and more. Here is his story.
1. What do you do? How is your work breaking new ground?
I am a creative director and thought leader on interactive storytelling. I experiment with new ways to bring interface and agency to new formats of storytelling, with the intention of providing more emotional impact than traditional passive mediums.
2. How did you get where you are? What have you done in the past?
I have had a lengthy career in visual media, from graphic design to video game production to interactive comics with my studio.
3. What current or future projects do you want to tell us about?
My new work focuses on how to bridge 2D and 3D into new formats on the iPad and mobile devices.
4. What do you think makes media a powerful tool for change?
It’s how we communicate in the modern age, and as such, can be a huge influence on what we think, and what we know. Media is just well-presented information.
5. Have you personally experienced a situation in which media made a positive difference? Tell us about it.
Sure, it was first the media treatment of the second Iraq war and 9/11, and later All the Shahs Men and Overthrow, that got me interested in the relationship between the US and other countries / governments. I wanted a voice of my own. Operation Ajax became my voice.
6. Why do you want to speak at Media That Matters?
I think it’s important to represent all sides of media, especially the aspects that are experimental and on the bleeding edge. Given how quickly things change with technology (and I consider my work a marriage of art and technology), you can’t talk about media without talking about tech these days.
Meet Daniel and other innovative media-makers at the Media That Matters conference this February. If you haven’t signed up yet, visit the registration page.