ETC@USC Multiverse Challenge
and
Student/Executive Multiverse Discussion
On March 29, 2022 USC students were invited to participate in the USC Entertainment Technology Center’s Multiverse Challenge.
The Challenge was to describe, in 250 words or less, a creative way to redesign, repurpose, or use an existing technology, process, or business model in a new way to create something that the world hasn’t seen before.
31 undergrad and graduate students from Cinema, Engineer, Business, Journalism, Iovine & Young Academy, and Arts & Sciences submitted ideas by the April 14, 2022 deadline.
Six senior executives from the ETC@USC member companies selected six submissions (link to document) and the students were invited to participate in a May 17, 2022 Zoom discussion of the Multiverse and related topics with them and other ETC@USC member-company executives.
Here is an 8 minute highlight reel of the ETC@USC Student/Executive Multiverse Zoom Discussion.
Here is the full 1-hour ETC@USC Student/Executive Multiverse Zoom Discussion video.
The Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC)
Wednesday, February 16th, 1:30-4:45pm PT
As the culture, art, and commerce spaces rebalance to incorporate blended physical and virtual options, it is clearly important that we understand early on how changes will impact our business and creative endeavors.
Our speakers spend their days thinking about how the emerging metaverses will impact creativity, business development, and the fabric of society.
This is an ETC Digital Town Square symposium with support from Kinestry
Program
1:30 Introduction, Phil Lelyveld, ETC@USC
1:33 Eric Holdener and Rachel Joy Victor, Kinestry, “How to produce human-centered experience storytelling in the Multiverse?” (Preview (2 minutes))
2:00 Edward Saatchi, Fable Studio and The Culture DAO, “The future of art, creativity, and support for artists in the metaverse” (Preview (2 minutes))
2:30 Krista Kim, artist, interviewed by Eric Holdener and Rachel Joy Victor, “The Techism art movement, which reconciles technological innovation with the creation of art” (Preview (2 minutes))
3:00-3:15 coffee break
3:15 Caitlin Burns, Palm NFT Studio, “Non-Fungible Relationships: What Do NFTs Mean for the Future of IP?” (Preview (2 minutes))
3:45 Catherine Henry, Media.Monks, “How Brands can prepare to enter the Metaverse” (Preview (2 minutes))
4:15 Robert Tercek, futurist, consultant, author, “Will We Be Citizens or Subjects of the Metaverse?” (Preview (2 minutes))
FULL VIDEOS and speaker info below
- Phil Lelyveld (Moderator) ETC@USC Immersive Media Initiative program lead
Suggested links
Entertainment Technology Center @ USC website – www.etcenter.org
Entertainment Technology Center @ USC news site – www.etcentric.org
Philip Lelyveld
- “How to produce human-centered experience storytelling in the Multiverse?”
- Eric Holdener, Founder & CEO, and Rachel Joy Victor, Director of Strategic Insight & User Experience at Kinestry, an Innovation Studio. Eric & Rachel provide Sense-Making for consumer-facing companies approaching the Metaverse and NFTs. The pair have already educated and led Strategy Design for Nike, VF Corp, and, on the 25th, for Activision. Answering key questions including “How to navigate this new space?” and “How to produce human-centered experience storytelling in the Multiverse?”
Kinestry website = https://kinestry.io/
Eric Holdener is an innovation strategist. He spent over 12 years with Nestle, a Fortune 100 company, in numerous functions both in Switzerland and in the USA. His experience includes driving business and technology transformation initiatives, launching products, conducting large-scale LEAN initiatives and partnering with executive leadership teams on strategic projects to deliver organic growth. He introduced Design Thinking and developed innovative tools to help organizations visualize value and improve their performance. His passion and expertise in organizational alignment, innovation design, and disruptive technologies make him a versatile and strategic thinker who likes to operate in any environment.
Eric Holdener
Rachel Joy Victor, Director of Strategic Insight & User Experience at Kinestry, is a strategist and designer exploring interaction and engagement in the context of emerging culture and technology. Her strategy work aligns brand, product, and content strategy, centering user engagement and experience throughout. She designs for the breadth of the new content life cycle: from narratives and immersive experiences to tools and platforms to spaces and cities. Rachel draws from a degree in computational neuroscience and a worldbuilding perspective to align emergent systems and human behavior in her work. She has consulted for Disney, HBO, Warner Bros, and Ford, among others.
Rachel Joy Victor
- “The future of art, creativity, and support for artists in the metaverse”
- Edward Saatchi, founder of Fable Studio and organizer of The Culture DAO will speak on the future of art, creativity, and support for artists in the metaverse
Suggested Links
The Culture DAO launches the $CULTUR social token at the Virtual Beings Summit
Edward Saatchi
- “The Techism art movement, which reconciles technological innovation with the creation of art”
- Krista Kim, founder of the Techism movement, contemporary artist, and Mettaverse world builder who has had large scale public installations around the world and will discuss the Techism art movement, which reconciles technological innovation with the creation of art.
Kinestry’s Rachel Joy Victor and Eric Holdener will interview Krista. They will start with the latest piece of Continuum that is live in Times Square right now. Krista will then introduce herself and talk about Techism and her vision on the Metaverse. She will talk about the Mars House Genesis, the acceleration of the Metaverse and NFT space, and the place of artists in the conversation around Brand Franchise.
Suggested Links
Artist Interview – Understanding Techism, Krista Kim (2019)
Krista Kim’s website and techism manifesto
Artist Krista Kim sells “first NFT digital house in the world” for over $500,000 (45 sec. video) She discusses the thoughts and goals behind her design and pricing of the house (“what is the concept of value?”) on this ‘NFTs for Architects’ podcast (timecode 5:40-8:04)
Krista Kim is a contemporary artist and founder of the Techism movement (2014), whose work explores the concept of the digital consciousness. Her interest in digital technology and its revolutionary effects on human perception, media, social structures, and communication had led her to work in both digital and physical realms. Having developed her signature language of shifting gradients using digital software since 2012, her works on glass and plexi hypnotize its viewers into a trance of tranquility while her video works provide meditative experiences of color and light.
Most recently in 2020, during the Coronavirus lockdown, Kim continued to explore the creative potential to utilize screens as digital instruments of well-being by creating ‘Mars House’: a completely virtual environment using her digital zen philosophy as the first “Metaverse home” for sale as an NFT in history in March, 2021. The piece received global acclaim and in March 2021 was the highest-grossing sale on an NFT on SuperRare.
In 2014, as a response to society’s over-reliance on technology, she started the Techism Movement, a philosophy that recognizes technological innovation as an artistic discipline, encouraging artists to promote digital humanism for our digital culture.
Krista Kim was chosen by Louis Vuitton as a #Louis200 visionary in celebration of Louis’ 200th birthday; contributing Metaverse Editor for Singapore Vogue; Top 30 Most Influential People of the Metaverse by Read and Write Magazine; Architectural Digest AD100, NFTy50 by Fortune Magazine. Kim made an iconic collaboration with Lanvin in 2018. In 2021, Kim collaborated with Mercedes Benz EQS and she was part of the “Proof of Art” exhibition at Francisco Carolinum Museum (Linz, Austria). Kim was creative director for the Utah Jazz NBA Team, “JazzXR” campaign, the first Sports Team Metaverse NFT in history. She was also in a curated auction by Steve Aoki at Sotheby’s and a curated auction for Christie’s by nftnow. Mars House is exhibited at the Hermitage State Museum, “Ethereal Aether” in 2021.
Krista Kim
- “Non-Fungible Relationships: What Do NFTs Mean for the Future of IP?”
- Caitlin Burns, Director of Story at Palm NFT Studio, will discuss the future of storytelling between audiences and franchises in: Non-Fungible Relationships: What Do NFTs Mean for the Future of IP?
Suggested Links
Non-Fungible Relationships: “What Do NFTs Mean for the Future of Franchises?”
Caitlin Burns on LinkedIn
Palm NFT Studio website, Palm.io
Caitlin Burns is the Director of Story for Palm NFT Studio, where she’s responsible for leading teams of creators building new experiences for original and major franchise IP using NFT platforms and mechanics. A globally recognized expert in franchise storytelling, experience design and brand strategy. She has spent more than a decade creating multiplatform content strategies for well-known IP, Brands and institutions including: Pirates of the Caribbean, Descendants and Tron Legacy for Disney, James Cameron’s Avatar for Fox, Halo for Microsoft, The Happiness Factory for The Coca-Cola Company, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon and Transformers for Hasbro, Dexter for Showtime, and UNICEF Kid Power.
Previously serving on the Board of the Producers’ Guild of America’s New Media Council for 6 years, with 3 as Vice Chair, Caitlin is recognized as a global specialist in emerging media production and sustainable development. You can find more about her work here.
Caitlin Burns
- “How Brands can prepare to enter the Metaverse”
- Catherine D Henry, SVP Growth: Metaverse & Innovation Strategy at Media.Monks will speak on How Brands can prepare to enter the Metaverse: identifying near-term opportunities to translate digital strategies to virtual worlds to drive engagement and traction
Suggested Links
How Brands launch NFTs and what to expect next – video and pdf
Making sense of the Metaverse (6 minute read)
Creating an Ethical Metaverse (pdf)
The Future is Fast and Slow: 6 Metaverse Trends you Should Know Now
- “Will We Be Citizens or Subjects of the Metaverse?”
- Robert Tercek, futurist, consultant, and the author of the internationally best-selling book Vaporized, will examine the economic drivers that will shape the Metaverse. The talk will raise questions about the rights of human participants in corporate-designed and -controlled worlds. Tercek wants to examine the question of whether we will unconsciously replicate the artifacts of neo-colonialism in virtual worlds.
Tercek’s talk will examine the economic drivers that will shape the Metaverse, and it will raise questions about the rights of human participants in corporate-designed and -controlled worlds. He wants to examine the question of whether we will unconsciously replicate the artifacts of neo-colonialism in virtual worlds.
Robert Tercek