Ceremony and Story with Beatie Wolfe

Ceremony and Story with Beatie Wolfe

by | Feb 18, 2021 | Blog, Creative Innovators Podcast

Question: What if you could pursue the creative projects that you already saw in the world?

In this episode, Beatie Wolfe takes us through her creative journey to become the technologist and artist she is today. Back when she was 7 or 8, she began to imagine the “music books” (album covers) that she wanted over music and moved to reimagine the vinyl experience in her later work. She shares her journey through projects like “Raw Space” (the anti-stream in the quietest room in the world). She also discussed “From Green to Red” which she created for this year’s London Design Biennale, and ‘Postcards from Democracy” with Mark Mothersborough that will be a Featured Session at March 2021’s SXSW Online. Enjoy Beatie’s journey to create and re-create our ceremonial experiences around music in the real world.

 

Guest: Beatie Wolfe, Singer, Songwriter, Technologist (Photo: Ross Harris)

“Musical weirdo and visionary” (Vice)

Beatie Wolfe is an artist who has beamed her music into space, been appointed a UN role model for innovation, and held an acclaimed solo exhibition of her “world first: album designs at the V&A Museum. Named by WIRED as one of “22 people changing the world,”Beatie Wolfe is at the forefront of pioneering new formats for music that bridge the physical and digital, which include: a 3D theatre for the palm of your hand; a wearable record jacket – cut by Bowie and Hendrix’s tailor out of fabric woven with Wolfe’s music – and most recently an “anti-stream” from the quietest room on earth. Wolfe is also the co-founder of a “profound” (The Times) research project looking at the power of music for people living with dementia.

The Barbican recently commissioned a documentary about Beatie Wolfe’s pioneering work titled “Orange Juice for the Ears: From Space Beams to Anti-Streams” and Wolfe’s latest innovation is an environmental protest piece built using 800,000 of historic data that will be premiered at the London Design Biennale in 2021.

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Pirates, Magicians, and Wizards with Megan Elliott

Pirates, Magicians, and Wizards with Megan Elliott

by | Nov 18, 2020 | Blog, Creative Innovators Podcast

Megan Elliott shares her journey from Australia and indigenous cultural media to trade union representation in Ireland to traveling across Asia connecting leaders and cultures . . before she was found on LinkedIn to bring her superpowers to Nebraska. She tells of the shared collaborative creation of the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, which works to create “pirates, magicians, and wizards” who can reach their dream job or create their dream company right out of school.

Guest: Megan Elliott

Founding Director, Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Megan Elliott is the founding director of the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. She was previously the manager of leadership and community connections at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia and former director and CEO of digital media think-tank X Media Lab.

From 2015-2016, Elliott served as the manager of Leadership and Community Connections at the University of Technology Sydney in Sydney, Australia’s number-one young university, where she led an international program for students to develop leadership and entrepreneurial skills, as well as instilling a commitment to innovation, social justice, community building, and sustainability.

Elliott has deep ties to emerging media industries across Asia, Europe, and the world. She served as co-founder and director of China Creative Industries Exchange in Beijing and Shanghai, China, from 2007-2015.

From 2005 to 2015, Elliott was the director/chief executive officer for X Media Lab (XML), an internationally acclaimed digital media think-tank and creative workshop for the creative industries that she co-founded with Brendan Harkin. She also served from 2002-2006 as the executive director of the Australian Writers’ Guild.

Originally from Australia, Elliott received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Canberra in Bruce, Australia

Mentioned Links

Megan

Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln

 

Trust Your Calling with Christopher Hope

Trust Your Calling with Christopher Hope

by | Oct 8, 2020 | Creative Innovators Podcast, Blog

Christopher Hope, founder of The Loop Lab, joins Gigi Johnson on Creative Innovators to discuss media arts careers, equity, and creative empowerment. From producing music in Atlanta to mentoring youth in Cambridge, Hope’s journey shows how passion and purpose can shape community impact.

 

Empowering Youth Through Media Arts Careers

The Loop Lab provides training and apprenticeships in audio, video, and digital storytelling for young adults of color. By building both creative and business skills, the program opens pathways into industries where diverse voices are underrepresented. Hope explains how partnerships with organizations like WBUR and Audible extend opportunities beyond Cambridge.

 

From Hip-Hop Radio to Nonprofit Leadership

Hope’s early experiences as a DJ and host of Hip-Hope Radio shaped his vision for media as both art and activism. Through interviews with leaders like Dr. Cornel West, he developed a passion for storytelling that now fuels his nonprofit work. His story highlights how creative backgrounds can evolve into community leadership.

 

Scaling Creative Equity and Entrepreneurship

With programs ranging from production apprenticeships to entrepreneurship training, The Loop Lab encourages participants to trust their calling. Hope discusses the challenges of scaling hands-on media training, the shift to virtual programming, and how nurturing entrepreneurship creates long-term impact for youth and communities alike.

Listen to this episode to explore how mentorship, media arts, and equity intersect to create new futures for young people.

Highlights

  • “Our mission is empowering women and people of color in professional media arts.” — Christopher Hope
  • “Media became both my passion and my calling.”
  • “Loop Lab connects creativity with sustainable career opportunities.”
  • “We’re not just teaching skills, we’re building equity.”
  • “Mentorship can transform a young person’s entire trajectory.”

Guest: Christopher Hope, Founder and Exec. Director, The Loop Lab

Christopher Hope, CTS is the founder and executive director of The Loop Lab, a non-profit dedicated to empowering young adults of color to enter careers in the media arts industry in Cambridge, MA. Hope received his B.A. from Tufts University, and a Masters at Harvard Divinity School. He now serves on the board of advisors for the George Washingon University School of Business in D.C., for the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force in the Cambridge Mayors office, and on the community board of Lesley College of Art + Design. He is also an alumnus of the Creative Community Fellowship with the National Arts Strategies and has served on board of the South By Southwest festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.
Hope is also an accomplished audio-video professional and on-air DJ with a podcast and radio broadcast called “Hip-Hope Radio,” having interviewed guests like Dr. Cornel West.
The Loop Lab:

The Loop Lab is a Cambridge-based non-profit social enterprise specializing in media arts internships and digital storytelling. Their mission is to empower Womxn and People of Color in the media arts to develop careers in audio/video through job training and job placement. As an organization, they are committed to ending inequality and racism through digital storytelling.

Photo credit – Matt Malikowski/ The Loop Lab
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    Innovation is Messy with Jack Conte

    Innovation is Messy with Jack Conte

    by | Aug 28, 2020 | Blog, Creative Innovators Podcast

    Jack Conte blends the worlds of music creation (Pomplamoose and the funk band Scary Pockets) and solving creators’ problems with systems (crowdfunding and community with Patreon). He shares how he balances (or doesn’t balance at times) creating music with running a large tech business. He also shares what he has learned, how his companies have shifted with the work-from-home world shift, and how he has changed/staffed his own creative processes in this distributed era. His career journey has been an interesting mingling of music and science/technology, all the way back to his science teacher who got him interested (who he still connected with monthly over Costco pizza).

    Guest: Jack Conte, CEO and Co-founder of Patreon; band member of Pomplamoose and Scary Pockets

    Jack Conte is a musician, filmmaker, half of band Pomplamoose and Scary Pockets, and a co-founder at Patreon, a membership platform that makes it easy for creators to earn salaries directly from their biggest fans. Patreon was founded in 2013, and is on track to pay out more than $500 million to creators in 2019 alone.As a musician and filmmaker, Jack spent his days in a converted dog kennel-turned-recording studio in Sonoma County, making YouTube videos that have amassed over 120 million views. Now, he’s in full-time CEO mode at Patreon HQ in San Francisco where the company is paying millions of dollars to creators every month around the world. Jack also loves working with robots.

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    Everything Old is New Again with Ted Cohen

    Everything Old is New Again with Ted Cohen

    by | Aug 26, 2020 | Blog, Creative Innovators Podcast

    This week on the Creative Innovators with Gigi Johnson podcast, we are joined by Ted Cohen, who shared tales of doing things for the right reasons and seeing decades ago the dimensions of our current music streaming playlists and challenges. He talks about genuineness of artists vs. overproduction in livestreaming and concerts, pricing the risks of new markets, scarcity, negotiations, how business challenges repeat, and how some people don’t see or know the past launches in their very own businesses. He shares his search and joy for things that are “effing amazing” as a whole with elegant execution. And he shares the joy of paying it forward from those who got him started as mentors.

    Guest: Ted Cohen, Head of Development, Mediatech Ventures; Managing Partner, TAG Strategic

    Known as “part connector/part evangelist/always a futurist,” Ted Cohen is Managing Partner of TAG Strategic, an LA-based digital entertainment consultancy. Additionally, Ted is Head of Corporate Development for Mediatech Ventures, the Austin-based VC/incubator/accelerator. Previously, as SVP-Digital for EMI Music, Cohen led global digital business development. Prior to EMI, Ted led Consulting Adults, clients included Universal Studios, Amazon, Microsoft, and Napster. Cohen also held senior positions at both Warner Bros Records & Philips Electronics. A 40+ year digital entertainment industry veteran, Cohen created & chaired MidemNet and served on the Grammy National Trustee Board. Ted continually looks for the next innovative technology & his next challenge, he really loves his life.

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