Wednesday, October 21, 2009

interactivity in contemporary culture: u2 at creative play

I am constantly intrigued by the way contemporary culture encourages interactivity and human creativity. Like U2’s recent announcement of a 1000 word partnership with here.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The band’s new BlackBerry App gives you the chance to tell the story of a U2 song through the images it inspires for you. We want you to mail us your images – and become part of U2’s mobile album.

1. You interpret. “The songs on No Line On The Horizon evoke different people and places, thoughts and ideas in every listener … Does Breathe take your breath away ? Got a pair of sexy boots ? What or who is Magnificent for you ? … Share the images you associate with certain songs.” In other words, U2 really do write multi-layered songs (scroll to 5th paragraph: I’m the “theological trained acquaintance and actively encourage the creativity of reader-response.

2. You point and shoot. ” Snap your Unknown Caller or capture a moment of Stand Up Comedy.” Because we live in a world awash with digital cameras and cellphones, which provide the vehicle by which interactivity is encouraged.

3. You send in. “All you have to do is select the photo which you think captures a particular song and then email it to us … and we’ll select some to tell the story of each track in the ‘Origami’ section of the Mobile Album. Maybe you’ll find your picture telling the story of one of a song…”

This has immediate transfer into church life.
1. A few months ago at our evening service the theme was Grow in the black of Easter Friday and the white of Easter Sunday. So we encouraged people to shoot digital photos of things, during the week, that inspired awe in them, which were then used the next week in worship.
2. Email out the lectionary text and invite people to send in images of what the text evokes in them. Montage these as the Lectionary text is being read.
3. Invite people to send in photos of their workplace, to be placed on the church website.

What else folks? What are you doing, what have you seen done, in which contemporary culture is utilised to encourage interactivity and human creativity?

Posted by steve at 03:07 PM

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