GUEST BLOG: Multimedia magazine 'Soul of Athens' reincarnates itself
By Kirsten Brownrigg, Guest Blogger
June 2, 2008 | 12:01 a.m.
After a year of inactivity, Athens County’s prize-winning multimedia Web site, "Soul of Athens," is ready to reawaken. This time, however, an almost entirely different team of producers and designers will be at its helm.
“It would be the same thing as if National Geographic were to let go of all of their staff and hire completely new people,” faculty advisor Stan Alost said.
In May 2007, the original site debuted to international acclaim and snared several awards in the process. The site’s convergence of video, sound and written word offered a revolutionary form of visual storytelling that left a lasting impression last year.
Terry Eiler, director for the School of Visual Communication, said they’re out to prove that stunning success wasn’t a onetime stunt.
“We landed with a new idea that was received incredibly well,” he said. “It was an assault of time. … This year it was a matter of trying to formalize the panic and find a way of breaking down the system so it could be a continuing program.”
Pressure is paramount, but this year’s team feels prepared to accept the mantle of accomplishments created by last year’s pioneers. Graduate student and producer Julia Marino, who worked last year as an undergraduate documenting the site’s creation, said the anticipation only drives them to succeed.
“A lot of people have talked about how we have really large shoes to fill,” Marino said. “But I think that we all are embracing that challenge and are excited to be working on something that has gained a lot of recognition and is doing something that is rather innovative.”
And the accolades are as numerous as they are noteworthy – from “Best Use of the Web” awarded by the National Press Photographers Association to a second place win at the Pictures of the Year International competition. For the “Best Use” award, Soul of Athens won out over The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and MSNBC, among others.
But there’s always room for improvement. Producer Kainaz Amaria said she and her colleagues tried to keep last year’s spirit “alive” while adding a whole new dimension to it.
“We want it to be a site where people can click and have some sort of relationship with this site, instead of just sort of sitting back and letting a story wash over them,” Amaria said. “We want them to be a part of that experience.”
Similar to last year, the site will illuminate personal stories through in-depth video and photo slideshows, but this year’s twist is the site’s interactivity, Amaria said. Blurbs about the stories will accompany galleries of beautifully captured images and clickable maps provide the audience with almost voyeuristic glimpses into the out-of-the-way corners of the county.
Another difference involves the theme that weaves in and out of the new version. Although last year’s site was a hodgepodge of stories that reflected the region’s patchwork diversity, all of its freshest content is organized around a focal point of wellness. Thanks to a communal emphasis on conservation and physical work, the community of Athens is rife with lessons on wellness, instructor and developer Eric Kramer said.
“Athens is very centralized,” Kramer said, describing the scenic bike paths that beckon residents to walk and bike. “It’s a way of living that’s good for the environment -- that’s good for your health.”
Other upgrades include a complete rebuilding of the site. Alost explained that developers had to completely rebuild the site, as it was not originally designed to support additional content. The original site will remain intact, but the newest creations will attach to it like a “new edition,” Alost said.
The site will also showcase “Dawn to Dusk,” the annual photography project within the School of VisCom, which has become a “special one-day event within Soul of Athens,” Eiler said.
Ultimately, this harmony of words, sights and sounds blend together to create a masterpiece of matchless narrative. The combinations are so effective, people will be changed after they visit the pages, Amaria said.
“One of the things we try to do as visual communicators is connect people that didn’t think they had anything in common,” she said. “It’s not really highlighting the differences, but showing people the similarities in the commonness of the human experience.”
Although the control center of the site is tucked away in Ohio’s Appalachia, Amaria said people living everywhere will appreciate their stories.
“Someone in L.A. or Texas or even Korea might be able to relate to a story that they’ve seen on the site,” Amaria said. “And that’s really the goal: to connect people.”
“The soul of people -- it’s very similar,” she concluded.
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