Day 32: The dialogue has ended, but everyone’s journey continues

4:35 a.m., that is the time when I wake up. After three minutes’ consideration, I continue my sleep. On the last day of the dialogue, we need to do a final presentation to talk about how we connect the things we learned before in Toronto with the reward from Sheffield Doc/Fest.

At 3:25 p.m., I arrive our classroom at 133 Charles Street, Sheffield Hallam University to make sure I would not be late since this is the last BIG day in Sheffield. Applying to the rule, our group — Building a Better Bloor-Dufferin with honor to share our experience with our friends. The two guests — Colin Pons, a course leader at Sheffield Hallam University and Tamar Millen, an events manager at Sheffield City Council, plus Professor David Tames with classmate are listening to our findings from the whole program. To be honest, all of the four presentation are so awesome that results in a series of enthusiastic discussions and debates between commentators and speakers. 

The “Convenience Stores” group is doing a presentation about their target audience.. Photo by Ronnie.

A big applaud means the class is totally over, almost everyone heads to Novotel Hotel where we will have a buffet dinner that can satisfy both meat lovers and vegetarians. People are sharing the experiencing at the table, from the small talk, and then every body becomes more familiar with the festival. After finishing the good meal, we truly say goodbye to the program: Canada and England: Alternative Realities (Immersive Storying).

The keyword about Sheffield’s trip is Immersive. How to make a good story? How to tell a story? How to engage audience? How to make viewer immerse in the story? As a media maker or a storyteller, those are important or essential insights for doing a successful storytelling. Celia Pierre, a professor in Game Design department at Northeastern University, Tames, and Pons, all of three experienced media makers were sharing a lot of experience about storytelling skills and concepts, and the application made by Virtual Reality as well as Augmented Reality with us. During the Sheffield Doc/Fest, we watched plenty of documentaries, and experienced most of the good experimental works in Trafalgar Warehouse’s Alternative Realities’s section, like Manic VR, Mind At War, The Day the World Changes and so on. Interview makers and write art critical reviews is another practical way to learn more about the makers and their works. Because you will learn more if you ask questions. In short, the days in Sheffield help me think a lot about VR, how should I use VR instead of just wanting to use it in my work.

Most of us will depart for their destinations from this following station — Sheffield Railway Station. This is the end of the program, but everybody who is armed with thought from the dialogue will continue going on the road. See you all, and miss you all.

Sheffield Railway Station. Credit to Wikimedia Commons.