In Conversation: The Next Generation of Interactivity and Storytelling
Talk · USC Center on Public Diplomacy, Annenberg, 2022
A short clip from David Van Eyssen’s conversation with Dr. Jay Wang, Director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, at the 2022 Ameri Prize award event, held by the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California on 8 November 2022.
The Ameri Prize
The Ameri Prize for Innovation in Public Diplomacy is awarded each year by the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at USC Annenberg. Launched with the U.S. Department of State in 2021 and endowed by Goli Ameri, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, it recognizes U.S. foreign and civil service officers whose creative, scalable initiatives advance public diplomacy around the world. The 2022 prize went to Alys Spensley of the U.S. Foreign Service, for her data-driven reinvention of engagement with Chinese audiences at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Van Eyssen’s conversation was the featured program of the award event.
The conversation
As the internet enters its next phase, deeper digitization is changing how people connect and how they experience the world. The conversation looked at what that means for storytelling: how emerging platforms and tools can reimagine long-standing practice, why it matters to build real storytelling capacity, and what the metaverse might open up for public diplomacy, from policy communication to cultural exchange.
Introducing the talk, the Center described Van Eyssen as “a recognized pioneer in new forms of art and entertainment”, among the first to make critically acclaimed dramatic series for the web, with a background spanning painting, commercial and creative direction, games, series creation and digital art.
