On Friday, April 12, 2013, the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television is teamed up with USC Annenberg School of Communication and USC School of Cinematic Arts for the Transmedia, Hollywood 4: Spreading Change conference. Presented by the Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. foundation, the theme of the conference was “Spreading Change”.  The event was held at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM and was followed by a reception.

Transmedia entertainment has been advanced within the Hollywood system primarily through a logic of promotion, audience building, and engagement, offering the ideal tools for capturing the imagination of networked audiences through the creation of immersive and expansive imaginary worlds. As transmedia has spread around the world, especially to countries with a much stronger tradition of public media, these same practices have been embraced as a means not of building fictional realms but of spreading change throughout the world.

Voices from the Colosseum, an experimental project spearheaded by the UCLA Center for Research in Engineering, Media, and Performance (REMAP) and MEDIARS, invites participants to work through media on cultural sites. This project creates engaging non-linear storytelling media based on historical scenes (known and unknown to the most) on the Colosseum using video streaming, HTML5 technology and mobile phone combined with storytelling and cultural elements.

As you are capturing the Colosseum as well as surrounding sites with your media device, such as a smartphone, you will receive a short video clip pertinent to what you are capturing with your device. The project does not intend to distract the visitor from looking at the Colosseum, but similar to the example provided by The Forbidden City, wishes to add an invisible layer to the historic place, creating a new playful experience. It’s an entertaining application that analyzes the ongoing visit and presents the contents in a personalized way. It also identifies a set of “responsive objects” that are the keys create links between the virtual world of myths and the reality of the historical site.

The project is directed by Alessandro Marianantoni and is in partnership with Google Goggles and UCLA’s Experiential Technologies Center (ETC).

Find out more about the project and the free iPhone/Android app on the Voices From the Colosseum website.