'Blank Spaces: An Interactive Timeline' Recognized by Broadcast Education Association

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Blank Spaces: An Interactive Timeline

Blank Spaces: An Interactive Timeline won Best of Festival in the Interactive Multimedia and Emerging Technologies Competition at the Broadcast Education Association's Festival of Media Arts. It was one of 19 entries out of over 1,500 submissions from more than 300 participating schools to win Best of Festival and was honored at the BEA 2022 Conference on April 25 in Las Vegas. It also won Best of Competition in the Interactive Reality Category.

Blank Spaces was a collaborative project between the U of A and Bentonville Film Festival. U of A students produced a 15-minute documentary about queer films and filmmakers over the last century, and assistant professor Ringo Jones created an augmented reality experience to bring a supporting timeline to life and tell the story of LGBTQ+ films from 1922 to present day. The collaboration was exhibited at 21c Hotel & Museum for a month last summer during the Bentonville Film Festival and will exhibit again May 19-22 at The Kaleidoscope LGBTQ+ Film Festival in Little Rock's Argenta Community Theater.

Reflecting on this recognition, Jones said, "We're honored to receive the award and excited about the potential of interactive media as a platform for storytelling. One of the key concepts of this project was to make the user experience as immersive as possible. We wanted to take the audience back to the Stonewall Riots and put them in the shoes of queer filmmakers over the last century. Even events we live through can take on new meaning when we bring them to life with augmented reality. Augmented reality is only just starting to scratch the surface of its capabilities, and as users become more accustomed to the technology, it can serve as a time machine back to historical events as well as a catalyst for empathy training."

The Broadcast Education Association is the premier international academic media organization, driving insights, excellence in media production, and career advancement for educators, students and professionals.