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on May 3
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Posted project update #13Work in progress...
Post CommentHello Everyone,
We have a good deal to update you on. We had a bump in the road with our creative team. Although all of us really tried to make it work, we ultimately had different visions for what these ideas should accomplish and how. So we decided to part ways.
The team we were working with created beautiful and consistent design, we just didn’t feel that the design accomplished what we set out to do. It’s a tall order to make big ideas feel like they are approachable and personal. These ideas are designed to fundamentally change who we think we are and what we imagine we are capable of. For that, the people that open this app need to feel that these ideas are about them. That they are about their lives and the contribution that they can make to the ongoing human project.
We turned to our community of backers and something really great happened. One of our backers connected us with Filmworks Dubai and The Chimney Pot, the teams involved in making and producing Mission Impossible IV. To make things more approachable, we all decided to involve our backers.
So about three weeks ago at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, 25 of our backers living in the Middle East showed up for a video and photo shoot in an unassuming garage that was temporarily converted into a film set near the beach in Dubai. One by one we appeared in front of the big, white lights and somewhat intimidating camera to narrate the story for the videos for the HUMAN Questions section. Between the pizza deliveries and our director’s relentless pursuit to capture just the right take, we stayed until 2 o’clock in the morning. Jason Silva is the narrator of the HUMAN Identity section. All of these videos are in post-production with Filmworks and Chimney Pot. This is a CSR project for them—an amazing act of generosity. As you can imagine they are an incredibly busy team, and so the work schedule is coordinated around their schedule, not ours.
Other volunteers connected us with three designers (Leo Chida, Nandini Nair, Mashrur Nabi) that use design for social change. It's a great match of values and aesthetics.
We felt like the music for this experience needs to be somewhat unexpected and fresh. Reiner Erlings caught our ear with this sound track that opened TEDxDubai this year. You can see his other work on his website. When all the video content is complete, Reiner will begin composing.
Ash Banerjee, Dan Dimmock, and Evgeunia Demenko (all backers we met through Kickstarter) are helping us plan for a soft launch in July. Ash and Dan work in branding and Evguenia studies cultural movements. Here’s how it’s going to work. First, we’ll release the app to you guys, our community of backers and volunteers. We’ll ask you to check it out, test for bugs, report back what you think. Once we make sure it all works, we’ll release the content to a wider audience. Shortly thereafter, all content from the app will go up online so those who don’t have an iPad can experience it too. And then we'll start laying out the book.
If you’d like to get involved in any of the current work streams, let us know. Coordinating across completely different time zones with a largely volunteer team who all have day jobs isn’t easy, but we’re finding ways to make it work. And in the process… we’re all getting to hang out with great new people.
Best,
Erika and Anna
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on February 22
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Posted project update #12Where we are at...
Post CommentOur dearest backers,
As many of you have noticed, we are now 2+ months behind our original schedule with publishing of the app. We are truly sorry for the delay and would like to share exactly where we are at.
To us, this project is not just a work of passion. We believe that we humans need to start seeing ourselves as one species, start thinking bigger about our future, dream bigger dreams. It's become the central purpose of our lives to influence the global public discourse in that direction.
Our first step is to put forward a set of new ideas, new language and new ways to think about the challenges we now face as a species. Give people something to react to, something to engage with, something to talk about. The content we started out with was intended for thought leaders and written in academic language and therefore had limited reach. In the process of developing the creative concept for the app, we realized that to best deliver on our goals, we needed to both transform our content and use formats that are best suited for spreading in the interconnected world of the 21st century: short video.
So the current concept of the app is rich in video (11!) and we have been busy re-writing all text to be accessible to people without earlier understanding of the global agenda. Let's just say it has been and continues to be a steep learning curve for everybody on the team. We've been extremely fortunate to have several of the backers volunteer ideas, practical and emotional support throughout the last many months. To adequately describe the contributions of the following backers would add up to a novel that would make anybody's heart sing! Lidia, Amanda, Gail, Orrin, Natascia, Giorgio, Helene, Zafer, Terri, Irma, Jason, Ash, Dan, Eugenia, Glistening, Serge, Mahmoud... THANK YOU!
We are close to the finish line. Doing final text edits. Have a few more videos to finish in post-production. Most of the app development has been completed and will be translated into a web-based app as well, so anybody with a browser will be able to experience it, not just iPad owners. We still need to do the book design. All in all, it will take us another 4-8 weeks.
We have fallen behind on our schedule but we are forging ahead with a creative concept that we believe will better help us to reach our goals!
Yours gratefully,
Erika, Anna, Michael, Luke, Bethany & Lion
P.S. Your T-shirts and jackets have been shipped, thanks to the support from Amanda and Orrin.
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on February 2
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Posted project update #11T-shirts & Jackets
For backers only
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on January 17
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Posted project update #10On the move...
Hello Everybody,
We've launched the site that will house the HUMAN project app.
We've heard back from TED's Ads Worth Spreading. "Who are we?" is in the running for the prize. Winning could really help advance the idea that it is time that we humans have a conversation about our future. The winning ads will be featured at the TED Conference in Long Beach and be appended to the end of the videos on TED.com for one week. If you'd like to vote for "Who Are We" or any of the other ads, click here.
More to come soon...
Erika, Anna, Michael, Lion, Bethany, Jason, Luke, Micah, Lidia
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on December 30
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Posted project update #9HUMAN Identity
Post CommentHello Everyone,
Happy New Year! We've submitted one of the videos from the HUMAN project app to TED's Ads Worth Spreading. This is the intro to HUMAN identity, which has been slightly repurposed so as to function as a teaser.
"It’s quite subtle. Nearly imperceptible. Not where we might think of looking first: how we see ourselves—our identity—shapes our future as a species. So let’s tell a story about ourselves—let’s build a cultural identity—that moves us to dream bigger, learn faster.... go places, evolve into something even better."
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on December 25
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Posted project update #8T-shirts & Jackets
For backers only
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on November 28
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
backed a project
Genegrafter by Erik Dahlman
A superhero themed card and dice game designed to be easy to learn but hard to master.
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584% funded $14,617 pledged
- 274 backers
- Funded Jan 20, 2012
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on November 21, 2011
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Posted project update #7The Human Project at TEDxDubai
Post CommentAt the beginning of the 21st century we humans find ourselves in a bit of an existential pickle. Some of us are even placing bets that we will not live to see the 22nd century. We think that it all depends on who you see when you look in the mirror.
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on November 18, 2011
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Posted project update #6HUMAN Project App in Production
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Gina Beck on November 19, 2011
Brilliant ~ thanks for the update Erika and Anna, it looks like you've a great team to get this project off and running!!!
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on October 18, 2011
Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Posted project update #5Under Construction...
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Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Erika Ilves and Anna Stillwell are the co-authors of The Human Project App. They blend a unique ability to structure problems and scale solutions—honed through their experience as management consultants designing large-scale performance transf... view more
Awesome to be in the tribe - time for an iPhone! Thank you all for making it possible :) Best from #SiliconSaxony - a great place on the edge, check it out next time you are around or on your iPhone ;-)