Whilst NESTA has a duty to seek a return on funding that it provides through the Invention and Innovation Programme and will therefore usually seek to fund ideas where there is a clear commercial potential, we are also keen to look at projects which can demonstrate significant broader potential. This could be a particular social benefit or having the potential to make an important contribution to the arts or sciences. You might also use this section to tell us about any jobs that might be created as a result of your idea or educational aspects that we would like to know about.
Yes. There is an opportunity for this project to have lasting social benefit.
When the project succeeds it should promote a resurgence in thinking about sustainable living and individual creativity. The popular wisdom is that no individual can make a film or make a game on their own anymore. This is at a time when personal productivity tools, like software, have never been more powerful. The propagation of this myth is largely a construct endorsed by large companies to minimise the competition and sell product.
E.g. Walt Disney Corporation eagerly samples the world's myths and then vigorously enforces copyright over them (e.g. Aladdin, Hercules, Snow White, Pocahontas).
http://www.cultureby.com/books/plenit/html/Plenitude2p16.htm
Once this idea takes flight (and it will, given that people are increasingly participatory in their expectations of the world of entertainment), it could lead to a rise in general individual creativity, allow a degree of artistic freedom and playfulness to many peoples' lives (wannabe gamers, film-makers and others).
Traditional media legally permits little such freedom or seeks to constraint it to existing business models. Story-telling has suffered because of this. There is an opportunity through this project to explore a contemporary artistic dilemma shared by many. You want to make a connection with people through your art but to reach people, your individuality has to fit a channel. What if every story was technically its own channel?
There are few mass media messages that encourage sustainable living. Indeed there are plenty of messages suggesting that unsustainability is inevitable. A successful model for re-mixable film and interactive entertainment distribution could help reduce packaging waste by broaching the serious subject of re-cycling in a fun way.
The project adheres to my personal philosophy called the "massively multilingual movie". This is about creating a re-usable story template for others to use.
The overall aim is aspirational - to tell a positive story about a young girl's battles and eventual victory over disorientating technology. This can be done in a way that makes technology itself a little less disorientating.