Academia
I have more than 25 years of experience working with students and love creating spaces for everyone to expand their mind, knowledge and beliefs.
Right now, I’m a Senior Lecturer at University College London (UCL). Before that, I was an MA course leader at Westminster University and worked as a lecturer and researcher at the University of the Arts London (UAL). My academic research lies at the intersection of digital media, immersive narratives, agency and impact.
Lately, I have become interested in the art and science of media storytelling for social change and participated in a research about Impact Storytelling for UAL's AKO Storytelling Institute. It opened my eyes to the complex craft of impact production and on the strategic and long time lenses of societal narrative change.
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I've watched technology evolve from Web 1.0 to participatory and mobile media, and now to immersive headsets and AI. Even though the tech has changed, my focus remains the same: how can we use storytelling to transform ourselves and our shared world? How can we create digital stories that matter?​​​
"The stories we tell create the worlds we inhabit" Sam Rye
I love mapping and researching ideas
till one truly resonates
and becomes ready to be shared
Selected projects
Here are some projects that particularly helped me grow, in one way or another
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Blabla time podcast
I created this podcast to help students self-coach themselves during periods of stress and self-doubt. It is designed to be used as a toolbox and mixes practical advice, coaching exercises and calming visualisations.
​The idea is to select a specific topic (fear of the blank page, not feeling good enough, etc.) and then take 15 to 20 minutes to face it in a positive and self-caring way.
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Blabla time blends two passions of mine: education and coaching.
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Impact storytelling report
This report is is an essential resource for storytellers, artivists, students, scholars, and impact practitioners interested in storytelling for social change.
It maps the structure of the impact storytelling ecosystem both in the UK and internationally, identifying its key players, engaging with current live debates, and examining how to foster collaboration in a still fragmented field.
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Through this report I learned how complex designing for impact can be.
i-docs book
This book came out of a series of i-Docs symposiums we organised at UWE, Bristol, between 2012 and 2018.
It looks at the creative practices, purposes and ethics that lie behind interactive documentary and addresses a range of platforms and environments, from web-docs and virtual reality to mobile media and live performance.
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I loved the collaboration with the i-Docs community and this book is a tribute to the exciting work we have done together.
WHAT IF IT process
This practical booklet offers a step-by-step methodology for interactive storytelling ideation, which was developed from the !F Lab workshop. Over the course of four years, we explored various design, coding, and storytelling approaches across Europe, ultimately creating this unique blend of techniques.
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I use this methodology a lot in workshops and in class. It is simple, and it works!
Corona Haikus project
Corona Haikus is a collaborative project that used visual haikus from people around the world to document lockdown and create a global community of support in times of isolation. It is a transmedia project that includes a website, a Facebook page, a book and several short films.
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The beauty of the visual poetry we crafted as a community continues to resonate in my heart to this day.
Digital Me
Digital Me is an online experience created for BBC Taster.
It uses your computer screen, a webcam, your postcode, your Facebook login, your Twitter feed, semantic analysis, statistics, to thread a delicate path between creepy and revelatory, posing the question “What would it be like to have a private conversation with your public, digital self?”.
Our relationship with our digital personas fascinates me and remains one of the unresolved challenges of our time.
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