Working to expand and have a forward-thinking edge in media, Sugar23 has appointed Douglas Rushkoff as its Futurist in Residence.
“We are thrilled to bring Doug in to the Sugar23 community and assist us and our clients to think through our approach to media and technology – both as story elements in their work, and platforms through which they deliver it,” Sugar23 founder Michael Sugar said. “We all have the responsibility to consider the social, cultural, and ideological impact of our collective work on society as we confront tremendous civilizational challenges.”
As a sounding board and professor for Sugar23, Rushkoff will help clients develop greater congruence between purpose and practice or help develop a more rigorous approach to their work. He will put to use his expertise of the digital space by assisting clients in understanding the changing shape of narrativity in the increasingly digital society and helping them brainstorm projects with story elements involving new technologies, future societies or speculative scenarios.
“We’ve finally arrived in the digital media environment, where the way we tell stories, distribute content, engage audiences, and even develop revenue streams must adapt to fundamentally different conditions and expectations. I can’t wait to help Michael and his clients navigate this shift,” Rushkoff said.
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Rushkoff has been labelled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as one of the world’s ten most influential intellectuals. He is an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy in the digital age and has published 20 books, including “Coercion,” “Team Human” and “Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now.” In his exploration of how different technological environments change our relationships to narrative, money, power and one another, Rushkoff coined the concepts “viral media” and “social currency.” He founded the Labratory for Digital Humanism at City University of New York, Queens, where is currently a professor of media theory and digital economics.