“
The key
brand for
most
people is
themselves
”
34
|
ISSUE 1 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
went to University of
Westminster film school. It
was the first London film
school where you could
specialise in digital and
interactive media. When I
got out, I started an art
collective called Antirom, which
was kind of a rebellion against CD-
ROMs. At the time, all these
publishers were making CD-ROMs,
putting books on CD-ROM’s, but we
were a lot more anarchic than that.
We thought the reality was that
there’s a new form that isn’t just
putting books on screen. So we
started an arts collective that
became a company.
We worked with Levis and
companies like that. Then we
closed that down and I went to
Tomato, which is a graphic design
collective. I carried on doing
interactive stuff and working with
filmmakers. I worked on the
opening titles of
Trainspotting
. I
haven’t been able to retire. I never
went into the world of pure web
development. I was more in the
experimental world.
We’ve all seen that music and
publishing was all radically
changed by digital. But TV hasn’t
yet. So we started The Rumpus
Room based on what’s going to
happen to TV.
Our process started by making
interactive films – and we realised
that nobody cared. Then we started
making content with the audience
and that started feeling like a really
interesting area of activity, because
it had social value. It generated
value both in the creation and in
the content that you were accessing.
And it also had a kind of different
spirit compared to how content is
usually created for those spaces.
It’s a transactional relationship.
You must be giving people back
more than they’re putting in. That
has to be. You can do that with
prizes, or maybe you get on TV if
you’re good, but if the idea is good
enough, it should be generating
enough value for people socially for
them to participate.
Is anyone with access to a camera
and a web connection in some
sense a broadcaster?
We are in the same way that we all
became graphic designers when
desktop publishing came out. There
were suddenly lots of bad graphic
designers around!
But technology throws up all
sorts of things, doesn’t it? It makes
you realise how television is such a
construct. Why must everything be
a half-hour or 60 or 90 minutes? I
think it is interesting how people’s
ability to create something, people’s
passion to create something, is
really greater than we all expected.
At The Rumpus Room we talk
about the ‘Ikea Effect’. People value
things that they have made more
than other people might value
those things. So if you participate in
creating something, you perceive
its value as higher than other
people do.
A lot of the work we do at The
Rumpus Room is based on the idea
that if we get some people in to
create some content, then they’re
more likely to share it. They
participate in this creation.
My friends generate lots of
realtime content that I find
interesting and relevant because
they’re my friends, in a way that
broadcasters could never do. The
key brand for most people is
themselves. And a lot of the work
that we do is helping them promote
themselves. Or helping brands help
people promote themselves.
Tom Roope, Founder and Creative Director of award-winning
design firm The Rumpus Room, has been a creative pioneer
since the early years of digital content. Brands from Google to
the International Olympic Committee have sought out the
innovation and engagement that The Rumpus Room has
become renowned for
WHERETHESTORY
ENDS
I
THE CHANNEL
|
DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT
