The Collaboratory
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Given the centrality of democratic political participation to the maintenance of civil society, the protection and expansion of human rights, the redress of historical inequities, and the confrontation of global-scale crises such as climate change, it is the responsibility of those of us who are able to restore, renew, and "harden" democracy in the face of the socially atomizing technologies and borderless oligarchies that underwrite its present malaise. But what are the fixes we need? Drawing on expertise gained from designing participatory imagination projects, professors Kiki Benzon and Jeff Watson (School of Cinematic Arts) will guide collaboratory members through the polymathic process of conceiving, designing, and deploying a large-scale transmedia creativity and imagination experience to engage the USC community, selected visionaries from arts and industry, and the public at large in envisioning futures wherein democratic governance is resilient and expansive, and where authoritarian anti-democratic movements are returned to the dustbin of history where they belong.
