The folks at GOOD have always made playfulness a part of their video strategy, creating informative web content that avoids didacticism by using, for example, a naked girl’s body to relay facts about Internet porn, or an animated host to read the news. And while their newest series, Inventions, aims more for entertainment than education, its creativity and cleverness proves to be surprisingly inspiring.
Inventions, co-sponsored by Delta Faucets, brings together individuals from all walks of life by asking them to answer the question: “What invention would make your life better?” The results range from the practical, like noise-cancelling speakers to improve congested urban living, to the fanciful, like an augmented Toyota Tercel that transforms cats into dogs. Each device or idea is “prototyped,” so to speak, by well-crafted animation sequences which illustrate the invention in action, resulting in a slick, 2-minute-long package of ideas, personalities and even the occasional funny gag.
There are at least two white male 20-something comedians featured in these episodes, but while they’re both very funny and creative, the stronger episodes feature people from more eclectic backgrounds. USC film sound professor Tomlinson Holman, who invented the THX sound system, lays out his noise-canceling speakers idea with familiarity and grace. And sure, environmental justice advocate Majora Carter’s plan for a virus that spreads love is more than a little hippy-dippy, but her earnestness is as contagious as a cold.
My favorite invention is video artist Lincoln Schatz’s brain-sharing device. OK so it probably won’t be possible to experience the world through someone else’s consciousness for several more decades. But the way Schatz describes the concept, which would, for example, allow you to walk around a city and see architecture the way a brilliant architect does, is eye-opening in its own way.
What Inventions promises on the surface is the seemingly impossible. But what it delivers to audiences is imagination and innovation, which are the ingredients necessary to make the impossible come true.
