ABSTRACT
The value of immersive experiences lies not in the tangible outcomes but the processes that lead to transformation. The processes are embedded in the physical spaces they inhabit, in the structures and organizations within which they exist, and in the networks that support their work. This chapter will provide the background, setting, and context within which we situate this book. The Academy is a program of the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS), an organization that owes its existence to three Harvard graduate students who came to Austria in the aftermath of World War II to create a “Marshall Plan of the Mind”. The early gatherings they organized included academic exchanges that brought together diverse participants in the hopes that there could be ways to encourage them to speak to each other. This chapter will outline and define the SGS’s charge to situate this particular program in a history of transformative convenings. It will use the history and context of Salzburg to promote the Media Academy as building a community of media practice. Only by establishing communities of media practice, we argue, do we have the ability to focus on the transformative aspects of media pedagogies.
