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If you have read my blog post about How to Build a Community, you’ll know that I have a tendency to join and sometimes lead many special interest groups, networking meet-ups and social gatherings. When I moved to Munich in 2016, my strategy to meet new people was very similar to when I had first moved to London. I joined a bunch of meet-ups and ended up being one of the co-organisers of the Munich Board Games Meet-Up.
Animation by Sonja Geracsek
Graphical Elements by Rocket+Wink
Find your world
Despite visiting numerous events and organising a few myself, the thirst for being part of a knowledge sharing community, that the departure from the London ACM SIGGRAPH chapter had left in my heart, was not yet quenched.
At one of these events, I met two young men, Albert Bozesan and Robert Sladeczek, who introduce themselves as the Funny Commercial Guys (btw I still call them that). They are partners of their own video production agency. We consequently ended up working on a few fun projects together, like the Fritz-Kola Grün + Gerecht product ad. But more importantly, they were both part of the TEDxTUM chapter, which organises independant TEDx events in Munich, centred around sharing knowledge.
What I had always hoped the London ACM SIGGRAPH chapter could one day grow into, in terms of event size and team organisation, the TEDxTUM chapter had already arrived at. After trying out different teams within the chapter, I landed in the Brand & Creative team in 2020, where I helped animate graphics for events (unfortunately not for the main event in 2020, due to the pandemic), created GIFs and stickers for social media and helped speakers with presentation graphics.
Learning is fun
I suppose what draws me to organisations like ACM SIGGRAPH and TEDx is learning. You get to hear from a specialists perspective how something works, but in a fun and entertaining way. Some might describe this way of learning “edutainment”. Learning is fun, when you don’t feel like you are learning. When I listen to the stories told on stage and they reveal something fascinating I didn’t know before, it’s like I’m watching a blockbuster movie. I think this is why edutainment content is so popular on the internet. It’s easily understandable education.
Throughout my career I have leaned more and more towards this sector of the animation industry, that explains complex topics in a digestible and fun way. I enjoy creating edutainment videos because I enjoy watching them.
Jeffress Model (1948)
Illustration & Animation by Sonja Geracsek
This year I was able to help one of the TEDxTUM speakers, Lutz Kettler, design and animate a visual representation of the Jeffress Model (1948) for one of his talks. The model describes how sound is picked up by the ear and is transmitted to the brain. This is why we can detect where sound is coming from and hear 3-dimensionally. I love learning about the brain and I love creating fun videos that explain how things work.
Being part of these chapters and organisations means I am both learning myself, but also part of building and contributing to the sharing of knowledge. Although I work on many different client and passion project, which I also enjoy, Edutainment will always have a special place in my heart.
Be a Philomath, be a lover of learning.
– Sonja