Auckland-based digital design studio, Gladeye, has earned an Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Interactive Media category with ‘The DJ and The War Crimes’, a story for Rolling Stone magazine written by Sophia Jones, Nidžara Ahmetašević and Milivoje Pantović. Gladeye designed and developed the digital project.
The project includes a unique cryptographic tool designed to protect and authenticate digital media files.
“AI is revolutionising the way we work, but it’s also made trust in digital media an enormous challenge,” says Gladeye CEO, Tarver Graham. “This work not only tells a powerful story, it also shines a light on the importance of authenticity and traceability.”
‘The DJ and The War Crimes’ is an unflinching yet compassionate tale of war crimes perpetrated by a Serbian paramilitary group in Bosnia during the 1990s. After the conflict, these people moved back into their lives without being held to account. One appears to now be a well-known trance DJ performing at festivals across Europe.
The digital storytelling project includes an interactive archive of photographic evidence and research material. These media are digitally watermarked through a cryptographic process developed by Starling Lab and Stanford University.
“The intertwining of investigative story and technology story made this a devilishly complex design challenge,” says Graham. “It required enormous efforts and attention to detail from the team. We specialise in taking complex stories and making them simple. We love working with clients with interesting stories to tell.”
In addition to the Emmy nomination, ‘The DJ and The War Crimes’ has garnered significant attention and acclaim this year, earning prominent journalism awards, including The American Society of Magazine Editors “Best Digital Design” and The National Press Photographers Association’s First for “Innovation”.
The work will be in competition with The New York Times and CNN at the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards, held in New York on September 27th.
Experience the interactive: https://investigation.rollingstone.com/dj-photo-war-crimes-bosnia/
