If you cannot see this email, please click here to see the html version of it.
The “Soul of Athens” Makes a Healthy Comeback


ATHENS, Ohio (June 6, 2008) -- Throughout the past several months, the collaboration of many talents within Ohio University's School of Visual Communication (VisCom) and Scripps School of Journalism has allowed the award-winning Soul of Athens Web site to showcase a new chapter in the site's history.

The site has re-launched to exhibit a theme of healthy living through the stories that capture spiritual, mental and physical wellness in Athens, Ohio. The showcase of work delves into the everyday, but also extraordinary, quests for wellness within the community. "Athens is very centralized," said Eric Kramer, VisCom instructor and developer, describing the city's scenic paths. "It's a way of living that's good for the environment -- that's good for your health."

Soul of Athens was produced under the direction of Visiting Professional Zach Wise, BSVC '01, in consultation with Brian Storm of MediaStorm. The project's multimedia was in part provided by the school's annual Dawn to Dusk photographic event, underwritten by The Athens News. Soul of Athens was launched in May 2007 and has averaged 400 unique hits a day.

Recently, the site was awarded the Best Use of the Web in the National Press Photographers Association 2008 Best of Photojournalism Web sites division. Soul of Athens competed for the honor against such Web sites as The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and MSNBC. It was the only student production to place in the competition.

The site is continuing to build onto its reputation by now including an interactive map detailing when and where many photos from the Dawn2Dusk project were taken.


The re-launch will also invite visitors to showoff their artistic skills by uploading their own Flickr images to the site or their own music through YouTube. While the artistic endeavors of the Web site embody the community of Athens, the producers have worked hard to ensure that they haven't distanced themselves from interacting with a larger community of new visitors to the site.

"One of the things we try to do as visual communicators is connect people who didn’t think they had anything in common," said student producer Kainaz Amaria. "It's not really highlighting the differences, but showing people the similarities in the commonness of the human experience."

Further information about the site can be found at http://www.soulofathens.com.

Contact: Terry Eiler, director of the Ohio University School of Visual Communication, at 740-593-4895 or eiler@ohio.edu
aging maps and user-generated elements. An interactive map detailing when and where many photos from the Dawn2Dusk project were taken is one way the site is providing interactivity.