Who is Rufi Franzen?

To tell this particular tale we have to start at the beginning..

As we began the advanced multimedia part of our PSVT course, a few students received a very mysterious letter in the mail:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

91211. What could this mean? There was some discussion amongst the group, with some people concerned with security as at least one letter had been delivered without a stamp. This died down a little as we got on with the very arduous task of student life.

A few weeks later a few emails were sent; Jonny, Paul, Aaron and myself received an email from Rufi Franzen via our Salford student accounts (10th Nov 2011):

Hi James, hi Paul,

Just wondering how Aaron S and Jonny D were using their rudimentary cognitive skills when not watching the video I sent them last Friday. You might want to ask them to check their mail.

Rufi

There was also a link to this video:

I thought this was a strangely worded email and remember watching the video & thinking it was some US self-improvement film. Although I was curious to find out who Mr Franzen was as he was emailing our Uni accounts, once again the thought drifted from my mind.

Then the tweeting began, first to Paul and myself. The first tweet was sent on Nov 11th, by our lecture on Friday 18th the whole class was preoccupied with one question: Who is Rufi Franzen? By now most members of the class had some interaction with RF, either via tweet or by comments being left on their blogs. It was at this point that our advanced multimedia tutor Helen became involved, and  much of that Friday’s session was spent collating the information we had so far. Eventually we got back to the task in hand, namely our short video assignment. I showed my video ‘If you go down to the woods’ to the group, went and sat down in my chair and immediately received this comment on my blog:

RF: Nice. There are signs everywhere when you look hard enough. I’d like to see more.

This was just getting weird. As the comment had come through so quickly, I began to think that RF was actually someone in the room. After chatting with Jonny we began to look a little suspiciously at Ben Shirley tapping away on his Ipad.

Soon after Helen emailed the group this info:

Hi all,

Thanks to you lot and your detective work (and getting me his email address I’ve just made contact with the mysterious Rufi Franzen.

Firstly, you’ll be relieved to know that you have nothing to worry about in terms of data security – there have been no breaches of security. I can’t say any more at the moment as I’ve been sworn to secrecy, so I need you to trust me on this.

What I do know is that this is going somewhere good – amazing in fact. I don’t know much more at this stage, and not sure I’m going to be told. Anyway, let’s chat about it tomorrow – remember the feedback session 3-5 in 3.34!

See you tomorrow. This is crazy – but ace.

In my mind this was the tipping point; Rufi Franzen went from being a curious little annoyance to just being plain curious. Who was he?

Then on November 20th Rufi posted again:

“You have a number.
You have a word.
You have some videos.
You don’t need the answers.
You just need to ask smart questions.
Crack the code.”

During the next week the hot topic was Rufi; The camp was split between people who were very much into the whole caper, and people who didn’t want to know (A viewpoint I can understand as everyone has their own stuff to be getting on with).

On the 25th Nov a countdown appeared on Rufi’s blog; It expired on 9/12/11 at 11am. We also received another riddle:

“There is a sweat spot between a pebble and a boulder, two worlds meet, in a ditch that hangs, on a day that awaits. Four squares, three corners, two wheels and one number. Send.”

Crack the code.

With one week to go we were all busy working away in Dave Tolan’s digital audio production class; Alicia, Rob and Lawrence showed me a smart mobile video they’d been working on entitled who is Rufi Franzen? When I came and sat back down In my chair I received this tweet from Rufi;

‘Where’s my film you promised. I wanna be famous. I wanna be on the big screen’

What the FUCK?

The next week consisted of a lot of tweeting and speculation; The place that kept coming up again and again was the Triangle in MCR. Should we be there at 11am? Helen was (conveniently) away at a conference, so the conjecture continued via Twitter.

Two days to go and Rufi reveals himself (sort of). He’ll answer five questions, but only from Tay. Thursday night, 10pm.

We tuned to watch something rather special, this was one of the best things I’ve watched on TV this year (The Wire comes a close second). The questions would be answered by two skull heads, one signalling yes and one signalling no.

Finally we had some answers, yes we should be at the Triangle, bring the code, bring your friends & bring a camera.

The last video that Rufi posted was particularly curious for me as I’d noticed that Charles Leadbeater was speaking at the Cornerhouse on Thursday night (There’s a Leadbetter video on Rufi’s blog and his ‘We Think’ book has been referenced several times in Helen’s class). I’d speculated that Rufi could Be Charles Leadbetter? Unequivocally Not!

91211

So, the day arrived (Today). We left our digital audio class a little early & got the tram to the Triangle (Check Paul’s blog for a video of our journey).

As we headed into Manchester I began to think how much I was gonna miss the Rufi Franzen story; Like it or not, I’d become fully engrossed in this whole saga..

We got to the Triangle, and the big screen that overlooks the arena began to play our video’s that we’d made as part of our advanced multimedia class. A series of texts confirmed that Rufi was to reveal himself..

It turned out to be…..Huey Garry. A few weeks earlier Huey had been a guest lecturer in Helen’s class, and given a superb talk which really resonated with the whole group; The over-riding message being ‘talent borrows, genius steals’. Show your work to as many people as you can and get feedback.

I kind of hand an inkling that Rufi might be him, but dismissed this as a glance at his Twitter account will show you how busy the man is, he wouldn’t have time for something like this.

On the way back to Media City I was able to chat to Helen at length and got a real insight into the planning and preparation that went into Rufi. The idea was conceived back in February, the letters were sent out to a cohort of students that she had not even met. Then there was the issue of lying to the group as the story and the intrigue started to build..

There was also a lot serendipity involved as well, Josh uploading a video with his girlfriend criticizing an X Factor stylist (Hugh’s girlfriend works as a stylist on X Factor), the tweet I got just after watching Alicia, Rob & Lawrence’s film about Rufi; A few weeks ago I spent the weekend in Leeds celebrating a friends birthday, as I woke up on the Sunday morning in my pals spare room my bleary and hungover eyes began to focus on their bookshelf; The name that immediately jumped out from the many book spines was Franzen (Jonathan Franzen obviously).

The interest in Rufi amongst the group reflected the interest people have in social media; There’s been an obvious split in students who love Twitter and social media and students who don’t see the worth in it. As the narrative developed, the students who have embraced the new media were the ones who drove the story further.

Every detail that went into Rufi was well thought out; The references to Charles Leadbetter, Steve Jobs & JJ Abrams through Rufi’s blog further tickled my curiosity; The google + profile with the now customary curious quotes:

It takes courage to be this good

Media inventor. I introduce the future to the present

The whole thing was done superbly well, I can imagine this going down fantastically well with students from all over the world (They would bloody love this in the US). It also got me thinking about the education side of all this.

This was a fantastic learning experience; The intrigue, the teamwork, the puzzle solving; Everyone who has taken part in the process has brought their own theories and ideas, everyone has helped solve a little bit of the puzzle (As one of my old bosses would say ‘It’s the teamwork that makes the dreamwork’).

As much as I have loved this course, there are certain things that I just won’t take with me. I will always remember Rufi, and the way it has forced me to think about certain things.  I’d love this way of teaching to become a permanent fixture in our education system (I’ve just written 1200 words on a Friday night for God’s sake, and it’s not even for an assignment!)

This is obviously just my viewpoint, there are loads of bits I’ve missed out. Check the Storify over the weekend for all the details.

Rufi is dead. Long live Rufi

PS. Here’s the Rufi reveal. Rob’s reaction is great!

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