About Marvin

Tell me all about it!

Marvin is developed by the Northern territory Institute for Community Engagement & Development (NTICED), an Australian based software and animation company.

Background

marvin is the result of an ongoing collaborative partnership between Inchain, the Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training and the Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services.

Based on patent pending Inchain technologies, marvin was created in response to a real world need - communicating information to indigenous people in a way that made the communication relevant and acceptable.

The earliest uses of marvin by Health Workers from the Department of Health and Community Services focused on leveraging engaging computer characters to convey health messages within indigenous communities surrounding Alice Springs.

The use of interactive characters that were instantly identifiable representations of people capable of speaking local indigenous languages broke down many cultural barriers. Being characters, they were able to broach topics that people can not and were used to communicate traditionally sensitive subjects such as substance abuse, sexual health and mental health with enormous success.

In practice, marvin has proven to be much more than a simple presentation solution, maturing into a communication methodology that couples authoring and community participation. Involving the community in the development of presentations – whether it is through the creation or collection of local images, voice recordings, character selection, story boarding or giving the presentation cultural meaning – proffers community ownership of both the communication process and the message itself.

This interactivity sees young people interact with elders and men work together with women to interpret, communicate and exchange information. Individuals increase their capacity, acquire new skills in diverse areas, become involved in technology, and more importantly contribute as part of a community - not just translating the message in language but also giving it cultural meaning in the context of the community. Often this interactive and collaborative approach that marvin brings is as important, if not more so, than the message itself.

Marvin Today

From an indigenous communication and authoring application, marvin has emerged as a flexible solution for anyone wanting to leverage the latest in technology, animation and communication to get their message across. For more information on the different uses of marvin, click here, or visit our contact page for details on how to get in touch with us.