Melisa Achoko Allela

Assistant Professor

Melisa Achoko Allela is a creative technologist, educator and researcher from Nairobi, Kenya. She merges her background in interactive media, graphic design and animation in artistic and research projects that explore the affordances of new and emerging technologies to position how they can be used to digitize storytelling experiences imbued with elements of traditional African oral storytelling.

Prior to joining RISD as a research fellow at the Movement Lab (2023–24), Melisa taught at the Technical University of Kenya and is cofounder of the interactive media studio LESOStories. Her main motivation is to preserve and celebrate the rich cultural heritage of African storytelling while also using innovative methods to share it with a new and wider audience. She holds a PhD in Design from the Technical University, and an MA and BA in Design from the University of Nairobi.

Among other achievements, Allela is currently engaged in the Google Open Lab Africa Artists Residency, was winner of a Digital Lab Africa 2020 Award (Immersive Realities category), is an Electric South 2019 Fellow, a recipient of the 2019 HEVA Cultural Heritage Seed Fund and a 2018 Mawazo PhD scholar. She looks forward to the tipping point moment for African women in tech and their increased participation in the fields of animation and interactive media.

Allela’s RISD Movement Lab fellowship project—Songa, from the Swahili word “move”—explores the digital mediation of performance and non-verbal communication that plays a key role in narrative development in traditional African oral storytelling. It entails the creation of a database of movement forms drawn from curated storytelling performances.

Courses

Fall 2024 Courses

FAV 5115-01 - DIGITAL PRACTICES
Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

FAV 5115-01

DIGITAL PRACTICES

Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: T | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM Instructor(s): Melisa Achoko Allela Location(s): Auditorium, Room 525 Enrolled / Capacity: 13 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This course identifies core principles of digital production, to enable students to continually adapt to the ever-changing world of software. Students research and produce artworks that demonstrate their understanding of these principles. This primary knowledge includes digital film and video formats, project asset management, compression techniques, understanding program interface design, color spaces, channel mixing and filters, and the creation and use of extra channels (such as alpha and depth).

Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.


Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

FAV 5115-02 - DIGITAL PRACTICES
Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

FAV 5115-02

DIGITAL PRACTICES

Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: M | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM Instructor(s): Melisa Achoko Allela Location(s): Auditorium, Room 525 Enrolled / Capacity: 13 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This course identifies core principles of digital production, to enable students to continually adapt to the ever-changing world of software. Students research and produce artworks that demonstrate their understanding of these principles. This primary knowledge includes digital film and video formats, project asset management, compression techniques, understanding program interface design, color spaces, channel mixing and filters, and the creation and use of extra channels (such as alpha and depth).

Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.


Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

Wintersession 2025 Courses

FAV 1125-101 - MOTION CAPTURE FOR ORATURE
Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Wintersession 2025
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

FAV 1125-101

MOTION CAPTURE FOR ORATURE

Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Wintersession 2025
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2025-01-03 to 2025-02-06
Times: MTW | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM | 01/06/2025 - 01/08/2025; MT | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM | 01/13/2025 - 01/14/2025; TW | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM | 01/21/2025 - 01/22/2025; MT | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM | 01/27/2025 - 01/28/2025; MTW | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM | 02/03/2025 - 02/05/2025 Instructor(s): Melisa Achoko Allela Location(s): Auditorium, Room 525 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Orature, or oral storytelling, places a strong emphasis on performative techniques that come to life most effectively when conveyed through both spoken and non-verbal means within a live social setting. It is “the creative and imaginative art of composition that relies on verbal art for communication and that culminates in performance”. Consequently, linear media recordings of oral storytelling experiences often fall short of capturing the immersive and interactive essence found in live storytelling sessions. 
This Wintersession course invites students to explore motion capture through the lens of traditional oral storytelling practices from indigenous communities. Students will actively identify the unique and distinguishing features of orature, and leverage their own cultural backgrounds, personal perspectives, and idiosyncrasies to create motion capture data that can be used in crafting an interactive digital retelling of a folktale. Using software and equipment in the Movement Lab students will plan segments for oral storytelling, record verbal story content in their own voice, prepare a character based on their 3D scans, set up mocap equipment, record their movement, clean-up and apply the movement data to a character, and finally compile the individual segments into a digital retelling that refracts one tale through diverse facets of embodied expression. Through in-class practical activities, daily assignments, demonstrations, screenings and suggested reading, students will acquire new appreciation for orature as well as experimentation with motion capture tools that can support new retellings of works of orature in digital media.

Elective

FAV W517-103 - SENIOR STUDIO: ANIMATION
Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Wintersession 2025
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

FAV W517-103

SENIOR STUDIO: ANIMATION

Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Wintersession 2025
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2025-01-03 to 2025-02-06
Times: F | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM | 01/03/2025 - 01/03/2025; THF | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM | 01/09/2025 - 01/10/2025; WTHF | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM | 01/15/2025 - 01/17/2025; THF | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM | 01/23/2025 - 01/24/2025; WTHF | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM | 01/29/2025 - 01/31/2025; TH | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM | 02/06/2025 - 02/06/2025 Instructor(s): Melisa Achoko Allela Location(s): Market House, Room 307 Enrolled / Capacity: 20 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

During the senior year, students synthesize and apply what they have learned in their previous studies to the creation of a year-long project. Students develop, design, animate, direct, and produce these projects independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from instructors and two critiques by established professionals from the world animation community. Class meetings are devoted to film screenings, group critique, and specialized technical workshops.

Deposit: $150.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.


Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Animation

Spring 2025 Courses

FAV 5115-01 - DIGITAL PRACTICES
Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

FAV 5115-01

DIGITAL PRACTICES

Level Undergraduate
Unit Film/Animation/Video
Subject Film/Animation/Video
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2025-02-13 to 2025-05-23
Times: M | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM Instructor(s): Melisa Achoko Allela Location(s): Auditorium, Room 525 Enrolled / Capacity: 13 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This course identifies core principles of digital production, to enable students to continually adapt to the ever-changing world of software. Students research and produce artworks that demonstrate their understanding of these principles. This primary knowledge includes digital film and video formats, project asset management, compression techniques, understanding program interface design, color spaces, channel mixing and filters, and the creation and use of extra channels (such as alpha and depth).

Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.


Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video