The Artistic Conversation • Beyond the Frame

The Art of Storytelling and the Responsibility Behind It

Last month, at HeadsQuarter’s The Artistic we opened our doors once more for the second edition of The Artistic Conversations • — a dialogue series that brings together diverse voices from business, culture, and society to explore questions that sit between disciplines.

The evening’s theme, Beyond the Frame – The Art of Storytelling and the Responsibility Behind It, centered on a shared tension: in an age defined by media saturation and algorithmic persuasion, what does it mean to tell stories responsibly, and who decides which stories define our collective imagination?

The conversation unfolded between two distinct practitioners of narrative: Lamar Hawkins, Co-founder and Executive Producer of MYGOSH GmbH, whose career in global advertising has shaped the visual and emotional language of brand storytelling; and Philippe Stalder, journalist and filmmaker, whose documentary Reclaiming Cocoa investigates the cocoa trade between Ghana and Switzerland and the colonial structures embedded within global systems of value.

One line from Hawkins captured the zeitgeist precisely:

“A story isn’t just told anymore. It’s engineered — emotionally, visually, algorithmically.”

The room paused. Advertising, journalism, and documentary film may once have inhabited different spheres, but in the age of predictive data, they now share a common algorithmic terrain. The same systems that sell products also shape perceptions, identities, and ideologies.

Philippe offered a counterweight:

“Transparency isn’t the same as truth. My role as a filmmaker isn’t to speak for others — it’s to create a frame where they can speak for themselves.”

Between these two positions — persuasion and accountability — lay the heart of the evening’s discussion. The frame, whether in film, media, or leadership, is never neutral. Every image, every edit, every omission reflects power: who has it, who doesn’t, and who is seen.

The Architecture of Narrative

Across industries, stories have become infrastructure. They build markets, move capital, and determine which ideas gain legitimacy. From the tone of a campaign to the arc of a documentary, narrative today is a strategic asset, one that can inspire trust or manipulate emotion with equal precision.

As one participant noted, “The most sophisticated stories no longer persuade; they pre-empt.” In other words, they anticipate our beliefs before we articulate them.

The discussion turned to AI, not as a distant specter but as a present collaborator. Hawkins spoke of AI tools now able to pre-visualize emotional impact, predicting which version of a story will perform best before production even begins. Stalder questioned what this means for authenticity — when synthetic narratives can replicate empathy so convincingly that the boundary between the human and the generated dissolves.

“If everything becomes seamless,” he reflected, “we lose friction. And without friction, there’s no truth.”

The point landed: in a world that prizes efficiency, imperfection remains the last trace of humanity.

Storytelling as Soft Power

By the end of the discussion, a pattern had emerged. Stories are no longer peripheral to business. They are the designed architecture of persuasion. They legitimize leadership, mobilize communities, and construct cultural capital. In this sense, storytelling is no longer a communication skill but a form of soft power.

For executives, it raises the question of narrative responsibility: which stories does an organization choose to tell, and which does it avoid?

For creatives, it challenges the idea of authorship in an age of co-creation between human and machine. For audiences, it demands new forms of literacy, to recognize when stories connect and when they condition. The consensus was not to resist new technologies but to use them consciously. For us to reframe storytelling as a shared practice of meaning-making rather than inauthentic influenced manipulation.

The Atmosphere of Openness

As the formal conversation concluded, the incredibly talented jazz singer Sarah Abrigada took the stage. Her voice perfectly framed the talk and filled the room, carrying the themes of the night beyond words. The shift from speech to sound reintroduced something that technology cannot replicate: presence.

The Artistic — part work space, part salon, part living room — held the atmosphere perfectly. External guests and the HeadsQuarter Community lingered, exchanged reflections, and allowed the ideas to breathe. The space itself has become emblematic of HeadsQuarter’s ethos: openness as infrastructure, dialogue as currency.

In an age of specialization, The Artistic Conversations • continues to insist on the opposite — that insight emerges not from expertise alone but from encounter.

Stockerstrasse 33, 8002 Zürich

Beyond the Frame

What the evening revealed most clearly is that storytelling has entered a new era. Its tools are faster, its reach wider, its consequences deeper. But amid the noise, one constant remains: every story carries a responsibility to the people it portrays, the truths it frames, and the futures it imagines.

To go beyond the frame is to recognize that the power of storytelling lies not only in what is shown, but in what is left unsaid — in the silences that demand to be heard.

Captured Zeitgeist

Zurich, October 2025