On Wednesday, we were invited to attend Online:Offline:Online an event organised by Found Materials – a consortium of four creative professionals who are interested in exploring leadership models within the creative industries.
Online:Offline:Online intended to explore the relationship between digital space and physical space, with a focus on literature, stories, poetry and language. The debate started on the blog, where participants were invited to respond to a question, and then ask their own. The event, a recorded discussion, then took place in the gorgeous setting of the St. Paul’s Pavilion on the 6th floor of the Royal Festival Hall. The attendees ranged from writers, games developers, poets, architects, creative producers, and more.
To start the conversation, participants were asked three questions:
- What has digital done to public space?
- What role can creators have alongside technologists?
- How can we best store ‘stuff’ that is created?
The conversation that followed was wide-ranging. Some of the questions asked/points raised:
- Will the material that we’re creating online still exist?
- Does it matter if we keep ‘stuff’ anymore?
- Is anything ever deleted from the web?
- Using the web as a form for art and its limitations
- Does it matter if you read poetry online or from a book?
- New distribution/consumption models
- The need for buildings/physical space
- Physical space and experience
Despite the diverse conversation, participants agreed that the most exciting and interesting time is when online and offline collide. We agree, and don’t feel a need to separate the two. One can enhance the other, and we have the flexibility to choose the best method/tool/medium/(other) for that particular time/activity/communication/audience/(other). We’d be interested to hear your views on relationship between physical and digital space. What are your experiences in relation to your creative practice?
Find the Online:Offline:Online pre-event blog comments at: http://wefoundmaterials.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/online-offline-online/
See the post-conversation blog post at: http://wefoundmaterials.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/onlineofflineonline-thoughts-post-event/
And see the during-the-event tweets by searching #wefoundmaterials on Twitter
Image: anniemullinsuk on Flickr (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)
