Session 2: Communicating the Future

"Just What Is It that Makes Today's Wired Lives So Different, So Appealing?" – Nicola Osborne, Social Media Officer, Edina

Abstract:
Creativity, production and reflection has never been so embedded into our everyday lives as it is now. Innovative and connected use of digital materials, social media sites, mobile devices and real life makes all sorts of exciting new connections and experimentation possible.

In this presentation built around my own attempt to update Richard Hamilton's iconic 1956 image (from which this title is adapted) I will explore my own experience of living, working and studying online in a wholly interconnected and rewarding personal collage. I will reflect on new technologies, fads, the challenge of blurring identities, and the ways in which modern wired lives enable new possibilities for information discovery, sharing and delivery.


'The creative use of social networking sites to increase public engagement and participation in the professional arts'

Dr Sophy Smith/Institute of Creative Technologies/De Montfort University, Leicester.

The success of online social media has been unprecedented, allowing millions of members to upload photos, share links and videos as well as personal information about themselves and their lifestyle preferences. These new technologies have resulted in new social behaviours, which are being reflected in artistic practice. The important question is no longer whether the use of these tools will spread and reshape arts practice, but how they will do so.

To date, the creative uses of online social media have been split mostly down amateur/professional lines. Whilst informal amateur groups form online groups to share and develop work, professional artists and organisations use online social media in a more formal manner, to share information about their work. However, online social tools offer more than merely providing alternative ways for artists and arts organisations to promote their work with a larger audience. The collaborative tools provided by online social networking sites offer new ways for artists to build creative relationships with their audience, by enabling the public to access, engage with and participate in professional arts practice, by becoming actively involved in the creative process.

I crowd-sourced the name of this talk through three different social tools that fielded over 30 titles from people I know, and people I don't. Wikipedia let me remind myself of the image that inspired the title. Free online tools are letting me built and adapt and construct my presentation entirely visually. It will let me share the presentation with everyone in the world. And when I begin my talk I will be able to create a mapped, illustrated mini podcast in less than 5 minutes.

This is tomorrow.