Inspiring Digital Engagement Festival

I spent yesterday at the Inspiring Digital Engagement festival in Sheffield, oragnised by Karen Martin and Ann Light. The theme of the conference was digital inclusion and engagement, and how the arts might assist in this. I presented Landscape-Portrait as a case study. I have to say some of the presentations was quite painful, where technology is seen as some magic salve which produces coherence and unity for a group. As I go to conferences more and more the presentation of documentation; "Here's some ladies buying some plastic tubes" really needs attention, were all talking about inclusion and the mute voices are those that participate in the projects, its ironic perhaps when everyone is talking about this social web moment mm.

Some interesting bits came out of it though, the project People Voice Media, working with two groups within the Burmese and Karen Community in Sheffield. There is apparently a feeling of mistrust between these communities that the project wished to address. The project website was hacked by someone in Thailand and made to look like the Burmese community had been involved. The real culprit apparently was the Burmese government.

Thumbprint use that most ubiquitous of new technologies, mobile phones, to engage people in place and ideas. As Andrew Wilson said, mobile phones aren't technology, their ubiquity makes them just stuff and texting is doing stuff. When we talk about technology then we are already operating along a divide.





One other thing, in this moment of funding crisis in the arts. Speaking to one of the other presenter about the curse of the Olympic Inspired logo. As I understand it no funds are made available to organisations for sporting this logo, rather its a convenient badge when the Olympics need to justify their support of grass roots organisations, in fact once you display this logo, rather than open doors for organsiations, its reduces the amount of funds you can apply for.