[spectre] Inspiring Digital Engagement - 15th September

[virginias at clara.co.uk]

Date: 15 September 2010

Location: SIA Gallery, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield

The Inspiring Digital Engagement Festival is a one-day event that explores
the contribution of arts practice to the business of digital inclusion.
Local art practitioners, digital inclusion researchers, public sector
professionals and community development workers are invited to join us for
an active investigation into how socially engaged arts practice promotes,
enriches and challenges notions of digital inclusion.

We increasingly use digital tools for everything: to find jobs, to
socialise, to shop, even to define who we are. Thus it is urgent to ensure
that everyone is able to make an informed choice about using the Internet
and related technologies. Of the 17 million people in the UK who currently
don’t use the Internet it is believed that 6 million of these are both
socially and digitally excluded. We celebrate the arrival of the Digital
Region in South Yorkshire by asking: beyond access what is necessary to
support people in exploring their potential?

Socially engaged art projects are the unsung success stories of digital
engagement. They may be small in scope and intensive in execution, but
they point the way to new processes and methods of interest in
enfranchising the communities overlooked by more broadbrushed or
centralised approaches.
Through panel discussions, talks, demonstrations and participatory
activities the Inspiring Digital Engagement Festival will focus on the
following questions:

- What does art bring that policy doesn’t?

- How far can digital inclusion be facilitated without personal mediation
and stewardship?

- Is it appropriate to expect artistic practice to conform to public
sector metrics?

Take away:
-	Inspiration for digital inclusion strategies
-	New networks of practitioners facing the same challenges as you
-	A more rounded sense of what we can hope for and why we are trying
to achieve digital interdependence.

To sign up to the event, please go to
http://www.eventelephant.com/inspiringdigitalengagementfestival. We are
charging non-presenters £15, which includes lunch.

For more information and to start a conversation, sign up at
http://grou.ps/inspiringdigitalengagement

Follow the Facebook event buzz

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111044618946008&index=1#!/event.php?ei
d=108562659198925&ref=mf

If you are an artist doing something relevant, we would love to hear from
you and might be able squeeze you into the day. Contact
ann.light at gmail.com

Co-chairs:
Ann Light: Sheffield Hallam University
Karen Martin: Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL

Advisory panel
•	Kevin Carter, Co-lab
•	Lalya Gaye, Culture Lab, Newcastle University
•	Usman Haque, Haque Associates
•	Giles Lane, Proboscis
•	Loraine Leeson, cSPACE
•	Tim Machin, SHU
•	Tamar Millen, Community Media Association
•	Clodagh Miskelly
•	Benedict Phillips
•	Jim Prevett, SPACE
•	Gini Simpson, QMUL
•	Vicky Sinclair, ArcSpace
•	James Wallbank, Access Space
•	Peter Wright, Newcastle University
•	Hannah York, SHU