Brian Gibson | Reworking Technology | Watershed
Channel: Watershed
Date: 2022-07-15

Just what is it that makes todays technologies so different, so appealing? As an artist, I find myself increasingly asking the following questions;

How can I engage with developing technologies, in ways outside of the norm of entrepreneurial tech design and coding frameworks, that are meaningful to me?

Do we as individuals have the power and resources to step outside of our roles as passive users, a role which the artist Kin describes as a position of “speaking and not being heard", to find agency and ultimately, a voice that is heard?  

My own creative response to such questions has been to work with and rework the physical material of digital technologies which can be found within todays domestic environment. (Laptops, mobile phones, game stations and so forth). In deconstructing such non-functioning objects I have been able explore the concealed architecture of tech through a process of assemblage, print and photography, developing new narratives which switch back and forth between the analogue and digital.

This lunchtime talk is presented by Container - Container is an online magazine about creative technology. Focusing on the human side of technology, it is a home for stories beyond the mainstream. For years, technology in the media has been largely limited to “techno-heroic” stories of the successful individual, big technology and corporate gain. Container seeks to redress the balance and raise up a messy multiplicity of voices - ones that question, dissent and explore. Based in Bristol, Container is born out of a long-term collaboration between Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio - the heart of creative technology R&D in the city - and UWE Bristol’s Creative Economies Lab.

Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 15th July 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards. 

The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.

The last talk of every month is BSL interpreted.