Getting Personal

Arts Council of England
Getting Personal: artists and audiences in the era of Web 2.0

23rd October
3.30 - 5.30pm
Arts Council of England
2 Pear Tree Court,
London U.K. EC1R0DS

In the 4th Digital Culture Lunchtime Session, Arts Council London invites you to consider with us the implications of MySpace, Second Life, Facebook, You Tube, Flickr and other online collaborative interfaces on artistic practice and cultural participation. Do they represent a fully democratised cultural opportunity for artists and audiences? Does endless availability, access and openness lead to a deterioration in artistic quality? Is the paid professional contributing any more than the unpaid amateur?

Join in the discussion with:-

Andrew Keen: Author of 'The Cult of the Amateur'
Paula LeDieu: Managing Director, Magic Lantern Productions
Alex Fleetwood: Producer and associate of Punchdrunk
Saul Albert: Artist and co-founder of 'The People Speak' and nm-x.org

Please RSVP to sabine.unamun@artscouncil.org.uk

ANDREW KEEN is a Silicon Valley author, broadcaster and entrepreneur whose acclaimed new book 'Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing Our Culture' presents an antidote to the prevailing assumptions around Internet cultural democracy as championed by Charles Leadbeater. Andrew is a prominent media personality who has appeared on CNN International, NPR, and BBC Newsnight. He has written for The Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Guardian, and has been featured in many publications including Time Magazine, the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, & the Independent.

PAULA LE DIEU is MD at Magic Lantern Productions. Set up by Anthony Lilley it creates innovative interactive media, most notably FourDocs, the broadband, user-generated documentary channel with Channel 4. Other partners and clients include the BBC, BT, the UK Film Council, Skillset and many others. MLP specialise in understanding the power of broadband networks and emerging digital platforms, for the creation, presentation, distribution and sharing of ideas. Prior to joining Magic Lantern, Le Dieu was the director of iCommons, the international arm of Creative Commons.

ALEX FLEETWOOD is an artist and producer of Hide & Seek, London's first pervasive games festival. He is a collaborative associate of Punchdrunk Theatre Company and along with other artists and creatives will be exploring audience participation within alternate reality gaming as part of the PlayTime Lab at this years London Games Festival Fringe.

SAUL ALBERT, our esteemed compere, is an artist, coder and writer known for his open source ethos and advocacy of collaborative, self-organised structures. Instrumental in establishing projects such as the University of Openess, nm-x.org, Node London and others, Saul is co-producer of The People Speak, which is currently re-inventing funding models with 'Who Wants to Be..'. Based on the ask-the-audience feature of the popular TV game show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' it helps large groups of people to make suggestions, discuss an issue, and to vote on each step in a creative decision-making process.

In association with the PlayTime Lab at this years London Games Festival Fringe.

[graphic from a google image search for 'Web 2.0']]