Monday, August 13, 2012

Consider my SXSWi 2013 Proposal -- Creating Great Analog Souvenirs for a Digital Era


Given that my recent talk about the physical-digital trend at June’s NXNEi was not only super fun but super popular (I received an 8.4/10 overall score!) I decided to pitch an updated version to SXSW interactive.

If you’re at all familiar with SXSWi, you’ll know about the PanelPicker. One of the criteria for speaker selection is the number of votes your idea receives. I have until the end of August to convince as many people as possible to vote for (that is, +1) my SXSWi panel entitled “Creating Great Analog Souvenirs for a Digital Era.”



Rather than simply nag and harass my Twitter followers and Facebook friends, I’ve decided to combine the necessity of self-promotion with witty visual explanations of what an analog souvenir (aka physidigital object) actually is. Which should help explain the photograph above.

Here’s a teaser from my SXSWi proposal:
The online and offline worlds are now melting together thanks to smartphones and social media. But as our life shifts into the cloud, we’re starting to realize that 0s and 1s lack the tangibility and permanence of paper and film. Significant emotional moments are easy to lose or forget in the online ether, which helps explain why artists and brands are trying to create analog souvenirs of our increasingly digital lives. 
If you’re so inclined, please vote for me.




At the very least, enjoy the next three weeks worth of serious and goofy experimentation with analog souvenirs.

Further reading:


- NXNEi article about the digital backlash