I’m going to be speaking at SXSW Interactive 2013. I
feel lucky and blessed. But I also put a lot of time and thought into my
application, which certainly helped.
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| Photo credit: Dylan Reibling |
This week I was asked to convert my 1,000 character topic
description (150 words) into 140 characters (22 words). I suspect this is the
sort of thing that makes many people panic. But because I spent so long
crafting a title for my talk that summarized those 1,000 characters (“Creating
Great Analog Souvenirs for a Digital Era”) I felt confident I could distill my
thoughts without weeping openly.
I’ve included three summaries here (140 characters,
400 characters, and the original 1,000 characters) in case it helps other
people understand how to prioritize and condense. It’s a great skill to have,
but one that can be tough to learn. During my time at the CFC, we were asked to do a
similar exercise for txt2hold, and I found that it was a great way to determine
the inner and outer orbits of a particular idea.
140
characters
Online and offline worlds are now melting together. Learn why and how
artists are creating analog souvenirs to preserve our digital lives.
400
characters
Online and offline worlds are now melting together. But life in the cloud
lacks the permanence of paper, which is why we’re starting to lose significant
emotional moments in the digital ether. In response, artists and brands are
creating analog souvenirs. Learn how to convert fleeting texts and tweets into
physidigital keepsakes through a mix of research, design thinking and creative
inspiration.
1,000
characters
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
misplace in the online ether, which helps explain why artists and brands are
trying to create analog souvenirs of our increasingly digital lives.
Want a coaster of your favourite Instagram photo? No
problem. Looking for a miniature printer that connects to your smartphone and
generates a tiny personalized newspaper? Done and done.
Drawing on my experience as co-creator of txt2hold.ca
and tweet2hold.com, two interactive art projects that generate unique paper
keepsakes of digital experiences, I will explain the whys and hows of
converting fleeting texts and tweets into permanent analog souvenirs through a
careful mix of research, design thinking and creative inspiration.
