Artsmonkey Blog

@ the Rootstein Hopkins Space, London College of Fashion last week for own-it and Stellar Networks seminar starring the very patient and extremely well-phrased lawyer Harry Karaolou from LG Legal. The event, ‘The Writer/Producer/Director Triangle - a guide to good practice of collaboration in Theatre’ didn’t disappoint. A rare event indeed when the panel has as many questions as the audience but ever since, my head has been full of ‘creative commons, trademarks, originators, copyright, performers’ rights’, and phrases such as, “asserting your moral rights”.

What can I pass on in a creative universe where more and more people are creating bodies of work through collaboration and shared experience? That it’s important to know your intellectual property from your development or design rights? You don’t want to make the same mistakes that members of the audience have done in the past, so at the get-go agree who does what and what is whose. Get an agreement, get i-p savvy.

I am seriously fascinated by social media, the accessibility, the randomness, the fun and yes, even the geekiness of it - learning about IT issues and concepts and software ( I always thought a widget was the clinky thing at the bottom of a can of Guinness) such as Digg, del.icio.us, stumble(upon)it, trackback, technorati - all new words of wonder to me.

Today I started on Twitter, skipped to frogblog and tripped over a ‘blogroll’ of intreaguing titles such as “CULTUREMAKING” and “Herd - the hidden truth about who we are” and on to “The Buzz Bin/Transparent Bundles/Logic+emotion/Edge Perspectives, stopping at Digital Influence Mapping Project” It’s a roller coaster of interesting reads, mind expanding concepts and the totally unfamiliar but exciting unknown territory - all just a click away.

I got sidetracked by an article on ‘How stuff spreads (4) The bottle-glass trick’ http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO3TQfXz5A  and the quote “ Things are - or seem to be- constant motion…whenever you lift the cover, the thing you expect is not there. Bottle or glass?” but eventually i found my way back to Tim Leberechts frogblog site and his article ‘The Future of Business is Social’. Well here in the Arts world we’ve always thought that, so maybe our time is coming round again…

I’m coaxing thoughts into being about an online youth arts event, with podcasts and live web conversations so audiences can watch from the comfort of their youth club/school/home etc., but ask questions and help shape the event through their ‘real-time’ feedback or watch it later via podcast or as a ‘you -tube’ post - I’m picturing lap-tops and web camera’s wirelessly transmitting away, twitter feeds and twitter clouds floating in the internet ether and then, humbly, I realise that this is neither new or exciting to the social media literate and what a way I have yet to go as a social media ‘beginner’ - Bronze level but aiming for Gold.