SXSW Gets Artsy

Every March, tens of thousands of people obsessed with technology, music, and film gather in Austin, Texas for 10 days of learning, hand-shaking, business-making, art-creating, and of course, debauchery. Some call it Nerd Spring Break. Others, South-by. But one thing is clear: The Interactive Conference at South by Southwest (SXSWi) has been overrun by artists and arts-enablers this year. More than 50 (admittedly, of 3,200+) panels submitted for possible inclusion in the 2012 SXSWi explicitly reference the arts. From hacking DDR for ballet dancers to augmented reality installations, meetups for techs who want to be artists and artists who want to be techs, to philosophical treatises on How to Steal Like an Artist, and Brands who want to be Artists, from museums to libraries to theatres, SXSW has officially gone artsy. And of course, there’s our very own panel of 2amt folks, and panel about 2amt-like communities. Did I mention I also have a panel proposal?

There was no “Arts” listing among the 17 categories of panels, but if there had been, we would have beaten out Convergence & Green Tech by volume, so here’s hoping next year’s conference planning committee takes the hint. Instead, these panels were woven throughout nearly every other category, mirroring what’s happening with the art world offline. In 2010, I bemoaned the lack of arts orgs attending SXSW. In 2011, we had a great 2amt meetup featuring Travis Bedard, Alli Houseworth, Marcus Romer, a bunch of people I’m forgetting, and #fishtacos. Hopefully even more of the 2amt community turns out for 2012.

Public voting accounts for 30% of the decision making process for which 500 panels will actually make up SXSWi 2012, and voting ends this Friday. Commenting on panels is also highly encouraged. Consider supporting your fellow artists by checking out a few of the following panel ideas:

Tech Influencing Arts

• Cadence Degradation: Conversation Latency & Rhythm
• Culture vs Technology: Death Match
• Your Arts Organization = A Start-up Business
• “But Is It Art?”: The Aesthetics of Social Culture
• If Bach could Tweet: Why tech will save the arts
• Lowering the Velvet Rope: Access, Art, & Internet
• Performance and Technology: Keeping Arts Alive
• The User Experience of Media
• Open Art, Open Audiences – The Edinburgh Festivals
• Digital Curation: Separating Necessary From Noise

Art Influencing Tech

• Data Visualization, Policy, and the Arts
• Purveyors of Cool: Art, Culture and Brands
• Against the wall: Converse takes street art social
• Social Storytelling: Real-World Experience
• Bridging Art & Big Data for Global Empowerment
• Brands: The New Indie Filmmakers?
• Beyond Dance Dance Revolution
• Creative Energy: Renewing the fight for renewables

Museums

• Marketing Museums: From the Web to the Door
• The Public is Present: Exhibition Subsites at MoMA
• Radically Open Cultural Heritage Data on the Web
• Buttons & Boogers, A year at the Exploratorium
• Virtual Playdate With Mona Lisa
• Out of this World Engagement

Making Art with Tech

• Theatre: Games Audiences Play
• Film, Art and Branding in Experiential Design
• The frontline report of Japanese Interactive Arts
• QR Codes, Technology, and a New Era of Fine Art
• Artists in Labs: Participatory Design at Eyebeam
• 3D – From Idea Concept to Money Maker
• Doing it in a Browser: UX Design and Internet Art
• Storytelling Within a Self-Propagating Engine
• Mobilizing Digital Design
• You’ve made Something Good, but is it Art?
• Virtual Gets Physical: The Future of Installations
• Living in Media: Cinekid’s Experimental Garden

Arts Convos that happen to be taking place during a Tech conference

• Everything is a Remix, So Steal Like An Artist
• Transmedia Writing for Screenwriters
• Cultural Conversation: Do we need Arts Journalism?
• Creative Business Models Beyond Copyright
• Tagging Culture: Digital’s Memetic Legacy 9
• DIY Design for Social Innovation

Artists Meet Techs

• Creative Love Bytes
• Meetup : Booze, Bites and Branding
• Expose yourself: Create a Design Career Mashup
• Why Creative Technologists Are the Future

And now for something a little different…The following panels didn’t actually mention art. But when reading the descriptions, their possible applicability to artists, makers, and managers was unmistakable:

• How the 2nd screen changes sports journalism
• Turn Inspiration to Action: Connect with Mobile
• Reykjavik’s Best Party and radical social media
• Storytelling Beyond Words: New Forms of Journalism
• Beyond Screens:Design for Interactive Environments
• “Making” stories: Libraries & community publishing
• Brain-Based Bonding: Winning People w/ Experiences