602 - SP-AN Newcastle 2017

Recently I attended Google's design and technology conference SP-AN in Newcastle Gateshead - each year the event has usually been hosted in big cities like Tokyo or L.A, but this year Google decided to visit three cities where art and industry intersect in new and intriguing ways. 
For this particular event Google teamed up with ItsNiceThat to spend the day exploring the city’s rich creative tech scene through a series of inspiring conversations and a hands-on workshop. 

The evening began with an introductory talk from the managing director of ItsNiceThat, Alex Bec who introduced ItsNiceThat's involvement with the event and why they helped bring SP-AN to Newcastle but to move onto the talks which aimed to raise the questions of the intersecting of design, art, science and technology. 

The first talk of the evening was by Ed Carter; his work creates context-specific, musical compositions and interdisciplinary artworks, with a focus on process and the translation of shared architectonic principles across art forms. 

It was very interesting, yet complicated, to hear about he allows sound and musical pieces to inform the physical structure of his buildings; representing how environment and different emotion from sound can be re-translated into something visual.

Another intriguing aspect of the night, which touched into this, were the projected visuals mapped on the conference halls side walls. The visuals depicted a journey through Newcastle which interprets the city both thorough ambient city sound and airborne microscopic pollution in ways that can't necessarily be seen. Again it was inspiring to see how sound can potentially be visualised but this time through 3D abstract shapes and not architecture like Ed specialises in.

The highlight of the night for me was proud geordie, Jimmy Turrell who stole the show for me due to his natural charisma and confidence while presenting. 

I was only familiar with Jimmy through his feature on It'sNiceThat for his bespoke typeface - FS Erskin. But his talk discussed his early influences, his whole Geordie background and the process behind his previous works. 

I am definitely going to look slightly deeper into Jimmy Turrell and do some research into more of his work, as he was incredibly inspiring and all-round nice bloke! Could definitely try and get in touch!

To finish the evening, we received a talk from Newcastle based collective studio Novak - who focus mainly in the realm of light projections and motion design. 

Their largest project, Dr Blighty, was a multi arts event produced by Nutkhut and presented at the Brighton Festival 2016.

It featured a highly ambitious and emotive projection mapping of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, designed and animated by NOVAK in collaboration with Nutkhut.

Inspired by the remarkable story of when Brighton’s Royal Pavilion Estate became a military hospital for wounded Indian soldiers during the First World War. Accompanying the projection was a specially commissioned soundtrack by Shri and Ed Carter.

USEFUL QUOTES TAKEN FROM THE EVENING-

"Mixing analogue techniques from the past with imagery and subject matter from the present can create strange hybrid worlds." - Jimmy Turrell

"The art world is bound to the economy. Artist occupation has allowed us to unlock the potential social and cultural value of spaces, but how do we retain our future while retaining our creative freedom?" - Charlotte Gregory

"Practice makes Practice"