About
Third Place Technologies is partnering with Future Arts, with the support of Cornish College of the Arts and Artist Trust, to organize a one-day symposium for the Pacific Northwest arts and technology community bringing together practitioners, educators, and community organizers working at the intersections of art, technology, and design.
Background
In 2014, a group of practitioners, educators, and media at the intersection of art, technology, and design hosted a workshop at Cornish, bringing together key stakeholders in the region to discuss how to foster emerging genres of interdisciplinary, technology-mediated art in the Pacific Northwest. They produced a white paper and later a publication in ISEA [1] defining this communities’ special characteristics, articulating and prioritizing the community’s common goals, and proposing a series of activities as next steps toward fostering this community, leading to numerous initiatives in the region. See white paper here.
However, over ten years later, while there is still a high density of technology creatives in the Pacific Northwest – artists, developers, technologists, designers, entrepreneurs – there is a general sense this community is fractured and underserved, in part due to the devastating effect on arts, tech, and community infrastructure brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
We are hosting this Arts and Tech Symposium to help reconnect former and emerging stakeholders in the arts and tech space, share knowledge about what inspires us, articulate our current goals and priorities as a community of practice in the Pacific Northwest, and identify concrete activities for improved community cohesion and resources.
Event Goals
- Increased arts and tech community connection and cohesion
- Creative inspiration through exposure to recent work and emerging technologies
- Improved awareness of and access to arts and tech community resources
- Life-long learning through peer knowledge-sharing
- Mapping the people, places, and events in the arts and tech community in the PNW and sharing through online tools
Organizing Committee
- Shelly Farnham (Artist, Community Catalyst/Researcher, President, Third Place Technologies),
- Genevieve Tremblay (Artist, Community Catalyst/Researcher, Third Place Technologies),
- Yuliya Bruk & Anna Czoski (Future Arts),
- Jeff Brice (Artist/Researcher, Educator, Cornish College of the Arts),
- Joseph Gray (Artist, Creative Technologist)
- Jacob Fennell (Artist, Creative Technologist)
- Lydia Boss (Artist, and Program Director, Artist Trust)
Organizing Partners
Third Place Technologies is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the mission to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, community, and life-long learning for artists, creative technologists, and civic activists. We provide spaces, events, and new technologies for the creative community at the intersection of art, technology, and civic engagement to create, collaborate, learn, and share their work.
Future Arts is a 501(c)3 non-profit that develops interdisciplinary residency programs, accessible public art initiatives, and community events for underserved artists working with technology.
Supporting Partners
We thank Cornish for generously allowing us to host the event in their 9th Avenue Gallery and providing other event infrastructure.
We thank Artist Trust for providing organizational support, including providing resources to share with our community of artists and creative technologists.
Other Supporting Organizations
Our ongoing activities including the Arts and Tech Symposium are made possible in part through grants and other forms of sponsorship from:
[1] Farnham, S., Brice, J., Tremblay, G., Christie, C., and da Silva, A. (2015). Fostering a community of innovation at the intersection of art and technology in the Pacific Northwest. In Proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art.