OUGD602 - SP-AN Newcastle

Recently I attended Google's design and technology conference SP-AN, and each year the event is normally hosted in big metropolises such as Tokyo or L.A but this year Google decided to visit three cities where art and industry intersect in new and intriguing ways. And I wad lucky enough to venture back home to Newcastle to see one of them, 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 a introductory talk from 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. None were better than the first talk of the evening, 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. 

At times during his talk my mind was baffled as he talked about architecture and our environment having such an effect on the way we live our lives, and how he looks at structures and shapes in a slightly musical way. Nevertheless I made a connection between his work and my context of practice research, as my research aims to  touch critically on the the label of 'postmodernism' in electronic music, but my main concern is to suggest that electronic music represents ’noise’ in an aesthetic, identity and experience form. Ed visually represents rhythm within structures so I couldn't not relate this to potential context of practice practical ideas.

Another aspect of the night that influenced my thoughts about context of practice were 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 cant 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.

Although I gained valuable potential research for context of practice, it wasn't the highlight of the night for me. It was a fellow geordie, Jimmy Turrell who stole the show for me due to his natural charisma and confidence while presenting. I was familiar with Jimmy's work prior to the event as I researched his font FS Erskin for a project last year. And luckily enough he touched upon his influences and process for designing it in the talk, and I found it rather impelling that he looked at retro kids games to influence the design.