The 2010 UnSummit is an alternative, “unconference” for those in the interactive profession. It is being held on June 26th with the stated goals of “full participation, full dissemination and free admission — all the things that traditional conferences are not.” You can register here. The event will be held at the CoCo – Coworking and Collaborative Space in Saint Paul’s Lowertown district. This is perfect because CoCo is sort of an UnOffice.
I’m still a little unsure about what is going to happen at the UnSummit but things should get interesting as the group gathers to apply some brain pressure against the community’s collective hemorrhaging. The official theme is “Solve for X. Where X = your problem.” So, unless your problem is fear of open-ended conference themes you should come and participate in the unintended consequences. Hope to see you there.
that we hope to see you tonight!
it’s our very first first friday with the lowertown art scene and we’d love to spend it with you!
friday, may 7 (tonight!)
6:30 until we’re tired
the jax building #307
253 east 4th street, st. paul
have you heard of first fridays in lowertown? it’s a simple concept, but one that totally works: artists open their studios on the first friday of every month (except for april and october, when everyone is getting ready for the art crawl).
and so we’re going to have our studio door open and have us a little party while we participate in our very first first friday. so swing by, check out some fine posters by us and some of our lovely friends (like brad surcey, barrett and melanie haroldson, the middle coast collective and bill ferenc). we’ll have some soda and other beverages (and a bottle opener this time – thanks, kate!), but feel free to bring your own and add to the fun.
the details:
first friday with redblackbrown
the jax building #307
253 east 4th street, st. paul
friday, may 7, 6:30
hope to see you there!
Jessica and Zara’s new shtudio in Lowertown Saint Paul opened for the semi-annual Saint Paul Art Crawl last weekend. Posters were sold. Cookies were munched. More on this as we reflect on the experience…and gather links to the people we want to thank.
Local advertising maven Pat Fallon will be featured on MPR’s Midmorning today at 10:00 a.m. (91.1 fm in the Twin Cities or listen online by clicking the blue button in the narrow center column) He’ll be speaking about the future of advertising. If you miss it the podcast should wind up here.
The University of Minnesota provides quite a few great resources that are both excellent and free. Promotion however is often not excellent so events are easy to miss and are not as well attended as they should be. The Upcoming Disruptive Effects symposium is breaking that mold. The bad news is that it isn’t free – though it is still a bargain relative to the cost of many creative industry events. The good news is that Larsen is a sponsor so there are posters and a website and I know about it far enough in advance to blog about it. This symposium is worth considering since it looks like it will break another mold as well. Namely those stale presentations of the presenter’s past work in favor of a multi-disciplinary dialogue about what could be. Take a look, take a chance and take the opportunity to challenge the participants. This may be one time they’ll appreciate the disruption.
Frontline On Our Digital Nation
PBS (which is arguably the only reason to own a television) hosts a plethora of quality programing including a fantastic, in depth, news program called Frontline. On Tuesday, February 2nd at 9:00 p.m. (In the Twin Cities) Frontline is airing “Digital Nation”. If you are reading this blog there is a good chance you work in a digital design field. But, whatever you do you are deeply immersed in the changes interactive media is having on our culture. Changes with far reaching consequences for everything from socialization to attention span, entertainment to warfare. Spending an hour pondering these consequences will likely be tremendously informing (and empowering if it is your job to create whatever comes next). You can see a preview on the pbs.org website.
Frontline has also been running a digital nation website about these issues where you can learn more, share your own story and take a quiz – while you email, txt, instant message and listen to music….
In a related vein NPR recently ran an interesting story about research that suggests many who think they are great at multitasking… aren’t.