Wednesday 22 May 2013

Panoply at Open Circuit

May saw Panoply appearing at Open Circuit, the opening event of Short Circuit, 'a strategic action research project commissioned by Arts Council England, designed to put digital acumen and disability artistry together.' http://shortcircuit.org.uk/. Short Circuit is facilitating collaboration between digital technicians and disabled artists and investigating how the digital world can increase access to the arts. A range of excellent presentations and table discussions were on throughout the day, including a talk by artist Rachel Gadsden. Rachel paints, draws and makes digital animations; she had just returned from the Middle East, where her exhibition This Breathing World formed part of an Arts and Disability Festival in Qatar. There’s more about the participants here: http://shortcircuit.org.uk/panoply and check out the video of the day at: http://shortcircuit.org.uk/open-circuit/.

Sonya gave a brief presentation about Panoply’s vision for artefact animation and Steve led a table discussion detailing the Panoply approach. We spoke about the potential vase animations have for reaching across boundaries, particularly audio boundaries, and valuable feedback gave us lots to think about and build on. One idea was to explore the use of sign language in future animations. Look out for the artistic results of Short Circuit’s collaborative creation event coming up on the 8th-9th June.

Meanwhile, thanks very much to AWOL (ancient world online) for featuring Panoply on their excellent site: http://www.ancientworldonline.blogspot.co.uk/.


(an Open Circuit table discussion featuring Dolly Sen and Damian Toal)