Affective Digital Presence in Creative Practice

Centre for Arts and Learning 2020-21

Affective Digital Presence in Creative Practice Tuesday 3 November, 6.30-8

Miranda Matthews and Francis Gilbert

In these times of challenge and change we are called upon to reflect on what it means to connect with one another through digital platforms. Since March 2020 many of our physical embodied interactions in practice have been resituated and transferred, as forms of possibility in virtual learning environments. These digital platforms can seem like sanitised machinic assemblages in which the affect of human presence sometimes make itself apparent, and sometimes finds ways of forming resistance. Presence of the other is at once incredibly close, and yet phenomenally distant. Technology can create rapid connections, yet many do not yet have the resources to access emerging opportunities. These are some of the factors that raise important debates in the arts and learning. In this year’s programme of CAL Events we will be looking at how arts practitioners interact with digital interfaces to build affective and inclusive connections, for emotive and interactive learning environments.

Miranda Matthews and Francis Gilbert will be discussing the significance of affect in online learning spaces through arts practice. The combination of free writing and drawing as emotive, expressive, emancipating and cathartic experiences will be contextualised through interdisciplinary practice research. This evening will include workshops in free writing and drawing, as practice based explorations of what it feels like to be human in an online space.