Notes for an Unconference

Attending Playeverything unconference at Contact later today. Need to cohere thoughts. Perhaps some McLuhan-ish CounterBlasts.

Need to think again where I am in the creative spectrum: am I primary producer (poet) secondary producer (editor) or tertiary producer (critic) and are these even distinctions in my work.

Collaboration: is it the same as participation? Are games collaborative - or does there have to be a creative outcome as well as a "rewards" outcome. (Lego=Building Creativity. Foursquare=Collecting Rewards.) Didn't I grow out of wanting House Points when I was about 14?

Opensource models / D.I.Y. production / curated-collated participatory projects. As an artist/writer/musician do I want to "let" community produce work or do I want to produce work in/for a community.

Consumption as well as production. 2 days of conference where I was essentially looking at Powerpoints. Old style audience-role, rather than new-style "art of with".

Contextualisation and dissemination: I think its important to have a cultural breadth of knowledge. Ideas are serendipitous as well as people.

Play is serious. Or rather... if you are building a D.I.Y. instrument shouldn't it be more about then creating some serious "outputs" rather than a (say) iPad orchestra playing chopsticks again.

My old question: are writers "cultural middlemen" - repurposing stories that are then repurposed e.g. for games.

Most experts/academics/creatives are niche - even when (especially when?) they're proclaiming multi-disciplinary work.

Other people can fill in the very large gaps I have in my skillbase.

Have fun. Submerge myself.