Digital Participation Programme

Folly pioneers socially engaged digital art for the North West through a new Digital Participation Programme that tests the power of the arts to transcend the digital divide.

As an official Race Online 2012 partner, folly is delivering a series of action research projects specifically designed to reach digitally excluded people and communities.

The projects will test the power of the arts to motivate people to get online, provide deeper, more varied and enriching digital participation opportunities, and examine the potential of contemporary art to help create and sustain a Networked Nation.

Digital participation is “increasingly crucial for full participation in 21st Century society.” (Digital Britain, 2009 report by DCMS and DBIS). Race Online have challenged us in their Manifesto for a Networked Nation to “...work together to build a country where everyone has access to the transformative power of the internet.”

Folly's Digital Participation Programme aims to do just that by testing the power of the arts to provide new and unique inspiration and motivations to get online.

At the core of this work is our belief in the importance of digital literacy, something that is about far more than functional ICT skills - it's about understanding how we relate to each other, contribute to society, make and share meaning, in a current and future digital context. We're setting out to prove that artistic and creative experiences are an excellent way to support this level of literacy and motivation, and in the process introduce hundreds of people in the Northwest to the benefits and joys of digital engagement.

The Digital Participation Programme builds on folly's extensive knowledge and expertise of socially engaged digital arts practice, and has seen folly develop unique third-sector partnerships which in the last year have delivered:

Radar - a programme of artists' residencies in public libraries across Lancashire. Radar saw three resident artists, Jennie Savage, Jorn Ebner and David Titley, each work collaboratively and creatively with library staff, users and communities across the county, considering the role of libraries as free and accessible public gateways to culture. Each residency produced unique and experimental artistic responses which can be accessed online and within the host libraries, and left a broader legacy of inspiration, ideas and motivation. The scheme was a partnership with the Lancashire Library Service and funded by Lancashire County Council.

Space Invaders – a youth-led project which allowed groups of young people in Greater Manchester and Lancaster to develop and showcase their own interactive games with leading artists in the field, make films, compose music, and have access to technology to which they wouldn’t otherwise have access. Developed in partnership with Lets Go Global and artists and technologists Andrew Wilson, Paul Coulton of Mobile Radicals and Nikki Woods. The project was support by Mediabox and Trafford Council.

Rita Marcalo R&D residency – a short residency in partnership with Prism Arts hosted by Lanternhouse. Rita Marcalo is an internationally award winning artist and choreographer, known for her risk-taking approach. The residency allowed her the time and space to develop new ideas and digital approaches for future participative projects with the partners. As part of her residency Rita gave a public talk exploring the connections between the epileptic body and dance - Feeling Like I Do: She’s Lost Control and the Phenomenology of an Epileptic Seizure.

Research with Spinning Yarns – a short research project with Prism Art's Spinning Yarns, an arts and social development programme for older people throughout Cumbria, which sought to better understand the role that experimental socially engaged digital arts practice could play in developing older people's digital literacy.

Upcoming projects include:

Podcamp – an art project based in Grizedale Forest, providing the unique opportunity for young carers across Cumbria to engage with digital technology and explore the forest environment. Carers aged 18 and under will take part in two residential camping weekends in the forest in June. A partnership between folly, the Forestry Commission, Grizedale, and Connexions Cumbria. Funded by a grant from the Northern Rock Foundation and the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund.

In order to get the most out of this programme folly has established Bugs, a research taskforce programme for 2011, aiming to provide an in-depth and expert examination of the value and impact of socially engaged digital arts practice on the digitally excluded.