Co-pilot: shared resources for practitioners working at the intersection of art, technology and social change

Co-Pilot is a test online incubator for developing participatory arts and technology projects., developed in partnership between Solar Associates and SPACE Media Arts. It aims to establish an open conversation around participatory art, community involvement and the impacts of technology for expanding and diversifying participation in art and society. Recognising the futility of developing a ubiquitous set of "professional development tools" for artists active in an area remarkable for its diversity and bespoke working processes, Co-Pilot instead aims to open up space for sharing and exploring frameworks, methodologies and experiences.

Co-Pilot will be active as an online resource in mid 2008, inviting ‘live’ interaction and involvement from artists and organisations for 1 month only. Each week a guest host will be commissioned to blog on the site, to raise questions and to develop conversation around the issues of community and social involvement in art and technology projects.

Co-pilot has developed on from The Not Quite Yet: On the Margins of Technology, an initiative led by DemTech (Democratising Technology), a research project of which SPACE Media Arts is a partner. Involving artist residencies, an exhibition and a Symposium in spring 2008, the project raised questions about older people's involvement in, and exclusion from, technological design processes. Solar Associates ran scoping exercises at a series of Artist Development Days that ran in parallel to the exhibition, gathering data from and offering advice and support to practitioners.

The artists involved in The Not Quite Yet  - Manu Luksch + Mukul Patel, Loraine Leeson, Stacy Makishi and Lois Weaver -  worked with a range of groups of older people in Hackney, East London, to produce art works and to build and discover new insights and relationships. We interviewed each of the artists about their views on the project, and to discuss wider questions around working in this area. These will be available as podcasts when Co-pilot launches shortly, and demonstrate how Co-pilot may become an adaptive framework that can take projects such as The Not Quite Yet  as a point of departure to explore the fast-changing landscape of participatory art and technology practice.
 
If you'd like to join the mailing list to receive updates about Co-pilot, please email info@solarassociates.net with 'Co-pilot mailing list' as the title of your email.