How have the technologies that surround us shaped how we see ourselves?

This weekend I dove into the Barbican Weekender, a mini-festival of digital workshops and activities that explored how technology, tools and gadgets are changing our everyday lives. We also examined image and identity through art and technology, across the theme “We Create: Technology for Self-expression”.

Have you ever considered 3D printing your own head? I was very impressed by Black Country Atelier, who helped us to ‘do it yourself’ in the Digital Makers workshop. I also mixed my own tune with Musicjelly and projected my energy as part of Dance Spectroscopy’s installation, Hidden Fields. I got the chance to express myself through movement, colourful shapes, psychedelic images & music.

Hidden Fields 2013 from danceroom Spectroscopy on Vimeo.

SketchTag offered coding and animation workshops, while Fereverd Sleep displayed an interactive work where I could hear, see and touch sounds through a giant blue sphere.

Our friends from Umbrellium launched a wearable game, Transformer, where players collect light tokens hidden in the dark – a very fun and innovative way of play.

After the installation at the Barbican last year, Rain Room, was so successful that it developed an 8-hour long queue. In 2014 United Visual Artists fill The Curve with a time and space experience called Momentum. The installation was a choreographed sequence of light, sound and movement that made me feel lost and found within the 90-metre piece – if you have yet to experience it, I’d highly recommend a visit. Momentum will be hosted until June.

The Barbican Centre’s fantastic tribute to science & art will be running across spring and summer. It provides artists with a platform to explore the ways that digital technology and social media enables the global audience to interact, see and hear videos, music, images and art instantly.

In fact, one of the things I noticed most over the Weekender was how much the audience was encouraged to tweet & post their experience in Tumblr. The social bubble kept everything instantly shared and enabled the artists to keep track of feedback.

Having to engage with this twittersphere was definitely worth exploring the world we live in with such fantastic tools and interesting insight. If you missed the Weekender, Darren Johnston is returning to the Barbican next Saturday to blur the boundaries between dance, theatre and the visual arts.