Thursday, July 20, 2006

Creating, Connectivity, and Collaboration

The spirit of the new technology is to increase the interaction of people on many different levels. In the performing arts, using digital technology for creating, connecting, and collaborating is become a new way of experiencing and making artistic works.

Digital Technology provides many applications for creative expression. In some ways, artistic, creative expression has led to the explosion of popularity of these new technologies. There are very serious ways of processing visual arts, of exploring, capturing, and choreographing movement, of developing plays and providing ways of broadcasting plays and dramatic events, of creating music, notating music, of distributing, sharing, and making music. The new technologies are empowering individual creative development and expression.

Perhaps the most dramatic development has been the extension of connectivity so that broad band connections to the Internet have become more or less the standard, and interactive web sites are designed for that level of connectivity. The mobile phone is redefining our ideas about connectivity, and many new ways of interacting are emerging.

These technologies have contributed to the spirit of collaboration. Collaborating to create new ideas in the arts, education, science, business, history, and on and on, has become the norm and digital applications are emerging (such as WIKIs, multiuser word processing, etc.) that enhance and support the collaborative process as a dynamic, unfolding human activity.

Somewhat paradoxically, Creating, Connectivity, and Collaboration emerge as a means to extend individual development and expression.