Change: Debate

Various Artists

Sunday 10 November, 10:00am - 5:00pm

WELLGATE SHOPPING CENTRE
Level 2, Space 5
Dundee, DD1 2DB

NEoN is delighted to be working with Dundee based artist and curator Saoirse Anis to bring you the first workshop in our Change:Debate series addressing the work that must be done by us, together with Dundee’s many creative institutions to champion, support and nourish the work of artists of colour.
This workshop will be led and delivered by PoC artists, makers and activists who work in the digital sector to discuss their practice, share their experience of the industry and lead a dialogue about the vital challenges it must overcome.

Delivered and guided by Jazmin Morris, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, and Shay Thompson, the day will take the form of hands-on activities, stories, discussion and drawing up suggested routes for future development. The space will be safe but challenging and a place for listening but for being heard, a place for growth and change.

Programme for the day

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley 10:00 am-12:00 pm
Shay Thompson 12.30 pm-1.30 pm – Talk – We’re talking about Diversity all wrong
Jazmin Morris 2:00 pm-5:00 pm – workshop – Redesigning representation in games
Some laptops will be available but please do bring one along if you can.

About the Artists

Saoirse Anis is a Dundee-based artist and curator. She takes delight in exploring the relationships between materials, memories, and the essential movement which runs through everything. Interested in the value of empathy, she has recently been thinking about personal therapeutic processes, and how this relates to the ways we share our vulnerabilities with others. She is interested in the potential that lies in creative collaboration, and the extent to which it can nurture and inspire us, both personally and politically.

Jazmin Morris is a Creative Technologist. Her personal practice focuses on the complexities within simulating culture and identity through virtual games and experiences. Technology is used as a creative toolset to respond to predetermined ideologies and cultural and political theory. Jazmin works across institutions around London focusing on alternative STE(A)M education for diverse groups of people. The workshop, Redesigning representation in games, will provide an insight into Jazmin’s conceptual practice as well as guide participants through basic game development concepts.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley is an artist working predominantly in animation, sound and performance to communicate their experience as a Black Trans person. Their practice focuses on recording the lives of Black Trans people, intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell Trans stories. Spurred on by a desire to meet buried bodies like theirs, their work dreams of a Trans archive where Black Trans people could share their buried experiences.

Throughout history, Black queer and Trans people have been erased from the archives. Because of this it is necessary not only to archive our existence but also the many creative narratives we have used and continue to use to share our experiences.

Shay Thompson is a video games presenter, currently working for McLaren, hosting panels and podcasts for Bafta and previously streaming for Xbox UK. Interests include romancing alien squadmates, spending too much time in the character creator and trying to pet all the cats. Shay is also the founder of Level Up Link Up, an event aiming to make the games industry a more diverse place.

Image Credit: Jazmin Morris