Zero 1 and the Dancing Project

This blog is not specifically the place to discuss technology's use in creating art - that's a much broader and experimental field than the rather more mundane "Using technology in arts organizations to further their mission" (see? it just doesn's sound as exciting, does it?). I'm also a bit of a late adopter, a stance I want to make specific in this blog - as you will see in some of my following posts.

However, I do want to point to Silicon Valley art nonprofit Zero 1, an innovative technology-meets-art organization. Stepping back from the innovative part, I wanted to point to the tools they developed to build community and share experiences on the web during their Dancing on the Web, Dancing on the Ocean project:

The OpenVoice built and maintained the website [I fixed this link] for this project, as communication tool to connect the multiple and diverse Silicon Valley youth groups to each other, to the Joko Clubs in Senegal, and to a growing website audience. The performers wrote journals of their experience on the website and posted stories that relate to the experience of working with and making friends with their counterparts in a country and culture very different from their own.

Note: The actual project website is almost 4 years old, and a lot of the links are dead or link to a domain squatter. And fwiw - Zero 1 used to be called Ground Zero (pre 9/11/01). But! What a great idea!

If you want to catch up with Zero 1 Director Steve Dietz, check out San Jose's Future Salon free evening event on Feb 15th (RSVP and ride-shairng requested).