DIY 2020: Louise Orwin – Brave New Worlds: Building the Live Art Community Discord Server

Brave New Worlds invites you on a deep dive into the world of online teenage role play and DISCORD servers. Under the mentorship of real life teenage discord role players, participants will build their own Live Art Community Discord server and digital universe and undertake 48 hours of durational online role play to ask what we can learn about ourselves and our work from these online practices. Standing on the precipice of re-building ourselves and our worlds post COVID19, can we make like teenagers, and begin to imagine brave new worlds for ourselves from our bedrooms?

This DIY is run in partnership with The Place Bedford.

About the workshop

Brave New Worlds wants you to be a teenager again. 

It wants you to build universes from your bedrooms. 

It wants to know what your utopia looks like, and who you are in it.

Brave New Worlds invites you on a deep dive into Discord and online teenage role-play. Borrowing practices from the world of fanfiction and online roleplay, this workshop will give participants the chance to build their own digital universe, starting with this question: What would the fanfiction version of our Live Art Community look like? And who would you be in it? Would you present work in the performance space, gossip in the bar after, while away the wee hours at the queer dance party? Or would you burn it all down and build new spaces entirely? Asking questions about digital culture and game theory, identity and community, we will ask what we can learn about ourselves, our work and potentially The Future from digital spaces, and from teenagers. Standing on the precipice of re-building ourselves and our worlds post COVID19, can we make like teenagers, and begin to imagine brave new worlds for ourselves from our bedrooms?

This workshop is for those who are curious about playing these ideas; want to explore digital art-making and community-building practices; are curious what they can learn from teenagers about The Future; or are just feeling like it would be nice to hang with some other artists online for some time. All skill levels are welcome, from digital experts to tech idiots (I’m in the latter camp). The workshop will take place from our bedrooms over 4 days, steered by and using the help of a guide compiled and written by teenage Discord role-players I have recently been working with. On Day 1 we will build our universe and characters according to a guide written ; on Days 2 and 3 we will undertake 48hrs of durational role play; and on Day 4 we will de-role, de-brief and rest.

Dates and location

Dependent on group availability, the workshop will run on either:

Thursday 12 – Sunday 15 November or Monday  23 – Thursday 26 November

Rough Structure:

  • Day 1: Welcome + Server/Character Building Day
  • Day 2 + 3: 48 hour Durational Role-Play Session
  • Day 4: De-roling and De-briefing Day

The workshop will take place online, and participants will be able to join via zoom/Discord from their bedrooms (or somewhere else appropriate in their homes).

How to apply

This DIY is open to anyone over 18, of any skill level, who considers themselves part of the Live Art community. You will need a laptop/computer with a working mic and webcam to participate.

To apply please answer the following questions on this form. Please note there is word count for guidance, but don’t feel you need to use all of the word count if you don’t need it. If you would rather send a video please send a video thats’s no longer than 5 mins via wetransfer to [email protected].

  • Why are you interested in this workshop? (200 words)
  • What does a brave new world look like to you? (300 words)
  • What do you think you could bring to the Live Art Community Discord Server? (300 words)
  • What was your favourite thing to do as a teenager?(50 words)
  • Tell me briefly about your skill level/experience with digital practices/Discord (100 words)

About the artist

Louise Orwin is a London-based live artist and Discord idiot. She makes provocative research-based video and performance projects which investigate identity and violence, often made with and alongside marginalised communities. Most recently her work has explored what it means to identify as a queer femme in a world that prizes masculinity, straightness, whiteness.

She has a substantial body of work which has toured to performance spaces, galleries and festivals internationally. www.louiseorwin.com

For more information please contact: [email protected]

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