IRL Conference

OVERVIEW

Discussing Digital Worlds while AFK

IRL conference is an art and technology conference I conceptualized to investigate how digital culture manifests into the real world. This project served as an incubator for comprehensive art and philosophy research and an opportunity to fully visualize this event if it were to happen In Real Life.

Role:
Event Promotion, Graphic Design
Instruction:
Delphine Keim
2023

CONCEPT

Humanities-First

I wanted this speculative conference to have an institutional attachment. Placing IRL Conference within the sponsorship of an institution provides cultural significance and places the values of the conference strongly within the humanities. I chose the Buffalo AKG Art Museum for their dedication to valuing digital artworks at the same value and traditional mediums. “Server Farm” serves as a speculative program to exist within the Buffalo AKG Art Museum as a permanent host for file-based artworks and other digital forms.

The ideas brought forward from this curated group of thinkers would be diluted if the event was held through digital means. While IRL Conference is about the internet, it should only serve as a subject, not the medium.

IDENTITY

Pixel-Pushed

I wanted IRL to have an ever-adapting identity that morphs into different forms from year to year, reflecting the ever-changing pace of digital culture. For this inaugural conference, I utilized distorted colors and textures overlayed with a large pixel grid to mimic the effect of a broken LCD screen. The fluorescent blue overlay is an homage to the “blue screen of death”. For typography, I manipulated a heavily-stylized monospace typeface to represent the utility of the type style and its history with digital computing.

OTHER WORK

Aescape x Equinox

Dwell

Here We Have Idaho

Work
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