SXSW 2019 Keyword Spotlight: 'Culture’
Believe it or not, we’re already on the downslope of voting season for next year’s SXSW. With less than one week left to vote in the SXSW PanelPicker, this is the public’s last opportunity to weigh in on what kind of content deserves to be featured.
Deserves, because such an important conference bringing diverse people and perspectives from all over the world really isn’t and shouldn’t be a popularity contest. Fortunately the process is designed to consider popularity, but not rely on it, letting the voting process account for about a third of the score that will determine what will be featured. Other factors and a smart editorial board will determine the rest.
Out of more than 5,000 proposals, barely a tenth will make the schedule.
PanelPicker has a great interface for surfacing interesting topics out of the 5,595 candidates. Let’s look at one keyword: ‘culture’
Culture: the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.
As a kid growing up in the deep south in the 1970's, my sense of what was culture was — or at least my memories of it — was that it was very distinctly different than the images and movies and sounds from everywhere else. New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, even London, these were all so far removed, and so much more exotic to me than my small town in Mississippi. Then the 80’s and my teen years came along, accompanied by MTV and big shopping malls, and it seemed like everything everywhere started converging together.
It wouldn’t be weird to see girls dressing like Madonna or Molly Ringwald, or heavy metal gods like Ozzy or Metallica. Because of the reach and influence of various media, Culture in America was becoming much less regional. Then the Internet happened, and a culture could be anywhere and everywhere, all at once.
Fast-forward to 2018, and I wonder if something hasn’t been lost in all this Instagram, YouTube, and Internet-culture excess. I have a feeling a lot of SXSW-hopefuls have answers to my question.
Brands are increasingly drivers of cultural change, and several proposals acknowledge and discuss their role and responsibilities, especially in an era of polarization.
Can Brands Help Stop Our Damn Fighting?
The last time the United States was as split along political, cultural, and racial lines as it is today, Abraham Lincoln was president. Cracks that began in the decades before his 1860 election culminated the next year in the country’s ultimate divide. Here we are, a century-and-a-half later, one country — but it often doesn’t feel that way. Will we ever come together? And can brands help? The answer in both cases is a qualified yes.
Same Planet, Different Worlds: A New Culture
It’s no secret that brands need to play in culture to remain relevant and connect with consumers. But in today’s world, politics and movements have become embedded within culture, it’s a part of consumers’ lives and has infiltrated all aspects of media. Brands simply won’t win by avoiding historically dreaded political topics as they have in the past; in an age of distrust, brands must stand for something.
The Internet is a leading driver of culture, and some proposals seek to examine that link.
Viral Culture: The Internet’s Effect on Us All
The internet is drastically [changing] what we consume, and how we consume it. More than that: It’s changing who we are and how we relate to each other. Hear internet culture experts discuss the implications. The dizzying rise of visual culture on the internet, from GIFs to YouTube video to Insta Stories, represents a sea change in how we represent, and think of, ourselves.
Internet Culture is Terrible and It’s Your Fault
Doxxing, #tidepods, #planebae, #MAGA, Instagram stars falling to their death to get the right shot. We have hit peak Internet Culture and the reality is bleak. A society that is overly focused on the vapid, the mean, the uniformed and the shallow. Social media has thrown gasoline on what was once a controlled burn. Collectively the media, advertising and technology industries need to take a hard look at how we got here, how we enabled this and what we need to do to fix it.
Our modern culture is impacted heavily by technology. Not only does it create culture, it can help capture and convey it too.
Not Your Father’s Cyborg: Mobile Tech Evolved Us
People “disconnect,” “tune-in,” “recharge,” “link-up,” and “go on auto-pilot.” They use devices to access their digital selves, an elusive identity both separate and indistinguishable from their real selves. And not only are humans becoming more machine-like, but technology is expected to be more and more human-like. We will explore the history of how mobile technology and social media have evolved human culture and identity, as well as the implications for how brands look, feel, and sound in a world where the line between human and cyborg has never been more blurred.
Art, Race + Open Web VR: The Colored Girls Museum
Open web VR is still in its early days. With a toolkit that includes A-frame, Azure, photogrammetry, affordable headsets and the promise of Firefox Reality, the Alliance is building a model for accessible, co-creative, XR experiences in the browser that merges documentary, fantasy, and the social imaginary. While we think boldly together about the cultural future of the web and the impact of VR storytelling, you’ll get a preview of The VR Colored Girls Museum, from the women (and men) working to create it.
And finally, food is culture. Culture is food.
The Evolution of Regional BBQ
As one of the most hotly debated food topics, regional barbeque is one of the longest standing American culinary traditions with deep cultural and personal affiliations, especially for Southerners. In 2017, the proclamation that Brooklyn barbeque is a new regional style taking over the world by VICE ignited a furry of social media rage, and commentary on what defines authentic, regional barbeque. Pit Master Charlie McKenna of Lillie’s Q cultivated his techniques in South Carolina, then further refined and expanded his techniques and flavors on the competitive barbeque circuit. See him demo some of the latest techniques and recipes that capture the ever-evolving barbeque scenes from the Carolinas to Memphis, and even Brooklyn.
Beyond the Melting Pot: Reclaiming Food Culture
Food is a social and cultural experience. But as a planet in motion, what are the effects of immigration on cultural food identity? With the current political rhetoric on diversity growing more complicated, and often limited access to international cuisine concepts outside of America’s largest cities, how can food identity help preserve and drive cultural education and community? What if there were a way to bring different backgrounds to the table and bridge the gap between cultures within a vibrant community hub? This panel will discuss adaptive reuse in suburbia, which estimates that 25% of malls will have closed by 2020. There is an opportunity in the emptiness: the new American food hall is a social experiment that celebrates cuisines from around the world here on American soil.
And there are many more. After voting for each of these worthy proposals, you can type ‘culture’ in the search bar to look at the other entries in the PanelPicker.
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While you’re there, please also consider voting for my own PanelPicker proposal, You Don’t Need Rockstar Engineers, about creating a communication strategy in a product and engineering organization. Thanks!
