Testing Space

As I used to do here's a few ideas about ways of moving forward. After a lot of thought what needs doing with Test Space is scaling down- or more maybe more freedom, a way of experimenting, playing testing ideas in some way. This notion of large concepts- multi platform events, themed programmes, lots of things happen is right. But it's this concept of build up that is wrong.

I've started to look at this Sandpit concept that Hide and Seek use

This is good- one event a month.

The Sandpit
Sandpit lives in London and tours the country with games designed, tested and enjoyed by its amazing community of makers.

Created in Feburary 2008. the Sandpit is a monthly pervasive gaming night in London. For designers and game-makers, it’s a curated space to test out new ideas; for players, it’s a regular evening of interesting playful work. It takes place a different location each month, from art galleries to theatres to underground nightclubs.

The key things are monthly curated space to test out new ideas It takes place a different location each month, from art galleries to theatres to underground nightclubs.

Now I can see something coming together, the other thing I started to look at was TEDx. I looked at TED mainly as I want to break out of the gallery format, what was most interesting for me during the first Test Space showcases were the talks combined with events(Click 'n Sup) or music or DJing. This is where I could see some real themes and concepts emerging- they were rough but you could see similar discussions and ideas about independence, freedom and working for yourself coming through. Being able to really break way from that 'artistic' creativity into a broader sense of creativity, TED describe it like this

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

TEDx is

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.

At TEDx events, unique talks given by live speakers combine with TEDTalks videos to spark deep conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

but what really grabbed me was this from there venue description:

# Home: A small gathering for a group of friends at a house, library or other intimate location (3-30 people, 2-3 hours)

It's this idea of size of space, type of space, really pushing that 'a friends house' '3 people' scaling it down but retaining the original themes and concepts. It reminded me of 2 Leeds Beechwood Avenue

This was the opening event for 2 Beechwood Avenue, a new gallery space situated in a newly converted basement. I was excited. I always feel priviledged to be going to such intimate affairs as this.

But I can start to see a way forward. Print this post