Digital Pivot - Suzy Glass

The Digital Pivot Programme is re-booting.

Digital Pivot 2021 builds on the 2020 cycle of the Digital Pivot mentoring programme. It has been designed as a strategic response to the impacts of Covid-19, supporting makers across Scotland to continue to make authentic, excellent work that connects with people through the use of digital tools and techniques.

The programme targets individual artists and creative practitioners including people employed within small production companies – i.e. you can apply as yourself, not your company. Each participant will work with Suzy to evaluate goals relating to the use of digital tools and technologies in their creative practice, explore the skills required to do this, and discuss how to go about realising ambitions.

There are:
// 2 launch events on the afternoon of 11 May and the morning of 13 May, where you can learn more about digital practice and some of the projects that have been delivered during the pandemic;

// 20 half days of 1-1 support for individual practitioners. These will be delivered remotely and are most likely to take the form of a number of shorter sessions. Suzy will start by talking with each participant about their pre-pandemic work, and then devise a process with you that allows you to explore transitioning and / or extending your practice in ways that are meaningful and consistent with your practice.

The closing date for applications is 27 May 2021. You can read more here, and apply here.

Digital Pivot is an element of the Creative Digital Initiative.

In 2020, Suzy worked with Ashley Hammond-Smith at Creative Scotland to design the Digital Pivot project in 2020 as the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic hit home. It was commissioned as a way of giving one-to-one support to artists, creative practitioners and organisations. The central aim was to support people to negotiate and reposition their content so they could use digital tools to engage people now that in-person interaction was off the cards. We targeted people who were interested in the use of digital tools to make innovative creative work, rather than those wanting to find out more about social media marketing or needing to develop their basic digital skills.

Suzy worked with twenty-two practitioners working across eight artforms, based in seven of Scotland’s local authority areas. Each person – or in some instances groups of people – had access to around three hours of my time. Every approach was tailor-made to suit the specific needs in play. Some people had clearly defined ideas that they wanted to workshop and sense-check over a condensed period of time. Others needed to engage in more open conversations about digital working, requiring longer to process learning in between sessions.

Suzy is in the process of writing up some case studies and findings, these will be published later in 2021.