Plutopia, a multifaceted extravaganza, in Austin Monday, March 15

Here's a good reason to stay in Austin on Monday night.

In 2001, Jon Lebkowsky and Cory threw the first annual Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) party during SXSW Interactive, hosted by EFF-Austin. This party became annual tradition, and morphed over the last four years into Plutopia, a multifaceted extravaganza of music, performances, art, and talks, this year based on "The Science of Music." The event is Monday night, March 15, at the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin.

Plutopia 2010 is an amazing convergence of technology, DIY, music, art, and academics. In addition to standard party fare, performance and the arts will play a major role alongside exhibits and talks in presenting the ideas in a way that will make this yet another memorable, stimulating, and fun SXSW after event.

Way beyond the run-of-the-mill "booze and schmooze" after-party mixer, Plutopia is an ever-evolving multimedia experiment of Austin-tatious proportions dedicated to a playful, yet masterful cross-pollination across verticals to bring you an immersive interactive experience event.

This year's Plutopian theme explores the role of technology, sound and digital media in changing the landscape and narrative of music in the information age.

The science refers to everything from immersive listening and the expanding of audio boundaries and experimentation, to new forms of instrumentation, sampling and remixing and emerging creative processes; and from integrated multisensory systems and interfaces with intelligent networks, to the transformations of aesthetics and the changing rhythm of nature.

Monday, March 15, 2010
7pm - midnight
Mexican American Cultural Center
600 River St. Austin, TX
FREE to SXSW Interactive and Platinum Badge Holders; $15 General Public

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Bruce Sterling
Xiao He
DJ Spooky
Black Pig Liberation Front
White
Dr. Strangevibe
and also featuring the Edible Austin Foodie Fest and Tipsy Texan Cocktail Bar!

Unique to this and only this event, Edible Austin magazine is bringing the heart and soul of Austin's local foodie scene and cutting edge mixology to Plutopia and will be hosting out-of-town guests from Eat Well Guide. Full list of food and drink participants here.

Plutopia

• [Fang Xianfu]

  Is the phrasing “an ever-evolving multimedia experiment… a playful, yet masterful cross-pollination across verticals… an immersive interactive experience event” supposed to be ironic? Either way, it’s stupid language even for a press release.

• [Cowicide]

  It just sounds very iMac is all.

  Ironically, I have no idea what YOU mean by saying that really. lol

  • [Dewi Morgan]

    That’s why I defined it in the next sentence. Though admittedly, a colon and quotes would have been more appropriate there.

    “It just sounds very ‘iMac’, is all: pretentious artiste-speak with no actual meaning or substance.”

    • [Cowicide]

      I got your next sentence. I’m speaking of your usage of the term “iMac” to represent those things. I think by using “iMac” in that context, you’re being a pretentious artiste-speaker delivering no actual meaning or substance. Hence, the irony. And, by still not explaining what you mean…

      Oh gawd, the irony…

• [ADavies]

  Hey, I’m just in Austin from Amsterdam. They’ve got some cool experimental sound stuff there as well.

  Anyway, I’ll be at the Plutopia thing. If any Boingers (err, Boingsters? BBers? Folks reading this blog) want to meet up, get me on @AndrewDavies

• [jonl]

  Well, I have to say, though I didn’t write that particular bit of prose, it didn’t seem at all obscure. The idea of “cross-pollination across verticals” comes from our work with digital convergence, where vertical markets and sectors also start converging. We favor interdisciplinary approaches and sharing of ideas across sectors that traditionally haven’t connected. That’s what we’re talking about. “Cross-pollination” is not an unusual term for that sort of thing, and I guess we assumed that “verticals” would be well-understood.

  • [Dewi Morgan]

    @jonl I think it might just be culture clash of terminology. Like, that paragraph you just wrote… to *me* it seems extremely “manager-speak” in tone and content: can you see that if you read it back over? Maybe you can’t, because people can usually not spot their own accents, and maybe that’s true of their modes of speech, too.

    I am TOTALLY guilty of this myself, but with geek terms.

    I think one of my worst is here, which I translated into human in the comments below it: that was a revealing exercise to me, since it showed me just how much content the average reader would be able to “get” out of my post.

    Here’s that paragraph, with [stuff in brackets] containing my best guess at what the jargon means.

    I’ve also starred words or terms that just came across as grating managerspeak that I *could* understand. So, *word* = “buzzword”.

    “Well, I have to say, though I didn’t write that particular bit of prose, it didn’t seem at all obscure. The idea of “cross-pollination across verticals” comes from our work with [no idea: something to do with making digital hardware work together? Unable to guess from context], where [some kind of grouping of companies] also start [co-operating]. We favor [] and sharing of ideas [between those groups of companies] that traditionally haven’t connected. That’s what we’re talking about. “Cross-pollination” is not an unusual term for that sort of thing, and I guess we assumed that “verticals” would be well-understood.”

    When you’re not speaking to someone in your industry, and you’re using jargon, then you’re doing it wrong. If the ad was aimed only at industry-members, that’s actually a *good* thing, since it promotes the “insider” feeling.

    Here’s the jargon paragraph from the original post, with the same treatment:

    Way beyond the run-of-the-mill “booze and schmooze” after-party mixer, Plutopia [will change over time, either over the course of the night, or be different each year: not able to guess from context] [there will probably be both sounds and video] [we're not sure it'll work] of Austin-tatious proportions dedicated to a playful, yet masterful [some kind of communication between some unspecified groups] to bring you an [immersive: you will feel part of the event in some way] [interactive: you will be able to actively do stuff, rather than just experience it] ["experience event" was probably an editing bug, and one or the other word was meant to be deleted].

    This year’s [something to do with Pluto, the planet or the god or something] theme explores the role of technology, sound and digital media in ["changing the landscape and narrative of music in the information age" - best I can come up with is maybe "we're going to see what interesting new stuff we can do, musically and on projection boards"].

    The science refers to everything from ["immersive listening" - wearing headphones?] and the ["expanding of audio boundaries" - making music that's louder, quieter, on different scales, or otherwise not matching standard expectations?] and ["experimentation" - even though you don't know if breaking those expectations will sound awful?], to new forms of instrumentation, sampling and remixing and ["emerging creative processes" - cool new musical shit!]; and from integrated ["multisensory systems" - could be sound and video, could be more senses involved] and ["interfaces with intelligent networks" - really sounds interesting, but no idea what it could mean in this context. Maybe midi instruments communicating to create their own music?], to the ["transformations of aesthetics" - seeing how aesthetics have changed in modern times? Or some experiment to show how, by subtly changing pitch and tone through a track, people can become accustomed to the new way so that repeating it from the start, the beginning sounds jarringly *wrong*?] and the ["changing rhythm of nature" - meaningless marketer-speak?].

• [Stefan Jones]

  No matter where you live, there always seems to be someplace hipper where cool shit happens.

  Damn lucky Austinites!

  • [Dewi Morgan]

    To be honest: there is nowhere hipper than Austin. Not even Amsterdam, though it comes damn close. It’s not just 6th street, it’s the whole city, and the attitude of everyone. Hippies in the south, geeks in the north, and a city slogan of “Keep Austin Weird!”

    Even men flying planes into buildings doesn’t make the city any less cool.

    Cool stuff like this event just rubs in my enforced stay in the UK until I can get my visa and be with my wife, cats, and Austin again.

  • [The Lizardman]

    Everything comes with a price – there is a reason I have gotten out of town during SXSW almost every year for a decade now. I’m glad the city has it for a number of reasons but Austin is far more enjoyable the rest of the year.

    Austin right now is its own evil twin.

• [Cowicide]

  Something about that Plutopia logo is really cool with the font and that blue mobius strip graphic. Really dig it.

• [jonl]

  Do you think so? Can you say more about why you think it’s “stupid”? Which part – evolving? multimedia? playful? cross-pollination across verticals? immersive? interactive experience?

  It’s definitely not supposed to be ironic.

  • [Dewi Morgan]

    It just sounds very iMac is all. Pretentious artiste-speak with no actual meaning or substance.
    You chose a good part yourself: “cross-pollination across verticals” is deeply vapid. What was it meant to mean? Why was THAT not said instead?

    This kind of marketer-speak, ornately fancy but free of anything but the pretence of meaning, is the kind of thing that rings all the wrong bells for today’s savvier reader: it triggers our “buzz-word scepticism”. We aren’t dazzled any more by the brilliance of the PR-people coming up with these fancy terms. You can’t just string shiny verbal beads into a sentence and make us say “Ooh! Take Manhattan!”

    The event itself sounds fun. But the PR/marketing/management droids should be gagged.

• [jonl]

  There’s more about Plutopia Productions at http://plutopiaproductions.com, and you can follow us at @plutopia. A longer complete rundown of the event is here: http://plutopia.org/2010/03/plutopia/official-plutopia-press-release-with-run-of-show/