Diary of a SXSW Virgin

When shots asked me to write my Diary of a SXSW Virgin, I was thrilled. At my age, there aren’t many firsts left to write about so I was excited to make the most of this experience!

I recently joined animation and design studio Transistor Studios. We have a studio in Brooklyn, NY and recently opened a satellite studio here in Austin, so this trip was as much about getting to know a city that will become a more frequent fixture in my life as it was about experiencing the SXSW festival and all that surrounds it.

If it’s good enough for the President...

Seeing Air Force One on my arrival at Austin–Bergstrom airport made me realise this year’s festival was to be taken seriously! Barack Obama became the first President to speak at SXSW. Sadly, I wasn’t a winning recipient of a lottery-drawn ticket to attend, but I did (sort of) get a chance to converse with him at the Interactive closing party. More on that later.

SXSW did feel much larger and more corporate than I had anticipated and naively I hadn’t accounted for the large queues for every talk, panel and event, so I was disappointed not to make a few on my Interactive hit list. However, this caused me to stumble across events that I wouldn’t necessarily have done otherwise and in the process I learnt about developments in fields of technology I didn’t even realise (until now) that I was interested in! These were my personal highlights of my time in Austin...

Rise of the robots

Robotics and VR were very big at the Interactive festival this year. Japanese company Ishiguro Laboratories provided an amazingly-human robot experience in the form of Geminoid, a ‘tele-operated android of a living person that can transmit the presence of the operator to the distant place'. If you don’t scare easily I would definitely check out the laboratory website. Fascinating stuff! Thankfully, I feel full integration of such technology into our every day lives will come after my time on this earth has ended.

Sounds personal

There were many discussions throughout the festival about VR, its future and potential applications in every day life. But augmented audio reality isn’t a concept I’d thought about in depth before. Here Active Listening really caught my attention. With just two wireless buds (below) and a smartphone you

can personalise your everyday audio experience. It’s an idea that’s already excited the likes of Wired and Rolling Stone magazine. I love the concept of enhancing my everyday life experience, rather than creating a parallel one on a virtual platform (i.e. VR). Plus I’m a serious motion sickness sufferer, which renders the VR experience a little less enjoyable (and led to several worried faces when I was trying out the VR experiences on offer at the Hilton VR exhibition space).

Party hats and party tatts

The joint Transistor, Foundation Editorial, Nice Shoes, Sound Lounge, Audio Network & Derby Content party was always going to be a highlight for me. Transistor, Foundation Editorial and Nice Shoes share a studio space in East Austin and we were excited to celebrate SXSW. Alongside the great music, art, drink, food and freebies, Transistor flew out a prolific tattoo artist, Mike Lucena from Brooklyn's Flyrite Tattoo. We offered free tattoos from a flash sheet of designs by Transistor. The enthusiasm and demand was overwhelming and sadly we weren’t able to accommodate everybody. At a later event I saw a satisfied customer proudly showing their new ink of a Transistor-designed, lightning flash-emblazoned taco to anyone who would look. Doesn’t get much better than that!

Meeting Obama – sorry, I mean ‘Fauxbama’ – at the SXSW official Interactive closing party was great fun. Marching him through the crowd, surrounded by a dozen ‘Secret Servicemen’ was genius and actually upstaged the bands who were performing.

Boots, beer and BBQ – Austin style

Austin has been ranked top of Forbes’ America's Cities of the Future list in 2016, which highlights the US cities most likely to prosper over the next decade. At Transistor, we’re incredibly excited to be part of this economic and creative boom.

If you haven’t been to SXSW before, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. The people here are the friendliest, the food is fantastic and the fun, well it was to be had just about everywhere! If you do head over next March, be sure to check out some of my top picks for food, drink and fun in this amazing city.

Launderette

Fresh ‘New American’ fare at a beautifully converted launderette/gas station venue.

Frank

Serving up exotic hot dogs & sausages,plus the best bloody mary I’ve had for a long time!