Hey everyone,

You may or may not know that last week I was in Morocco and Tunisia on a digital arts recce with the British Council. It was a fascinating time, meeting with digital artists and arts officials/ organisations from across both of the wonderful countries.

Some of the highlights:

• On the first day, entering my first Riad- down a dusty street, to find a place of absolute tranquility, where we had a rooftop meeting with the Marraketch Biennale- a major cross- arts festival. Nobody batted an eyelid when a little songbird came and sat on our table during the meeting.
• "we want our students to be artists, not just technicians" - Ecole Superieure des arts Visuels
• Sitting round a kitchen table, at Espace Darja, having a meeting in French about the space which was a flat where artists could have residencies and rehearsal space. They also had a visiting speaker series, and speakers ranged from Dancers, to butchers, to scientists. For artists to use the space, they had to agree to working for a certain amount of hours with local kids. Thinking how elements of this would work brilliantly with some of our residencies at NTW.
• Meeting Youssef, Younes & Zouheir, who said they're 3 of about 10 people in Morocco who call themselves digital artists. The meeting was held in Starbucks, because no matter where in the world you are, you'll always have a meeting in Starbucks.
• Apparently when you say 'Theatre' in Arabic, it sounds a lot like 'Farm'. Also in French, don't confuse 'Pigalle' with 'Pays de Galles' as all in all, you'll end up saying you work at the National Farm of the Red Light District in Paris.
• Visiting Lecube-art.com which was a daring gallery space in Rabat. Because they couldn't graffiti outside, they would put the more risky work inside- but leave the windows open.
• Visiting a Virtual Museum, with interactive petal projections on the floor at the Villa Des Arts, Rabat.
• Talking about indie games with a company called the Brain Oil Collective. Together they run many initiatives, including casanim.com
• The noise and smell of the central square in Marrakech- one artist described a photo I took of it as the 'gateway to Hell'- you could see the steam rising from the crowd of people.
• Setting an alarm for 3.30am flight, and Cathy and I both pretending that it wasn't a problem.
• Finding myself at an airport after the 3.30am start, with a delayed flight, and no coffee shops open. Lacoste was open, costa was not. Cathy and I both pretending that it wasn't a problem.
• Reaching Tunis, drinking a coffee- and having a Brik for the first time. It was a mash up of tuna and cheese, with an egg in the middle!
• Being completely inspired by Afif, director of FEST and E-FEST in Tunis. "I want people to come up with a new way of thinking about themselves and their environments through art"
• Learning about Sufism with Digital Artist Haytham Zakaria, loving the extremes of the work he produces. haythamzakaria.com
• Standing on the roof of a palace, slightly dizzy from the height (and also probably from banging my head on the door as I climbed through to the roof) but amazed by the views- and the transformation that the palace goes through when the digital fest is in residence.
• Looking back through these photos and videos as I edited this for you all:

I made a video while I was there, trying to take a snapshot of the sights and sounds of the place, I've embedded it below. The Music on the video is by a British Artist called Leafcutter John, who recorded this track 'A Slowly Growing Beautiful' as part of his album TUNIS which used sounds captured in and around Tunisia, over the course of the LE-FEST digital festival held each year in the countries capital. The rest of the album is equally as beautiful, you can listen and download it from cd1d.com/en/album/tunis

Enjoy,

Katherine x