May 29 2025 GM

Creating "Digital Playgrounds for Creative Communities" with Portal

Glitter Meetups What are Glitter Meetups Notes from Past Glitter Meetups Virtual Events Calendar Join the TCU Mattermost

• Date: Thursday, May 29
• Time: 9am EDT / 1pm UTC
• Facilitator: Mardiya
• Featured Guest: Uzoma Orji
• Where: On TCU Mattermost "IF Square" Channel.
  • Don't have an account to the TCU Mattermost? you can request one following the directions here.

Join us on May 29 to hear from Uzoma, the creative director of uzoma.studio , who will be talking about :

• An indepth explanation of what inspired the ‘Portal’
• A demo of the project as it currently exists
• What it aims to achieve for creative communities

Uzoma Orji is a digital artist, creative technologist and 'professional dreamer' interested in exploring the digital as a space for dreaming, imagination and play. He is the creative director of uzoma.studio which makes software for artists and creative brands.

What is Glitter Meetup?

Glitter Meetup is the weekly town hall of the digital rights and Internet Freedom community at the IF Square on the TCU Mattermost, at 9am EDT / 2pm UTC. It is a text-based chat where digital rights defenders can share regional and project updates, expertise, ask questions, and connect with others from all over the world! Do you need an invite? Learn how to get one here.

Notes

Can you start off by introducing yourself and your work as an technologist and artist?

• My name is Uzoma and it's nice to be here. There are quite a few parts to my work as an artist. For one, I’m interested in worldbuilding and African futures - one of my near-future projects is a video game set in an African city of the future as part of an ongoing project called the Ministry of Dreams. I’m very invested in using art to help young people see that another future is possible. Another aspect of my work looks at taking a very art-driven, playful, even indigenous approach to designing digital technologies. That’s where a project like Portal comes in.

What Portal is?

• Portal is a platform to help artists tap into the power of community to sustain their creative practices. It is a response to creative people saying:
  • 1) we don’t know how these social media algorithms work anymore - our audiences are not seeing our work!
  • 2) the admin of being a creative in 2025 is keeping me from actually creating and
  • 3) i’m not able to sustain myself financially from my creative work alone.
• Portal provides digital spaces and tools to help artists connect with and even earn from their audiences directly and do creative admin easily.

How does it help artist achieve all three?

• There are different features that speak to each of the three things:
  • 1 is the digital space itself where you can connect with your community directly
  • 2 is features like a newsletter function that can help you with comms
  • 3 is a shop/subscriptions feature

So if one shops, then they will be able to monetise their art work, and share it with a community that is specifically meant for this?

• Yes that's the idea. If I'm a fan of your work then I'll have the option of supporting you, kind of like how platforms like Patreon work.

Why did you start building digital playgrounds? What inspired that journey? And whats the "play" aspect of portal!?

• As a very art-inclined person with a technical background, I was able to see that when we combine tech with artists’ magical ability to dream, beautiful things can be born. Earlier on in my career I started collaborating with musicians to build engaging websites or games to promo their work and each project sold me more on the creative potential of tech. Also…the internet is becoming more and more boring and uniform, we need to fight back with fun, engaging, colourful, creative digital spaces that celebrate individuality!
• The play aspect of Portal is that we think of digital spaces as spaces that we can design and decorate and imbue with our essence as individuals. I think there's something very childlike about the internet that we're unfortunately losing in the era of big PLATFORMS. And I'm hoping Portal can help bring this back while still serving a very important communal function.

Can you share a short demo, be it video or pictures on what it looks like currently? Also take us through the different features of Portal and what it can do or you envision it do?

• Before I do I want to say that I'm really inspired by this community's focus on digital rights and I'd love to hear any suggestions or tips on how to build digital tools and platforms like this in an ethical and like digital rights-y way.
• I would love to have a way where people can design their own spaces, kind of like making your house in sims!

How do you want artists to engage with this? And when will it be ready for full use?

• Imagination is the name of the game. I want artists to come in, design their spaces just like they would set up their homes and invite their fans to come in and engage with them and the content they put up. I’m working hard to have features that make the community aspect of Portal irresistible. I’m hoping it would be ready for full use by the end of the summer.
• There's a short form on https://portal8.space that anyone can fill to be notified of launch.

How would you like the community to stay in touch and reach out to you directly! And learn more about you work?

• Definitely sign up on the website I linked to.
• But also feel free to dm on IG @uzzzoma or email uzoma@uzoma.studio
• To learn more about my work, my website is http://uzomaorji.com
• And I also write a substack about digital mindfulness, dreaming, community and play: https://thegardendispatch.substack.com