Cultural Digital #038 - it's conversational
Cultural Digital
Hello
It's quite a mixed bag this week. With any luck, that means there's something for everybody.
A couple of weeks ago I linked to a clever little app called Prisma. Well, China: A Prisma Tale is what you get when someone takes timelapse footage from a trip to China, passes each frame through that app, and stitches it back together.
Links
The best thing I read this week doesn't obviously fit within the remit of this newsletter, but bear with me. Adrian Zumbrunnen is a designer who added a conversational element to his site (check it out, it's pretty smart). I reckon anyone with an interest in scriptwriting, directing, audience empathy and that sort of thing will enjoy his article Technical and social challenges of conversational design.
National Museums Scotland made GEN with Aardman where you have to keep a blob-like creature alive using real-life medical objects from their Science and Technology galleries. They've also created NMS - Mode "30 objects from the world of fashion, each with their own fascinating story to tell".
Digital comics: Welcome to the club. This is a good summary of where digital comics are at. "As comics become more mainstream, digital platforms trade mystique for accessibility".
Digital Communications for Theatre on a Budget. Rebekah Ellerby's notes following the Culture Geek conference.
Digita Vaticana Onlus are crowdfunding the digitisation of over 80,000 manuscripts held in the Vatican Library, plus efforts to bring them to a wider audience.
Torque and Furtherfield are crowdfunding a book called Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain.
Google have bought an artwork by exonemo works called Natural Process. It's a picture of an older version of Google.com in an old Windows browser, plus a real-time video link to an exhibition of internet art featuring the painting.
Lapse is "an experiential, augmented reality installation presented by Ivan Toth Depeña that takes you on a journey throughout Miami. Using your mobile device and its camera, you will uncover hidden, virtual art experiences". If you're not in Miami then here's Lapse : An Augmented Reality Based Public Art Project on Vimeo.
I'm aware that over the past few weeks I've linked to lots of examples of robots/computers making art/music/etc. So try this for size: There is no difference between computer art and human art | Aeon Ideas "the honest-to-God truth, at the end of all of this, is that this whole notion is in some way a put-on: a distinction without a difference. ‘Computer art’ doesn’t really exist in an any more provocative sense than ‘paint art’ or ‘piano art’ does".
Events
2-3 August, Manchester: Digital Artwork Workshop, Manchester School of Art
6 September, Brighton: The Experience Factory Tickets
10 October, London: What should be in your Digital Toolbox? | The Linnean Society
19-23 October, Frankfurt: THE ARTS+
Jobs
There's a digital-related job going at the V&A. E-commerce Assistant, to be exact.
And so we come to the end for another week. As ever, thanks for reading and please do share this far and wide.
Chris Unitt
@chrisunitt
When not sending newsletters like this, I work with really good cultural organisations on projects involving digital analytics, user testing, measuring content performance, and wider digital strategy. Visit One Further for more on that.