Cultural Digital newsletter #72 - an email wot I did
Cultural Digital
Hello
This week there are quite a few things to gawp at, plus a podcast I hadn't come across yet, some stuff about Google Books, and lots more besides. First, here's something to gawp at…
Historic GIFs wot I did. Adam Koszary says "I spent just over a year at the Bodleian being sassy on social media and making GIFs out of centuries-old collections". Click the link for pleasing daftness.
Every year the Webby's own website is a car crash of poor usability, and this year's is no exception. So I've done the hard work for you to pull out the cultural categories:
For all the data-loving Tessiturans out there, I've written Tessitura and Google Analytics: the complete guide.
The C Word is a podcast for/about curators. "We talk about all sorts of things from the perspective of conservation professionals, from museum trends and new technology to the big issues like pay and staying safe at work". In an upcoming episode they're looking at social media use, and they're running a quick survey about that here.
Open Heritage "This portal provides direct access to information managed by the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation. Use this portal to learn more about our research, programs, activities and operations. We welcome your participation and engagement in what we do". You want open? This is open.
Using social media to curate digital artworks can lead to increased and more dynamic public participation and engagement "Claire Taylor describes her recent experience of using Twitter galleries to promote engagement with an exhibition featuring the work of four leading artists from Latin America and the US".
Sir David Attenborough stars as Natural History Museum’s VR guide. "Sir David will give users of virtual reality headsets “hands-on” access to specimens usually only visible behind glass".
The History of the Web. This is a nice enough thing as it is, but I really like the way that what could've just been a timeline has distribution baked into it, making it more episodic.
Two articles on what's happening with Google Books: How Google Book Search Got Lost from Backchannel, and the rather more hyperbolically-titled Torching the Modern Day Library of Alexandria from The Atlantic. “Somewhere at Google there is a database containing 25 million books and nobody is allowed to read them”.
Plot Online - The Pig and the Algorithm. Some thoughts on how people and computers see things differently.
AI Poetry Hits the Road – Artists and Machine Intelligence "I’ve just returned from Ross Goodwin’s AI-assisted stab at the American literary road trip, a project called Wordcar that put AI on the highway to generate 200,000 words of machine poetry".
SciBullUpdate | Moosha Moosha Mooshme "A new monthly series of posts that will focus on our current efforts in the Museum’s Science Bulletins team to create and test prototypes of Hall-based digital interactions using AR and VR using our scientists’ digital science data, and to share some of the lessons we learn along the way".
New websites
Association of Independent Museums, Bridge Theatre, Chaumet - Imperial Splendours, National Trust for Scotland.
CultureGeek (sponsor)
CultureGeek is a conference that brings together leading organisations from around the world to share how they're adapting to the changing cultural landscape.
Find out more and use discount code 'CulturalDigital' to get a 20% discount.
Jobs
There are digital-related jobs available at Tincan, the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Photographer's Gallery, Christies, Conway Hall, and Glyndebourne.
Events
3 May 2017, London: Art reflecting on Machine Learning
5-9 June 2017, Vatican: 2017 IIF Conference
16 June 2017, Oxford: Digital Learning in Museums
19-22 June 2017, Paris: Communicating the Museum 2017
Thanks for reading. If you feel like it, please pass on any favourite links to your friends, colleagues, and associates. Maybe even tell them what a good idea it'd be to sign up to this here email.
Cheers.
Chris Unitt
@chrisunitt
When not writing emails like this, I run a digital analytics and user research consultancy called One Further, working with some truly excellent cultural organisations.