Cultural Digital newsletter #96 with Ben Templeton
Cultural Digital
Hello
I'm not around this week, so I've handed things over to Ben Templeton to talk about games and playfulness. I'll let him introduce himself, so take it away Ben…
I’m Ben, maker of Magic Tate Ball and other playful museum experiences. Here are some hand-picked links from the world of games, art and culture.
Marcus Brigstocke quipped: “If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.” Jokes aside, here’s the background reading bit. Start with this great paper on the benefits of playing video games. Far from dulling the senses and diminishing our social skills, they improve spatial reasoning, cognitive processes and emotional capacity. How We Get To Next also did a great ‘power of play’ special, featuring a look at 19th Century VR and a study proving - shock horror! - kids learn through games.
Arts and culture is fertile ground for playful innovation, as wonderful projects like A Knight’s Peril show, and the entertainingly bizarre divining rods now available at Minneapolis Institute of Art. Even thorny subjects like climate change are ripe for it, as the Natural History Museum of Utah have gamely done with new multiplayer installation Utah Climate Challenge (disclaimer: I worked on it for 6 months!).
VR is the big ticket in various sectors at the moment and the immersion factor is ramping up by the day. Consider a ‘4D’ helter-skelter around the Shard or The Void’s so-called ‘hyper real’ Ghostbusters experience which is genuinely incredible first time around but oddly less so on repeat visits. Cultural organisations are relying on tech partnerships to join the party - just as they ask whether it’s safe to - and these are four exciting partnerships I’m keeping my eyes on:
Some light-hearted grazing: wander the burning streets of 1600s London via Museum of London’s Minecraft collab, remind yourself what great things can be achieved online via the Financial Times’ new sim of life as an Uber driver (or Wellcome Collection’s excellent High Tea), geek out on this entertaining Twitter thread about ‘hidden’ game mechanics, try having visitors play physical game Ninja in your nearest armoury/weapons gallery then round things off with a ‘game’ about organisational transformation. Phew!
You could also get tickets to Beta Public in London on 13th Nov to experience what happens when videogames and performance collide.
I’ve run out of space, but it wouldn’t be a proper guest-edit without a personal plug - thanks Chris! - so get hold of me at bentempleton.co.uk or sign up to Artful Spark and come to the next edition for in-person inspiration, tech demos and drinks.
Bye for now!
B.
Jobs
There are very likely to be some digital-related jobs listed here, but this is being written ahead of time, so I'm not sure exactly what.
Thanks Ben! Please give him a hearty round of applause (he's @thoughtben on Twitter) for taking the reins this week.
I'm not around next week either but someone else will be here to look after you. Back soon though.
Chris Unitt
The Library launches very soon and there's still time to take advantage of a hefty discount. Or you could just hold off and pay more later - that's cool too.