Cultural Digital newsletter #113
Cultural Digital
Hello
This week we've got Tripadvisor, money laundering, and a whole bunch of AR apps. In fact, here's the first one of those now…
Civilisations AR "forms part of a major collaboration between the BBC, Nexus Studios and more than 30 museums from across the UK to mark the launch of the new landmark arts and culture series, Civilisations". Have to say, it's pretty impressive.
More AR fun
DUMB FUN is "an interactive art experience for iPhone by award-winning, internationally published artist Tim Moore". This one lets you wander around in bizarre AR collages.
These Augmented Reality Sculptures Make Any Environment An Art Installation. "Los Angeles-based artist Nancy Baker Cahill recently released 4th Wall, an iOS app that allows audiences across the globe to view her drawings in their own environments through the wonders of augmented reality".
Data
Invisible Insights: learning from Trip Advisor reviews. I've mentioned this British Museum project before, but this article (following a talk at MCNx London) is a lot more accessible and talks about some of the insights.
Hacking China's Most Prestigious Art Competition. "Designer Xiang Fan and computer scientist Shunshan Zhu gathered the winners of the winner of the The National Exhibition of Fine Arts and built a tool for analysing them". And here's that tool.
Cool stuff made with cultural heritage APIs. A nice big list. You're welcome to add more if you like.
Other stuff
The Mauritshuis museum is taking down ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ for a while. It's going to be temporarily replaced by a reproduction that uses ‘elevated printing’ which works by "putting numerous layers of ink on a surface. This allows the copier to reproduce not just the features, but also the texture of the original painting".
Studio Envy: Painting in the Digital Age. “Im/material: Painting in the Digital Age” showcases the work of eight young artists whose practices focus on this theme". With interviews with Ry David Bradley and Konrad Wyrebek.
Money Laundering Via Author Impersonation on Amazon? "Reames said he suspects someone has been buying the book using stolen credit and/or debit cards, and pocketing the 60 percent that Amazon gives to authors. At $555 a pop, it would only take approximately 70 sales over three months to rack up the earnings that Amazon said he made".
Why Facebook Is a Waste of Time—and Money—for Arts Nonprofits. "The co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Artistic Activism explains why his company has officially de-friended Facebook". Those reasons being that organic reach has dropped off, the lack of nonprofit discount, and the principle of the thing. I reckon there's a valid point and a half in there. Of course, the counter-argument is that (done right) it can still be an effective way to reach and be involved with people and communities.
Jobs
There are digital-related jobs available at the British Academy, Science Museum Group, and Victoria & Albert Museum.
Thanks for reading and have a very excellent week.
Chris Unitt
The Library is a treasure trove of arts/digital info. Find out more about The Library.
PS - I'm doing a day of Google Analytics and Tag Manager training on Mon 12 March in London and a couple of places have just become available. It's aimed at beginners and the others attending are from cultural orgs and nonprofits.