Twitter Art (or Twart?)
July 9th, 2009 by Creative
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Can you hear me at the back?
July 8th, 2009 by Creative
Good post from Nina Simon on Museum 2.0 about Museums collecting comments and info from visitors but not doing anything with it or making it into a usable form.
Seems a lot of institutions are liking the sound of open access and social networking but struggling to adjust to the new world of communicating ideas and acting on user focussed thinking.
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The Long Tail of Museums
July 8th, 2009 by Creative
Neil Macgregor’s comment quoted in the Guardian yesterday made me take renewed interest in the goings on at the British Museum:
“The future has to be, without question, the museum as a publisher and broadcaster”
Following Vaughan’s comments about the BBC leading the way in We Think thinking (not necessarily referring to Scott Mills the Musical here) I’m keen to grasp how Urbis can prepare itself to redress the “imperfect communication between visitors and curators”.
Having given it some thought the thing the BBC are doing really well that we are failing to do is making their archive available online…and most importantly then being able to understand what people watch, when and where.
I agree with Macgregor’s point that the future lies online and keen to point out that an important layer of possibilities is not being addressed directly – the ability of the museum properly using 2.0 software and technology to better understand their visitors understanding, preferences and learning patterns to develop and deliver a meaningful, lasting impact from their collections and exhibitions- not necessarily going down the route of creative Crowdsourcing that seemed to dominate proceedings at the Cornerhouse seminar.
Just like the BBC we need to be listening to our audience, like we always have done, but we also now have the opportunity to learn from their patterns of engagement without having to rely on dull as dishwater surveys or pseudo market research focus groups under a range of different guises. Looking at the BBC it becomes clear that while the Crowdsourced material is hugely popular – Reality TV, Talent Shows (which I’d argue only give the impression of audience control and involvement while the institution actually shapes the experience and orchestrates it entirely – remember the John Sargeant debacle?) they’re not giving up on high quality professionally produced material.
We need to keep up the production of targeted, effective experiences but learn how to deliver them in a more targeted and strategic way as a complete, malleable package. Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail” has really being a crucial influence in my thinking behind this, both in form and content.
As a sector we’re seriously behind the game and the necessary update can only happen with serious investment in tech infrastructure to get museums and cultural institutions up to speed with their commercial counterparts…anyone got a big chequebook?
Edit: I should add that that investment also needs backing up with built in ongoing support and business models that allow proper maintenance and back office staff to keep the resources created as workable and useful tools. Open Source does not mean free.
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GMP Steal Thunder!
July 8th, 2009 by Creative
Video:Matthew Caine Mckenzie addresses police conference
The MEN ran an article today abou our RECLAIM boys, Matthew Caine Mckenzie and Isaac Adegbola, making a rousing speech in front of the great and the good at the Association of Chief Police Officers’ annual conference.
All good news, however, GMP do not run reclaim Urbis do.
Big respect to Matthew and Isaac for getting up there!
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Prospero’s Books
July 4th, 2009 by Creative
Even the BBC are picking up on the current “We think” trend in the cultural world.
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Urban Anthropology
July 3rd, 2009 by Creative
Creature Comforts goes Urban…love it
via SwissMiss
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Walk the Line with Iain Sinclair
July 3rd, 2009 by Host
Leaving his familiar London surroundings for a sojourn in Manchester, the writer and psychogeographer Iain Sinclair has penned a walk through the city. This is less Manchester Orbital and more Manchester Diagonal as Sinclair cuts a path from Urbis and the Cathedral to Northenden via Deansgate, Castlefield, Old Trafford and the Mersey.
The walk, as read by Swen Steinhauser, is available as a podcast to download from the Urbis website or by borrowing an MP3 player from the Urbis information desk. The latter includes a set of pencil crayons for children (or adults) to colour in the accompanying map.
The podcast was kindly provided by Corridor 8 magazine who will be launching their first issue on July 16th, 2009.
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Manchester International Festival
July 1st, 2009 by Creative
All ready for the second Manchester International Festival Launch tomorrow?
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Let’s Talk About Sex
July 1st, 2009 by Host
The average sixteen year old male might bring to a Suffragette City Tour an expectation of tales of protest and bra burning, so it was time to challenge expectations, reveal the truth and widen the eyes of ten young men to the shock events which scarred the streets of Manchester during the fight for women’s suffrage. These women risked a great deal, and consequently have enabled the likes of me to even be able to share our history with others. My challenge for the duration of this tour was to reveal all, rampages, manslaughter, gangs and the odd protest; to bring to life these histories of the often overlooked women of Manchester.
Despite the sniggering over Repertory Theatre pioneer Annie Horniman’s surname, this group of teenagers responded in an inquisitive and intelligent manner to all I threw at them, even declaring themselves as “Gentlemen” when approaching the use of the Cucking Stool in late eighteenth century Manchester. The ceremonious humiliation of prostitutes, women with illegitimate children or those who practiced the art of back-chatting to their husbands seemed to bring an air of silence and unanswerable questions to my group of startled “Gentlemen”. I left them pondering what they deemed as an unimaginable event and was reassured by their mature approach.
It’s always refreshing to deliver a tour such as this which attracts a varied array of interests, with individuals who happily share their personal stories of sofa-blockading during a Reclaim the Streets Protest or women storming political buildings in the 60s. For a group of male teenagers their involvement in such events I presume to be nil, and their understanding of women to extend as far as their mum, or else not for me to consider… For this reason I think their efforts to understand certain events were pushed further than the average. A discussion of the lack of statues of women in Manchester led to a never ending game of “There must be one in St. Ann’s Square,” “What about the Town Hall?” “How about Queen Victoria?” I felt for their teachers on the train home listening to the continuing game I started, but can at least myself grin at filling their minds with contemplation.
With their prior knowledge on the subject of Women’s Suffrage only in the recognition of the name ‘Suffragettes’ it seems apparent that the shocking nature of the treatment of women, and the radical approach which many have taken in the fight for Women’s Suffrage, did most certainly open up their eyes. Much like the statue debate, I was asked why there are no plaques around the city to recall events such as a rampage in Manchester Art Gallery? Unfortunately for them this is a response I myself cannot set in stone, and something else to add to their list for classroom discussion.
I am certain this will not be the last all male Suffragette City group I come across but I hope that any future groups consider these incidents as much as this group have done. Their shocked responses to stories of gangs and manslaughter were as expected, the mention of bra burning simply resulting in some rolling eyes, but their additional responses were refreshing, and have added to my newfound understanding of this subject matter from the point of view of a ‘Young Gentleman’.
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RepRap
June 30th, 2009 by Creative
Image from http://tinyurl.com/antaphid
Weird connections sometimes happen… Gardening to We Think in a simple leap and bound… bear with me on this…
Having put together the Urban Gardening exhibition for Urbis last year I have taken to gardening in a big way. Now in my second year I saw that my nicely maturing redcurrant bushes were covered in what I learnt to be aphid eggs. When I investigated closer I was attacked by soldier ants, my hands getting covered in the little blighters protecting the pests munching away on my bushes.
So I set about finding out what was going on…turns out ants and aphids have a symbiotic relationship whereby ants love for honeydew (greenfly poo) leads them to farm aphids who produce the stuff to sate their sugary appetites.
I was intrigued by this idea of symbiosis between species and insects and insects and plants which led me to this…the RepRap…watch the video below for the connection.
Now, getting back on the 2.0 train of thought, here’s an idea that has implication for Urbis blogs recent thinking about social networking, free software and community led creativity and takes Charles Leadbeater’s notion of we think to a whole new level – we manufacture, anyone?
(and yes I know this got a load of press in 2005 but it’s finally coming to fruition having rightly made it to the finals of the SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards in the “Most Likely to Change the Way You Do Everything” category)
RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo. Posted in Urbis
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