Clare Townhill

Internet of the Afterlife

What does it mean when the internet is not just real but is also an icon, and a symbol? Five thought provoking global stories of the internet as a place you drive to, asynchronous occasion, as an intermediate destination without keyboard, interface or electricty, that comes to you, the internet as an imagined space and last but not least the internet as an offering to the afterlife. Wonderful.

Immersion

Stumbled across this on one of my many wanderings down the back of the internet.
Robbie Cooper is an interactive artist. His exhibition ‘Immersion’ explores the changing relationship between humans, screens, identity and image. Inspired by watching teenagers absorbed in computer games in Chinese internet cafés, Cooper’s portraits capture everyday people as they become immersed in different types of media. Shooting through the screen, these images are single frames taken from high-definition video footage. Filming long periods of video helps Cooper’s models to forget they’re being photographed and results in natural moments of unguarded behaviour.
More here: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

 

Digiweb and the power of the whispering digital consumer

 

Most of us are familiar at one time or another at spotting something in someone elses agency that leaves us agog. Here's a prime example spotted in prominent place in one of the very famous ATL agencies. Mystifying, hilarious, tragic. What is the digiweb? Why is the digital consumer whispering? 

Things I like right now

One girl. One bike. 101 wankers encountered whilst riding:

http://101wankers.tumblr.com/

Another fantastic exercise in cultural vampirism by Google in collaboration with The Arcade Fire

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

What the World Eats

Not being greedy or anything but I'd love to see this done by social grade in each country too.

Time: What the World Eats

 

Goggle Boxes and Cognitive Surplus

A nice little nudge from Information is Beautiful reminding me to post one of Clay Shirky's stickiest stats about cognitive surplus:

200 billion hours of television watched in the US vs the 100 million hours estimated to have been spent on the creation of Wikipedia. Or to put it another way the US watches a wikipedia's worth of TV advertising every weekend. It's pretty easy to go binary at this point (as many have) about what Clay Shirky's suggesting. TV bad, digital creation good. He's the first to acknowledge that there will always be those for whom consumption will continue to dominate and be preferrable. The point he's making is about what happens when technology enables two new actions - create and share - that amplify the ancient human behaviours of socialise and belong. This is where technology becomes it's most interesting and most powerful: the intersection between new enablement that amplify hard-wired primeval needs.

 Amazon: Clay Shirky - Cognitive Surplus

The Moral Underground

 

Genius.

The Poke - Daily Mail Map

Transforming the Lone Nut

 

A great talk about the over-glorification of leaders and the importance of the follower; it's that first guy who transforms the loner into a leader by dancing next to him. Those that subsequently join in emulate his behaviour (i.e. the joining in) and do not go off and emulate the leader by starting another dance. The movement starts with the followers and not the leader.

Virginia's iPad

I just love this. I've struggled several times to try to teach my 90 year old Grandma Joan to use a computer: the mouse is a very tricky object for shaky, arthritic hands to manage, let alone the less than intuitive OS that is Windows. The ancient computer in my Grandad's office/'glory-hole' may as well be miles from the warm, comfort of her favourite chair by the telly. This fills me with hope, it also reminds me very much of Jeff Han's TED talk on using touch interface rather than legacy laptop OS for education in developing countries. 

"It was cheap, cruel and wrong. But hey, at least it got to my eyeballs."

http://www.kinura.com/bobt/peter_sells_bobt.html

Brilliant presentation on the ills of interruption, the blather of futurology evangelism but above all the seductive temptress that is mobile and why it's all a bit shit. Thank you Peter Sells of BBH. Well worth 20 mins of your time.