I have been without a netbook since this summer, after selling my 701 (first generation) EeePC because the keyboard couldn’t keep up with me. After a relatively quiet summer, I picked up a new 1005HA EeePC, mainly for the 10.5 hr battery. As with all things you fall in love with, it is making me rethink some of my life choices… and in this case, the way I compute.
For a few years now, I have been a mostly a convert of open source software, using OSS for everything from my operating system (OpenSUSE) to my office suite (OpenOffice.org). This was driven primarily by:
My dislike for the unfinished state in which all Windows releases are made
The vulnerability to viruses of Windows
The lack of money to buy closed-source software
Because OpenSUSE is a Linux distribution and doesn’t have perfect drivers for all of my hardware, I still kept Windows on my laptop as a backup, just incase. With one computer, this worked fairly well, as I could use my operating system of choice about 95% of the time.
Now, I’m faced with the problem of having to maintain not 2 operating systems, but 4 – 2 on my primary laptop and 2 on my netbook. With the increased frequency of updates and upgrades for operating systems and software, keeping everything current is not only daunting, but feeling like it may be detrimental to productivity (e.g. having to run updates on all my OSs and software before I can do anything). Then, of course, there is the problem of maintaining parallel sets of user settings in all 4 operating systems and the software in each of them. Thinking about having to do all of this makes me feel like my own IT department.
After looking at the time I have at my disposal and the work I have to accomplish, maintaining 4 copies of an OS is simply not an option. This leaves me with the very disappointing option of running Windows, with only open source software, rather than running OpenSUSE. It feels almost like defeat to have to return to Windows as a primary operating system, but the sad fact is that Linux stability and hardware support just isn’t good enough for it to be a primary operating system for everyday use. It’s a good OS, but only if you have the time to maintain it.
My friend at Open Studio sent me the article What can we learn from the “netbook” from The Artful Manager. The article was a good reminder for me that not everyone in the cultural community is as immersed in technology as I and many of my new friends from Twitter. Based on the interest in the Technology in the Arts conferences, I would agree with Andrew Taylor that integrating the use of netbooks into a cultural manager’s daily routines could take some work. But there is certainly no shortage of people already using them.
Photographer Sean Puckett picked up an HP tablet a while ago (which I, naturally, ogled) for use as a super digital-photoframe. If I didn’t already have my EeePC, I probably would have gotten one too. Not merely is it a fully functional computer (albeit too lightweight for gaming or for intense audio-visual work), but it’s an absolutely charming option for a portable portfolio. Less clunky than hauling around photos; more practical than having everything on a flash drive and hoping to have access to a computer; more instant than giving someone a card with your website on it.
Amrita, owner of Tinku Gallery, recently acquired an iPhone so she could easily show her artists’ work to others when she’s away from the gallery. Because of the size of the screen, the iPhone was a much better option for her than a BlackBerry. A netbook, on the other hand, was more than she needed, as she already had a full-sized computer.
I’m almost always equipped with a travelling office, with either my EeePC or full-sized laptop, my BlackBerry, occassionally a digital camera (if I know I’ll need it) and more flash drives and SD cards than I can fill. Unlike Sean and Amrita, my gadetry is mainly for administrative work. Although I have photos of all of my work on all of my devices, my BlackBerry keeps me in contact with people from the arts admin work I do, and my EeePC is used to its intended purpose—a connection to the internet (and a glorified note-taking system). For someone who is currently loving connection, being able to access all of my contacts (and not just their contact information) and any information available online makes my life a lot easier.
The question, still, is how to keep up with it all.
The session proposals for the Technology in the Arts conference are due on Jan 19th, and we’re reviewing them the following week. What types of topics would you like to have covered at the conference? This isn’t a formal call for feedback, but I will definitely keep responses in mind and pass along any trends.
The conference is for cultural workers and organizations for all forms of art, including music and theatre. To my knowledge, there isn’t much of an equivalent for creators. The closest things I’m aware of are my neglected e-eAsel project (if you’re aware of a Technology for Artists equivalent, please let me know!).
The 2008 conference session information is available here, and my notes from the sessions I attended can be found here.
You can send in your feedback as comments here or you can reach me on Twitter.
At last weekend’s Coalition rally at Nathan Phillips Square, I was “greeted” by a guy in a giant, green costume in the shape of the letter “F”. I had no idea what it had to do the rally, but I was excited. After all, it was a guy in a giant, green costume in the shape of the letter “F”!
I wanted to have my picture taken with him, and was handed a 1GB SD card by his uncostumed sidekick. The sidekick said something about me having my picture taken, so I assumed I had to take the picture on the SD card and proceeded to fumble with the tiny plastic case to swap it with the 2GB SD card I already had in my camera. It wasn’t until said sidekick was getting frustrated with me that he explained that he was taking my picture and the SD card was a gift. Then it dawned on me—this was some sort of advertising gimmick.
So I had my picture taken with the Fujifilm F mascott, was handed a card, and told to go to a website, enter the code on the card, look for my picture and encourage my friends to vote for my picture so I could win some cool Fujifilm stuff.
Yesterday, I returned to Toronto to experience Stereoscope one more time before they took it down.
Walking through the Ryerson campus, it was sad to see that the pond was all but deserted, devoid of people, ducks and public art:
What was odd, though, was my friends and I noticed a permanent fixture on The Chang School building, which leaves very little to the imagination:
At City Hall, we spent over an hour watching the animations and playing arcade games. There wasn’t much of a crowd when we got there, but people started to gather in our general vicinity as we became more excited by the game play. A few people came up to us and asked us what was happening, and we explained the project and gave them the phone numbers for the games.
One of the would-be gamers had an iPhone, and after playing a miserable game of Whack-A-Mole because of the 1-second delay between his punching the numbers and the request being processed, repeatedly decalred that Apple’s product sucks.
I was elated when I was able to get 11 out of 12 in Space Invaders, and even got a cheer from the onlookers!
Some exciting (for me, anyway) not-directly-related-to-art-but-still-kind-of-related opportunities arrived in my email today:
Social Technologies Summit: Call For Submissions — Deadline 5pm, 13 October 2008
13-16 May 2009
Manchester UK
Futuresonic’s acclaimed international conference, the Social Technologies Summit brings 500 opinion formers, futurologists, artists, researchers, technologists and scientists from the digital culture, technology and art communities together around shared issues to do with social media, society, art and the city.
Digital culture burns bright with social connectivity
Inviting proposals for talks, presentations, workshops and session themes. Submissions of innovative formats for social interaction and experimentation are encouraged.
Call For Submissions — Deadline 5pm, 13 October 2008
For further information contact
Lisa Roberts
Social Technologies Summit Programme Manager
FutureEverything
+44 161 237 9000 social09@futuresonic.com
See also — A GBP 5000 commission plus many other opportunities are available in the Futuresonic 2008 Art & EVNTS calls for submissions. www.futuresonic.com/getinvolved
Stanford Law School Announces Center for Internet and Society and Stanford Constitutional Law Center Joint Fellowship
The Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society (CIS) and The Stanford Constitutional Law Center (CLC) announce a new joint fellowship for the study of the intersection of copyright and constitutional law. We are looking for an inaugural fellow to work with faculty and staff from both Centers on range of research and litigation projects addressing the relationship between the Constitution’s Copyright Clause, the First Amendment and the Fair Use
Doctrine.
The primary responsibility for the fellow will be to work on current CIS Fair Use Project litigation. In addition, the Fellow will also be an active part of the CIS and CLC communities, attending lectures and symposia, assisting with Center activities and working with students on related projects. The Fellowship will provide significant opportunity for the pursuit of individual research and scholarship in preparation to enter the academic teaching market. The fellowship position is offered for one year with the opportunity for renewal.
Applicant Requirements:
2-5 years of post-law school civil litigation experience with substantial experience in constitutional law (preferred) and
intellectual property (required) matters;
Excellent writing and analytic skills;
Demonstrated ability to direct litigation of impact cases; and
Demonstrated ability to work in a self-directed and entrepreneurial environment.
The position is for 12 months, with the possibility of renewal for a second twelve months. The start date is September 2008, although this may be flexible depending on the right candidates availability. Salary will be approximately $40,000 per year, with benefits.
Preferred submission deadline is September 8, 2008, however applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
I started to test Postalicious for Word Press, but it didn’t work yesterday. Here are the links I tried to post, and keep your fingers crossed for it working tonight!
-problem with developing projects like this –> much of the development happing in the business world, not in the universities –> resistence from the arts & humanities to commercialization; good, but need to involve some to keep up
-impact of technology on the human body
-Busines Factory
-Mario Polese, University Affairs, May 2008:
“Universities should not function like motors for economic development. This is what they may become one day, when community organizations and government call on the expertise of their researhers. But that role must accrue to them through their mission to teach and do research, and not the other way around”
-ideas first, technology 2nd
MESDAG
-geocaching (photo)
-geocaching + social networking + Built environment = MESADG
-childhood obesity
-getting kids active
-GPS + accelerometer + wireless database
-”su-veillance” (anti surveillance)
-accelerometer linked to Blckberry; get a prompt every day (e.g. take picture of tree; take picture of 1 way sign); upload to web; fill grid; when grid filled, they win
-can track whether these games impact their activity (devices w/game versus devices w/out game)
-promoting physical fitness
-promoting environmental awareness
-large-scale projects vs gurilla style (promoting messiness)
-”the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn”, Alvin Toffler, “Rethinking the Future”
-demystiying the technology
-calling for an embracing of the messiness
-transparency of technology
-impact of technology on the human condition
-engage the artist
-requirement of the critical role
-combine technology and bodies to engage the community with ore than e-newsletters
-use technology to integrate the community into art projects
-wanted to move away from traditional concept of gallery
-building relationships with people in other departments
-work outside of limits of Fine Arts program
-Environmental Studies; School of Architecture
-UWaterloo seen as the tech university
-Andrew not a sophisticated user of technology
-works with artists who are immersed in technology
-interested in the mass of people who are “left behind” or don’t have access to the technology
-interested in the environmental impact of technology
Proboscis (slide)
-artist group based in London, England
-Urban Tapestries (developed a decade ago)
-knowledge sharing; social interaction
-work with school kids and people in low income housing
-many communities they worked with didn’t have access to technology
-had to develop other tools which could be connected to their tools
-StoryCubes
-DIFFUSION eBook
-”this is not a book”
-DIFFUSION Generator
-Robotic Feral Project
–environmental sensor + kids toys (robotic) = mapping
-Snout
–wearable sensors
–Snout Event on Flickr
–sensors are on the snout of the costume
–LEDs on outfit
-AnArcheology Labs (collab w/Render)
-knowledge of how to use technology, not just access to it
-students at the university more interested in fine arts, not technology
-strong community-based interactions, both with Proboscis and the community and Proboscis and Render
-Render not interested in moving art into the community (that role already filled by CAFKA and KWAG); more about interdisciplinary work and meaningful impact on lives of “young people” (pre-university age)
-different ways of applying technological knowledge –> not just about working for Google
-started with video of eye-level view from land animals/insects
-Animal Borne Image Samples
-new museum workers don’t typically have a museum background (more about storytelling)
-polarized opinion of the crystal building at the ROM
-people visiting to see the architecture of the building
The new ROM – who do we aspire to be?
-natural science and art & culture
-urban renewal
-physical location – the Gardiner, the AGO
-reliable and stable institution physically
-separation in governance (judiciary and day-to-day admin)
-attendance is ahead of forecast; people can only be curious about new architecture for so long
-March Break was most successful on record
-construction impacted business because many people thought they were closed (incl. students)
-tons of upcoming programming (only 2 slides photographed)
-both exhibitions dependent on technology
-photographs in historical photo exhibit based on their ability to digitalize work
New Media Resources
-Information Technology Services
–Web/database/network/systems
—still need a strong support in the physical
—need strong IT support and support for the infrastructure (e.g. setup of hardware)
—IT people can work with the content people
-Media Productions
–Video/television/multimedia & exhibition/gallery AV
-Publications
–Co-publishing/academic/catalogues
-Digital Image Centre
–Photography/scanning/copying/image licensing
–3D imaging unit
–digitalization of assets is key
–can’t move to the next level without digitalization
-Information Centre
–Rights and Reproductions co-ordinator
–Digital Media Assets co-ordinator
What is the concept of the mindful museum?
-museum as a masoleum
-museum as a machine
-museum as a metaphor (i.e. the Agora)
-museum as a mall – drained and devoted to pleasure; an attraction (like Disney; no longer about education)
-photo of quote re mindful museum quote
–”being primarily about the objects it contains”
–Louvre – 25 minutes from door to objects
–”mindful museum puts art in your face”
–CBC website podcast –> CBC Ideas –> 1 yr ago, Adam Copnik on the mindful museum (closest I could find was “Canada: Nation or Notion?“… that’s a direct link to the mp3, and I haven’t previewed it yet… also see this blog post)
-photo of projection from show
-because of success of the show getting people to look around, continue to use the space to put art infront of people as soon as they enter
-Sony donated flat screen monitors to ROM
-traditional vs digital donor walls
-digital donor wall – interactive; stories about the donors
–background image is from archival images of building; meant to be blurry and background image
–speaker mounted on ceiling, sound directed to viewer (instead of broadcasting to the entire room)
–not just about donors; also about the history of the ROM
-Digital gallery for education
–manipulate objects on projection
–provide digital options for younger audience who is already using technology at home
–in-house creation and management of content vs outsourcing
–often spend almost as much time with 3rd party as having to do it yourself
–ROM did it in-house
-Dipali (sp??)
-South Asian history and culture
-women in S.A. art
-same thing happening with First Peoples Paul Kane paintings show
–worked with John Basai – filmmaker
–kiosk, browser-based, with info on work
–more info for visitors
-new textiles gallery
-curator had specific ideas of how she wanted to use technology
-texture of textiles
-how they are created
-how a loom works
-video of how suit made
Canadian Mining Hall of Fame
-minerals and ores
-satellite exhibits
-how to take photos and bring that to life?
-used model of donor wall
-part of mining/minerals gallery
-elabelling – current RFP for delivery solution
-necessary for densely stoked display cases
-flatscreens everywhere!!
Schad Gallery of Biodiversity
-snippets that demonstrate life (ref: video at beginning)
-combo of media
-include media studio for ongoing program
–video producer and programmer to create programming for schools etc
-presents social networking web opportunity
Iconic Objects
-new marketing campaign
-must-see iconic pieces (regardless of what their current feature show is)
-short video sequences
-mindful museum – about the objects
Lessons Learned
-enhanced accessibility – audio tours
–transcripts of all podcasts
-evening and weekend IT support
-remote monitoring & updating
-hire for specific skill sets
-donor intervention – how much?
-avoid technology for the sake of technology
-allow time for R&D
-test, test, test
What can small museums do?
-seek curatorial support (test the waters)
-talk to visitors (measure the “groundswell”)
-do a POST assessment:
–people (visitors – enhancing their experience)
–objectives (goals?)
–strategy (providing context, more engagemen?)
–technology (solution)
-involve prospective donors
-develop digital assets
-new book: Bold Visions
-not about passive entertainment
-artifacts are not given a theatre setting
Questions
-how was video produced?
–camera technology
-at what point in development does interactive strategy come into things?
–wanted it to happen early, but due to project evolving, some of that got cut and was reintroduced at the end
-what about changing content?
–plan is that the content will be rotated
–funding exists to do this
-what happens when exhibition closes?
–dinosaur exhibit is permanent, but expect content to be updated
-collaboration & availability; produce in collaboration with other museums? make it available to them?
–not typically a practise to collaborate because of IP issues, but open to the idea where it makes sense
–developing portable content
-digital donor wall
–help with interface (Overdrive)
–content was in-house
-when does the technology become too much? interfering with experience with actual item? filter? adding so many layers?
–audience wants the context being provided through the technology
–objects don’t always speak for themselves
–technology is only one means of expression
–ROM also about education
-Charlene Li + Josh Bernoff
-Forester Research
-Groundswell book
-museums piggypack on technology developed by corporations
-the role of how the money is made
-focusing on the public and the programming; start with the inward looking, but the focus is on the outside
-three themes: reconsidering the role of collection management; keeping/setting pace with technology; how important a really conceptually strong program is for online presence
1997
-concept of shooting digitally was different
-digital cameras were inferior to 35mm cameras
-slides and indexes
-slides were scanned and saved onto CDs
-everything was still very physical
-did have website, built by a volunteer’s son
-very amateurish website
-just getting online, didn’t care what it was -Museums Assistant Program
-collection management driven
phase 2
-grant from Virtual Museum of Canada
-trying to create a virtual museum –> recreating real world
-John felt this was the wrong decision because the internet is not the real world, but the internet can provide options which aren’t available in the real world
-gallery is decontextualized setting -Cloth & Clay website –> archived on the Textiles Museum website
-online identity can be bigger than physical presence
-sites were static HTML because that’s all they know
-John attended course where it was taught by a web designer and a curator, but there was no link between the two
Cloth & Clay did as much as they could with static HTML
-requirement for digitalization of work —> Collections Manager
-requirement for better collections management and images
phase 3
-create online destination
-entrypoint to collection
-relevant themes
-told government they needed to digitalize collection and have a database of the images
-creating something online that we can’t do in physical space –> moving objects around; didn’t use quicktime
-also allowed people to zoom into images
-Zoomify
-plugins –> something that’s open and that people would already have
-challenge to store and backup images (highres source images) and space online –> changed much since then
-slides taken by many different people (volunteers, proffessional photographers) and scanned at different resolutions
-need to take the different shots; need to not reshoot images every time; not just file format but relevancy of images
-has style guide for how to shoot images of textiles!
-government funding insisted on digital images
-shot images from a camera on the roof
-MimsyXG vs archaic Access DB
–different levels of consistency of data input, tagging
–need to investigate how to transfer data –> rebuild vs import
–just access isn’t enough –> NEED consistency of data
–needed a fundamental shift of definition/concept of collection management
-60% of collection photographed
-not just adding all sorts of little notes on db info (resulted in inconsistency with use of fields; nothing was publication-ready)
-kept fields simple –> much to document, not many curators to sign-off; wanted to do everything in French (don’t -operate in French, but wanted to be able to offer the information in French online); built thesaurus for terms and used that for standard English data input and translated to French
-Textile Museum: collection; contemporary art & exhibition program (most dynamic part of their programming); educational programming (other programs had educational aspects, but they also have a specific ed program)
-use web to exhibit work for longer than the few weeks they can keep stuff on display due to the fragility of the work
-Digital Threads
-asked artists to create digital art – artists asked were not digital artists; had to work closely with them to make this work
-theme grouping of work, rather than chronological
-Joanna Berzowska
-didn’t want it to be a database experience
-serve researcher, but should be usable for general museum going audience and teachers
-clearest terminology and titles for users
(no, I don’t know what happened to the phase 4 notes…I’m guessing they’re the tail end of the phase 3 notes)
phase 5
launching a new website soon
In Touch (hoping to change name)
deliver online project
create hands-on learning experience
move things, feel the weight, etc
computer animation –> molecular reaction of textile
–> like SL?
take apart a textile online and reconstitute work
physics-based technology
increase level of immersion for users –> cultural journey mgmgrand.com –> type of immersion textile museum is looking for
–time-out in the immersion experience to get more detail
questions
-level of skillset – challenge?
–had to identify target audience
–design site for target audience and user behaviour
-finding the right partner for these projects, esp for people who are not big on social media
-connection between online presence and marketing
–rely on emarketing
–online museum brings people to the physical museum
-concept of draft publishing versus polished publishing; Sebastian from Australia (forget the gallery…)
–more interactive publishing when things are draft; wikis, etc
–having everything polished only is not necessarily the best option, and they are welcome to feedback
-YorkU –> Kate Fletcher (?) –> takes digital and almost hologram
