Archive for the 'Arts & Books' Category

These days we grumble if our digital camera doesn’t quite fit into our pocket. And that the camera bundled with our mobile phone produces blurry pictures. We take cameras so much for granted and expect so much of the technology.

So it was great to be reminded how far we’ve come since the first cameras were invented in the 1830s at the Points of View exhibition at the British Library (it’s free and on until Sunday 07 March 2010). The history of photography began with the camera obscura, a darkened room with a pinhole allowing light from a scene outside to be projected onto the wall through the hole and the exhibition starts with a box sized one through which you can see a ghostly image of a statue. You’re then led through to the two competing technologies that battled it out in the early days of photography (the VHS and Betamax struggle of its day, I suppose) - the daguerrotype and the calotype. The dageurrotype (named for Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre) could produce only one perfect, crisp and clear printed image and you had to have a camera the size of the print you wanted to create. The calotype, created by Henry Fox Talbot, could reproduce a number of printed images from a negative but the quality was more smudgy. For awhile the daguerrotype was more popular, especially for portraits commissioned by the wealthy, but we all know which technology won out and dominated for most of the next 150 or so years…

The British Library exhibition has a number of those original Victorian cameras on display along with the boxes of chemicals needed to develop and print the images. They are huge wooden contraptions and the whole process of taking a photo and printing copies took an inordinate amount of time. But the challenge was on to make them more portable and to speed up exposure times as well as the whole process - at one time, the fact that they could snap a picture with a 30 second exposure time was a huge achievement!

I was also fascinated by the photos of the far flung corners of the world taken by energetic and driven Victorian photographers, showing places like Cambodia, India and Africa before the influence of the West took hold. They had to lug all that equipment around and often had to develop and print the pictures in the field so they also had to carry tents and tables etc along with them - via camels or other beasts of burden through the wild places of the world.

There are also photos of Victorian celebrities, ordinary people, street scenes and labourers in the English countryside - wonderful evocations of the past. I was particularly struck by the picture of Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square under construction - again, we take that landmark so much for granted: it was strange to see it as it was being put up.

I’m not going to moan so much now that my little digital camera is a little bit too boxy for my jacket pocket. It fits easily into my briefcase and day bag and that’s handy enough for split second snapshots!

(You can also check out the Points of View blog which has some fun past and present views of London.)

Photo: from Points of View exhibition website, with thanks

There’s been a lot of focus on blogging for business recently on this blog, largely due to the research I’ve been doing in the last couple of years for my business book, International Communications Strategy, so it’s nice to be reminded that most of the 170 million blogs out there are by ordinary people writing about their daily lives and personal feelings. It was the We Feel Fine project that was the big reminder - it’s a project led by computer scientist, Jonathan Harris, that explores “human emotion on a global scale” by harvesting emotions expressed on blogs whenever the words “I feel…” are found.

The emotions are gathered and sorted in different ways and shown in six “movements” - madness, murmurs, montage, mobs, metrics and mounds - which are essentially different visualisations of the data. You can see good feelings and bad feelings as well as the geographic location, age and gender of the person expressing those feelings. The project’s website suggests that this living artwork can offer specific answers to questions like: “Do Europeans feel sad more often than Americans? Do women feel fat more often than men? Does rainy weather affect how we feel? What are the most representative feelings of female New Yorkers in their 20s? What do people feel right now in Baghdad? What were people feeling on Valentine’s Day? Which are the happiest cities in the world? The saddest?”

You need to launch an applet - which can take up to 20 seconds to load - in order to experience this amazing artwork. Click on the image below and it should take you to the We Feel Fine page: to launch the applet from there, click on the last sentence of the first paragraph (”We Feel Fine is divided into six discrete movements, each illuminating a different aspect of the chosen population. These movements are represented in the We Feel Fine applet.”)

I love the way the bubble of feelings cluster round the mouse cursor when you click on the screen in Madness - if you hover it over one of the bubbles, it will show you the location of the feeling and a brief idea of what the feeling is.

Then in Murmurs, you can see each latest feeling expressed somewhere out there in the world appear on the screen and if you click on the phrase, you’ll be taken to the blog. So “i feel so detached from everything i used to stand for” takes me to a blog post You Are My Brand Of Heroin - tonight is the night to let it go by xshadowsoflovex.

So how does this artwork make me feel? I feel more connected with the millions of people out there in the world.

Online bookseller, Amazon, has got the bibliophiles all a-quiver with excitement with its announcement that the Kindle will be sold internationally from mid-October. For those of you who haven’t heard of it yet, the Kindle is a digital book reading device, rather like the clay tablets of ancient times in size and look but electronic and able to store over a thousand books plus mp3s as well as blogs and digital newspapers and magazines. So far, it’s only been available in the US so this next phase is very exciting for book lovers all over the world.

I use the term “book” loosely, of course. Those book lovers who love physical books will not be excited at all by the Kindle on the basis that it lacks all the tactile qualities they love about “real” books - paper, page turning etc. But those who love the content of books and love the idea of being able to carry a thousand books in their pocket, the Kindle is the next big thing.

I fall into the latter group for various reasons:

• I’m lazy and feeble and I like the idea of holding one compact tablet that I can read lying down as well as sitting up.

• I like the idea of being able to carry a range of books around with me but without the weight of the physical books to give me backache and arm ache.

• I like the idea of the text-to-speech facility so that I can load the full text of a book and have it read to me while I sit on the bus. The digital voice might be quite irritating, however - so it will all depend on how life-like it sounds

However, I’m not going to jump in with my credit card immediately as I have some reservations:

• I believe the Kindle ties you to buying all your ebooks from Amazon, in a Kindle-specific format. What happens when my Kindle dies - as inevitably it will, like all electronic devices? I guess I’ll have to shell out for another one - we’ll all start having to think of books like music: but with mp3s or CDS, I can buy my player from any supplier, not just the one company. With the Kindle, am I now stuck forever having to buy it from Amazon?

• I still need to be convinced by the screen quality and how quickly it refreshes when you turn the page - I had a look at the Sony Reader and what put me off is that the screen turns black for a second before it opens onto the next page: ugh.

• It’s a pretty steep price at US$279.

• I remain to be convinced about it’s usefulness outside the US. At the moment, a huge number of e-books from other ebook sites which are available to US buyers are not available to non-US customers due to geographical rights restrictions. Also, if you look at US Audible.com compared to UK Audible.co.uk, the number of audiobooks available in the UK is a lot less than those available in the US - and in particular, major latest releases in the US are glaringly missing from the UK list. I haven’t been able to find anything definitive on the Amazon.com site that gives me any clarity either way about geographical rights restrictions - can anyone help me with this question?

Speaking of geographical rights restrictions, the Kindle will not be available in some countries, including Malaysia - see the list of no-Kindle countries. So my litblogger, book loving friends there are still stuck with the tree-pulp versions of books - although Amazon did reply to blogger Sharon Bakar’s email query to them to say that maybe, perhaps, sometime in the future, the Kindle might become available there…

What about you? Are you going to get a Kindle? Or are you a hard and fast paperbook person?

Photo: thanks to jink (Derek) on Flickr.com (CCL)

I’ve been doing some research on music and social media in preparation for a lecture that I’ll be giving to students on the Music and Media Management course at the London Metropolitan University Business School, along with my co-author Silvia Cambie. There’s a lot of interesting stuff out there and I have quite a stack of case studies and notes on the issues I’d like to discuss during the lecture in October.

And the great thing about the digital world of social media is that you come across a range of wonderfully, wacky items and fascinating people that are as wonderful and fascinating as the real world can ever be. This video is one of those items:

I’ve featured another air guitar video before which starred the winner of the Air Guitar championship in the documentary film Air Guitar Nation. The runner up in that film was Bjorn Turoque, the Bruce Springstein look-alike who stars in the video above. Bjorn - the alter ego of writer and musician Dan Crane - has clearly capitalised on the window of opportunity opened by the film and notwithstanding not winning that championship has gone on to air guitar stardom in his own right.

I received this email via my co-author, Silvia Cambie over at XCulture. Karuna Jumar is researching how UK audiences watch Indian movies and would like your help in building up data for her thesis. Please do take a look at her email below and click on the link to her survey. It takes less than 5 minutes to click through the handful of questions and I’m sure your input will be very useful to Karuna.

~~~

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am presently pursuing a research thesis on ‘Transnationlisation of Indian cinema in the UK’ as a part of my Masters in Media Management at the University of Westminster. For the purpose of my research, I wish to conduct a survey with you to understand the tastes of audiences in the United Kingdom.

Please click on the link below and help me understand the audiences in the UK.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHkyYldoLXA0dXhXTC1td2hMMEZwVEE6MA.

I will be extremely grateful to you, if you could help me in this endeavour of mine.

Warm regards,

Karuna

—
Karuna Kumar

MA Media Management 08-09
Department of Media, Arts and Design
University of Westminster
London

Photo: thanks to Ami from flickr.com (CCL)

I met indie filmmaker Anne O’Connell a few years back through filmmaker David Grey. She told me that she was making a series of documentary films on “Hidden London” and the idea intrigued me immediately. She was on the lookout for interesting and unusual stories for the series and with my legal background, I wondered if I could come up with an idea around a legal theme that might fit in with the series.

Anne picks up the story:

I must confess that when Yang-May suggested making a film about Garden Court Chambers, I knew nothing about the Inns of Court, nor how a set of chambers was run. There was a lot to learn!

However, from the first reading of the company’s website, Colin Cook stood out as the ideal person to be at the centre of the film – someone who had worked at the Chambers for nearly thirty years and who had not only seen the changes taking place in the heart of the British legal system, but as a black senior clerk, he actually embodied some of those changes.

‘A Different World’ is the second film in a series of short films called ‘Hidden London’. The idea behind the series is to find London’s local institutions, places which are often unnoticed by the majority of Londoners, but which have seen all the changes of this constantly shifting city over the decades.

The key to a good documentary, like a good drama, is often to find a character at the centre of the film who comes across to the audience and who can carry the story. Colin turned out to be a charming and willing interviewee, so that aspect of the film happily fell into place.

The rest of the filming was not so easy! One of the key parts of the film is the day when two of the Chambers’ barristers were going to ‘take silk’ and become QC’s. However the two people involved from Garden Court decided at the last moment that they didn’t want to be in the film and I had turned up for the day only to have nothing to shoot!

The ceremony was taking place in Westminster Hall, which is inside the Houses of Commons, and not in Westminster City Hall as I had been told, which is on Victoria Street. In retrospect this made more sense and was far more opulent. But this did mean that I could get nowhere near the entrance – the police were unimpressed by my pleas to be let in!

All in all I had to be very inventive that day finding scenes to film which told the story I wished to tell. I also had to work very hard in the edit as the anticipated script didn’t materialise.

In the end, I think that all the effort to overcome these obstacles proved useful as the film has twice been shortlisted for Best Documentary in short film festivals and this has taken me to such exotic locations as Pentedatillo in the very south of Italy and er… Wood Green in North London!

The ‘Hidden London’ series will one day be for sale on one DVD. The films so far are:

• ‘Blustons’ – life in an old-fashioned ladies-wear shop on the Kentish Town Road
• ‘A Different World’ – change in the heart of the British legal system
• ‘Hampton Pool’ – As London’s outdoor lidos close, one pool is saved by local action.
• The 4th film about Wilton’s Music Hall in East London is in post production.

Photo credits:
Anne, my own album
Colin & barristers, still from Anne’s film

The Japan Matsuri (festival) is coming to Spitalfields in London in on Saturday 19th September this year. The aim is to celebrate “Japan and its rich culture, arts & crafts” in festival welcoming autumn, according to the Japan Matsuri website.

The festival is organised by The Japan Society and the Japanese Residents Association and they are taking a very “Web 2.0″ collaborative approach, asking people to tell them “what you would like to see at the Matsuri through our blogspot. It’s your festival, we want your ideas to be included!” They are also calling on “all young artists with an interest in Japanese themes to perform on our stages” and “if you are a Japanese catering company or restaurant, or if you run Japan-related craft business, interested in holding a stall at the festival contact us”. The contact details are on the Matsuri website. There are already 7 comments with suggestions on the site at the time of writing so do go over and add your ideas to help make it a user-generated festival!

I’m definitely going to try to go along if I’m not out of town that weekend. The new re-vamped Spitalfields is a great location and the festival looks like it will be really interesting and fun - in particular, I’m keen (as usual) to check out the food stalls!

I first heard about this event via bespoke tailor Carol Alayne who blogged about this festival on her blog Tailoring For Women - it will be happening on the doorstep of her studio in Spitalfields. Thanks for the tip, Carol.

Picture: from the Japan Matsuri website

Back in the old days of Hollywood, legend has it that Lana Turner was “discovered” in Schwab’s drugstore and went on to become a megastar in the movies of the 1940s and ’50s. More recently, South African born Charlize Theron was spotted by a talent scout in a bank queue in Los Angeles and has since been a Hollywood A-list female star. But these days, with online digital media, you don’t even have to leave home to be discovered to become a big star - as Malaysian singer-songwriter Zee Avi found out.

Zee posted videos of herself singing songs that she had written up on YouTube and became an overnight sensation, according to the official YouTube blog. She was then signed by US label Bushfire Records, according to her Wikipedia entry and is currently touring the US!

Her original video of her song No Christmas For Me is below:

Zee’s YouTube channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/KokoKaina where you can checkout more of her music and videos.

You can also listen to her interview on the US public radio channel NPR.

It’s really exciting to see the power of social media in helping new artists make it into the big time - and especially exciting when this happens to a fellow Malaysian!

Often, when I talk with businesses or organisations about blogging and social media, whether in the formal context of a presentation, or informally at a drinks party or over dinner, a common reason why they have not engaged in social media - say they never will - is because it is an open and interactive space and people could leave negative comments about their company/ products/ services on their blog.

In response, I usually explain that the reason that people would usually leave negative feedback publicly is that there is no other recourse easily available to them to express their grievance to the business/ organisation in question. This is usually because access to that organisation’s customer services is non-existent or difficult to find or once it’s found, the layers of bureacracy or telephone press-button options are designed to deter access. In fury and frustration, that customer will want to express themselves in the strongest possible way as much to hurt the company as to obtain redress for their grievance because the inaccessibility has added to their unhappiness and most likely fueled it into rage.

All a customer wants is for your business to show that you care and a simple complaints procedure where you actively address their problem will do more for your company’s reputation in the long term than saving a bit of money on refusing a refund or some form of recompense. Handled right, an aggrieved customer could be transformed into an evangelist for your brand. Handled wrong and you’ve not only made an enemy for life - that enemy will also co-opt many more antogonists into their camp with stories about how badly you treated them.

The other point I usually make is that whether or not your organisation is engaging in social media, your customers will be talking about you online. They may be praising your produce or servicess or they may be badmouthing you to anyone and everyone.

United Airlines found out to their detriment the high cost of not addressing one customer’s problem. He was a musician whose costly, specialist guitar was apparently damaged on a flight he took with them. As his YouTube page explains, he tried to get recompense from them and was passed from pillar to post to no avail. In frustration, he finally wrote a song which he performed on a YouTube video about his bad experience with the airline.

The video became a viral sensation across the internet and has so far had over 4 million viewings. The press (including Chicago Tribune and The Guardian) picked up the story. According to The Guardian, “Days after United Breaks Guitars went viral on Youtube, United changed course and offered compensation, Carroll said. He declined and suggested they donate it to charity.”

How might United Airlines have avoided this PR fiasco? By ensuring that they have a proper and authentic process for dealing with genuine complaints in a timely way. It seems so simple and obvious, doesn’t it?

So for any business, whether or not you have a blog, in today’s connected world, your customers will find a way to badmouth you if they want to - they don’t need to wait for you to create a blog so they can leave negative comments. The answer to dealing with negative feedback online is not avoiding blogging and social media but putting in place an easily accessible and genuine complaints procedure to show your customers that you care. Who knows, if you address their grievance effectively, they might actually be singing your praises instead of singing about how rubbish you are…

~~~

Thanks to Moyra Weston and Michael Spencer for first telling me about this video.

The Futurists were artists who burst onto the 20th century in 1909, led by Italian poet Filippo Marinetti, obsessed with speed, electricity and the new machine age. I went to the exhibition at the Tate Modern the other day and found it fascinating and repellent at the same time. The exhbition shows the sculptures, paintings and written manifestos of the key figures and sets them within the context of Cubism, Vorticism and the Great War. It was repellent to me because the ideology of the movement is repellent. The Futurist Manifesto of Marinetti and his gang seem like the rantings of fascists:

“9. We want to glorify war - the only cure for the world - militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman.”

Perhaps, it was easy before the First World War to glorify war and machines. But in a world that has known the horror of that war, the Holocaust and other genocides, the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Sept 11, here at the dawn of the 21st century, we are not so certain about glorious war and beautiful ideas that kill. And, of course, as a modern woman who has the right to vote and work and live pretty much as an equal with men in the Western world, the misogyny of the movement raises my hackles.

But the exhibition is also fascinating for giving an insight into what it must have been like to first experience speed and electricity. We take these for granted now, at the dawn of our new century, but in the early years of the last one, cars and electric lights were only just starting to become commonly available.

Night time became full of possibilities with electric lights - cabarets and other entertainments, decorative lights in the street and around buildings made the dark exciting and alluring. The Futurists write about how electric light transforms the human face at night into a myriad of different colours and complexions.

Speed also changed how people experienced the world - streaking past familiar scenes which were previously static, watching the world blur out of the windows of trains and automobiles. The possibilities of technology and machines excited the Futurists. One of them writes about driving his new car, feeling like a modern centaur, part man, part machine.

They tried to convey these experiences on canvas - creating streaks and lines of colour, a blur of light and shade, kaleidoscopes and fragments of dancing and movement. Their sculpture shaped half monstous, half human figures and machine-like objects swirling in motion.

Their most iconic piece, to me, is the sinister cyborg like creature inspired by a drill bit - see first photo. It has inspired a lot of our modern vision - or perhaps nightmare - of androids and cyborgs: machines that were originally created to help humanity but then turning against their creators and becoming efficient killing machines. In particular, see the second photo of a cylon soldier from the sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica.

While the Futurists glorified machines and technology without question, we are much more ambivalent. Perhaps because we know now the horror of the First World War - the first war that used machines and technology (tanks, nerve gas, grenades, bombs dropped from planes, machine guns) for mass destruction - which they were still to live through. Yet, even as we carry the burden of our anxiety about technology, it continues to evolve and permeate every part of our lives.

Some philosophers have written that we are all cyborgs already, especially those of us in the so-called First World - we do not wait for the full integration of the human biological with machines to become part human, part machine: we are already there. Think about it. Most areas of our lives are mediated by machines and technology in some way. In order to go anywhere beyond our narrow neighbourhood, we use cars, buses, trains, planes. Our communications with each other are mediated through phones, email, webcams, SMS, instant messaging. Our music lives in electronic form. Our books, newspapers and knowledge are produced via digital technology. Much of business and enterprise rely on computers and the internet. The logistics of moving goods around the world and of our economy depend on computers. Without electricity, we would be lost in a dark, still and silent world.

A hundred years after the Futurists, machines and technology may not be welded to our bodies but we are so dependent on them, they may as well be.

Photo: of cylon figure from slashfilm.com