wikipedia and barbie

Wikipedia is continuing to grow exponentially, both challenging and exciting us. I have just been reading about Barbie. If you haven't had a look, you should. An amazingly comprehensive overview of her development, evolutions and make-overs and her cultural impact. Did you know, for instance, that she has been both a palentologist and tourist in her time (as well as, of course, astronaut, vet, rock star and firefighter)??

There's a lot to be said for the power of wikis to enable collaborative work across space and place.

And a further note on Barbie - the amazing Simon Tyszko has Suicide Bomber Barbie depicted on his site - more evidence of the way this iconic doll is hijacked as a mechanism to critically reflect on key contemporary issues.

Project Gutenburg

Project Gutenburg was the "first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today". While there are issues about copyright and public domain (you might have noticed that most of the material available could be described as 'classic') it provides an amazing resource of print and audio.

A sample:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes adventure, The Valley of Fear, is available as an audio file as well as text. Listen and enjoy.

If you are really excited by the prospect of this growing public collection of classic works and want to contribute in some way, you can volunteer to become a proof reader.

UKLA digital literacies symposium

There's going to be a fabulous symposium at this year's UKLA conference in Nottingham. The UKLA Digital Literacy SIG is presenting a symposium which outlines some of the interesting research that's taking place among the group members. A highlight!

Here's part of the abstract:

• This symposium will explore the early work of the Digital Literacies SIG which began in October 2005. The research day at UKLA 2005 showed just how significant the field of digital literacies has become and how far we are all influenced in our everyday literacy practices by digital cultures. For children, however, there is an increasing gap between the worlds they encounter in and out of the classroom. At home they segue seamlessly between media to make meaning and interact with others’ meanings; in school, all too often, the digital territory they inhabit at home is unwelcome or corralled into a clearly designated space with little impact on literacy practices.

Presenters will include Muriel Robinson, Rebekah Willett, Guy Merchant, Clare Dowdall and Julia Davies! All brilliant and engaging. These people are also members of the ESRC seminar series on play, creativity and digital cultures

My Happy iDog

Just back from Japan (more on that next time). I'm involved in an ESRC seminar series around play, creativity and digital cultures (next seminar is on the 5th July in Lincoln) and this little guy fits right in. He's the blue 'Happy Version' and I found him in Tokyo. He dances and demands attention and is generally very cute! I wanted one for xmas but it was worth the wait.

I also personalized my BlackBerry while I was there -- the lure of the racks and racks of phone decorations was too much to ignore! Also, one of the attractions of personal technologies is that we can personalize them. We add stickers, glitter, soft toys to mark them as unique and make them our own. It's an interesting phenomenon and one not to be ignored by researchers.

Christian - if you're reading this.....hello!

Spell with flickr

You can now use images from flickr to spell out words! How cool!

Lollipop Street

Drawahouse.com is fab. Although, as you can see, I am a minimalist with limited talent, it is fun. I am fascinated by the ability to create a street. If you want to draw a house and add it to Lollipop Street, this is the link. We can create a neighbourhood! I wonder if we will have street parties and drop by for afternoon tea?

An online neighbourhood drawn in (aspirational) 2D in a multidimensional online space by people sitting in offline spaces located in houses and neighbourhoods. Ouch, makes my head hurt!

Inside Barbie

I have no good reason for this post (other than i have spent 11 hours in front of my keyboard trying to be profound and write about the construction of cohesive self-narratives...blah...yes, i know!). So, if you're ever wondered what is inside that Barbie you have hidden in that box under your bed labelled 'research projects', look no further. Under biohazard laboratory conditions, the Visible Barbie Project has come to your rescue!

My faith in the great modernist narrative of science is hereby restored.

Another brilliant set of photos from Ezprezzo.com -- street art. But not just plain, ordinary street art (if such a thing exists) -- 3D street art!

As I said in a previous post, I have been collecting pictures of street art, graffiti and other text for a long time but I have never come across 3D work. The set displayed on Ezprezzo.com are amazing and demonstrate how vibrant, unexpected and transient urban streetscapes can be.

Viva Barbie

I have posted in relation to the iconic Barbie on and off. Anyone who thinks about popular culture and consumer culture will no doubt share my interest. She is both awe inspiring and horrifying and while her sales figures are starting to slip, she is about as famous as you can get. Her fame is hard-won and well-deserved. She is no pop starlet, here today and gone tomorrow. She has ridden the wave of rapidly changing times and reflected ourselves back (with all our prejudices, vanities and frailties) in ways that made us take note.

This picture from the brilliant Ezprezzo.com is one of many gorgeous Barbie pix. At least we now know how she has kept her complexion so milky and soft for all these years...

The Visual Dictionary

I have a vast collection of signs, text and street art from all around the world, including these from San Francisco












However, my collection pales in comparison to this brilliant collection by The Visual Dictionary:

The Visual Dictionary is a collection of words in the real world. Photographs of signage, graffiti, advertising, tattoos, you name it, we're trying to catalogue it

Go, look and contribute.