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Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment to raise money through games marathon
The Oakland-based Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment has been trying to carry out a second round of donation-based funding for a few months now, but things haven't quite come together as well as planned. So, things are getting serious: They're going to play some video games.Starting this Friday afternoon, the museum will be hosting a marathon of various games, including Super Metroid, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Fallout 3, and Resident Evil 3, along with a few other classics. The event will be streamed on the museum's website, and the goal is to raise $1,000 for every game that's defeated on the stream. If more money than the $20,000 goal is raised, they'll keep playing until one game is beaten for every $1,000 earned.All the funds raised will go to the Museum, to keep up the collection there and continue all of the programs the organization hosts (including, just recently, one of the locations for MolyJam). MADE is accepting donations from now through the marathon this weekend.
Touring the Louvre with a 3DS
The Nintendo 3DS debuted in its latest occupation last week, as tour guide at the biggest and best museum in the world, Paris' legendary Musée du Louvre. I just happened to be in the neighborhood this week while on a month-long trek across Europe, so I paid my 5 € along with the 10 € museum admission for the audio guide, and was handed a Korean Air-branded black 3DS and a pair of headphones on the way to go see some of the world's finest art. The 3DS isn't the only portable device in use as a museum tour guide. While visiting the Musée d'Orsay last week, I was handed an iPod touch in a special security case, and walked around among the works of French impressionists while using Apple's device to hear insights in English. And I've used quite a few other audio guides on this trip – in London, Westminster Abbey and the Royal Observatory both used custom-made audio guide systems, with a keypad and a play button to choose certain audio tracks for various sights on the tour. But the 3DS was definitely the only gaming-specific device I've seen in use so far. And because of all of the various technologies included, specifically the wireless features, it actually did a great job. %Gallery-153608%
Nintendo puts 3DS in the Louvre, France remains generally indifferent
Sharing a birthplace with Arséne Wenger, Jean-Paul Satre and Jules Verne, the Louvre is France's most prized national treasure. In partnership with Nintendo, the museum finally replaced those cumbersome handheld guides with 3DS units a fortnight after the anticipated March launch. The consoles will provide a variety of tours, offering detailed lectures around the entire museum, or the Cliff's Notes edition for the lazy connoisseur. Shigeru Miyamoto popped up to demonstrate that you can examine HD snaps and 3D images of the sculptures on show, just in case looking up and seeing it in the flesh stone would be too traumatic.
Should Apple build a museum on the new campus?
Computer historian David Greelish argues in a blog post that Apple should build a museum on the grounds of its new Cupertino campus. He points out that the flying ring-shaped office will attract everyone from architects to Apple fans who want to check out the unique building. Apple, Greelish says, should embrace these tourists and build a museum that'll showcase Apple's achievements. Greelish offers his ideas on how the museum should be built and even provides a few sample designs. Greelish isn't the first one to propose an Apple museum. Apple toyed with the idea of a corporate museum in the past, but Steve Jobs rejected the idea and gave a collection of Apple memorabilia to Stanford University instead.
Smithsonian's super squeaky clean meteorite lab makes your room look like a pig sty (video)
If you think you're a clean freak, then you obviously haven't been to the Smithsonian Antarctic meteorite storage facility. See, when it isn't kicking up the video-games-as-art debate or showing off our future overlords, the Smithsonian also dabbles in the study of fallen rocks from space. So just exactly how clean is the Smithsonian's Meteorite Clean Room? Well, let's just say it's highly unlikely that you'll find microscopic traces of that peanut butter and jelly sandwich that the intern had for breakfast on any of the facility's 15,000 Antarctic meteorites. As shown in the behind-the-scenes video after the break, the research facility goes to great lengths to prevent sample contamination, from the surgical-looking staff prep to dry nitrogen storage. After all, no researcher would like to be the poor sap who studies a contaminated meteorite and mistakenly announces to the world that Mars not only had peanut butter but jelly as well.
PSA: Interactive Starry Night now available for the iPad (video)
Greek Artist Petros Vrellis is a big admirer of Vincent Van Gogh, which prompted him to produce an interactive version of Starry Night. It took him a patience-sapping six months to produce the original PC version, where finger swipes redirect the painter's famous daubs into a light and sound show. Of course, there was such a clamor from users all desperate to have a go, that he managed to produce an iPad app in a little under a month. Now you can pick it up from the App Store at the source link, or head on past the break to see this new version in action (you really do have to see it).
UK's National Media Museum opens permanent 'Life Online' gallery
Planning to be in the neighborhood of Bradford, England anytime soon? Then you may want to set aside some time for a visit to the National Media Museum, which will tomorrow officially open what's being described as the "world's first gallery dedicated to exploring the social, technological and cultural impact of the internet." Dubbed "Life Online" the new gallery will feature one permanent section focused on the history of the internet, and another section that will change each year and feature different "experimental themes" commissioned by artists -- the first being an examination of the open source movement. As the BBC reports, that's the result of some £2 million in funding, as well as contributions from the likes of Vint Cerf, who's featured in some of the videos produced for the exhibit (you can see those at the YouTube link below).
Google celebrates Nelson Mandela with virtual museum
Google today announced the grand opening of the Nelson Mandela Digital Archive, an online collection of digitized photos, videos and documents centering around the former South African president. The site, based out of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory in Johannesburg, South Africa, was developed with the help of $1.25 million in funding provided by the software giant. The collection includes unseen drafts of Mandela's work, letters to friends and family members and diary entries made during his 27 year imprisonment. The multimedia archive is available for view now. You can check it out by clicking the source link below.
Van Gogh's Starry Night modded into beautiful interactive light and sound show (video)
This is one of those little projects you wish you could just play with the second you've seen it. Greek Artist Petros Vrellis coded an interactive light and sound show into Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night -- that you can control with your fingers. With a swipe of a single digit (or hand) you can pull the particles of the artists paint daubs to redirect the swirling mass of night sky in any direction, making music as you do so. After the break we've got video that you really, really should watch -- and afterward start begging the creator to get this onto people's iPads as soon as he can manage it.
Nintendo 3DS tour guides might make the Mona Lisa less underwhelming
Other than wine, cheese and overwhelming apathy, the Louvre stands alone as France's most prized national treasure. It's enormous, it's teeming with art, and it's really old. Starting in March, though, the museum will get an infusion of comparatively new technology, thanks to the Nintendo 3DS. As the AFP reports, Nintendo has agreed to provide the Louvre with some 5,000 pocket consoles, to be offered as digital tour guides for museum patrons. With these devices tucked securely inside their fanny packs, wandering tourists will be able to pinpoint their location within the museum, select themed itineraries, and listen to audio commentary available in seven different languages. The consoles will eventually replace the museum's more traditional audio guides, as part of a wider campaign to bring 21st century technology to the Louvre's 12th century confines. "We are the first museum in the world to do this," Agnes Alfandari, the Louvre's head of multimedia, told the AFP, adding that a slate of dedicated smartphone and tablet apps is also in the works. [Image courtesy of TrendHunter]
Online museum offers Steve Jobs exhibit
If you crave even more info about Steve Jobs, the Computer History Museum has just posted an online exhibit called "Steve Jobs...First NeXT, One more thing...". The exhibit has lots of information, some archival photos and a smattering of videos, some donated by friends of Steve that haven't been publicly seen. While not a comprehensive biography, I had no trouble finding things I didn't know. I also appreciated the links to other videos and websites that further illuminate one of America's most prolific marketers and inventors. The Computer History Museum is physically located in San Jose and has thousands of artifacts and exhibits that highlight the invention of computers, the legacy of the personal computer, and features a speaker series, tours, and other online exhibitions. [via MacRumors]
MADE museum delves into early 3D games
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment will host its first exhibit in Oakland starting December 3. Appropriately for its first foray into a physical exhibition space, the museum is highlighting "The History of Early 3D." That's 3D as in polygons, not glasses. Think Star Fox and Doom.
iPod 10th anniversary: Apple design exhibit at MKG Hamburg
Since we're celebrating a decade of iPod today, it's a perfect time to share our photos from the Stylectrical exhibition at the MK&G museum in Hamburg, Germany. This collection features scores of Apple products (largely from the reign of design chief Jonathan Ive) alongside some of the industrial designs from other companies that informed, or were influenced by, the clean and functional Apple aesthetic. Check out the 'wall of iPods' that covers the full decade-long arc of the music player. %Gallery-137322% Some of the most remarkable juxtapositions in the exhibit come with the pairings of mid-20th century Braun products with the Apple designs that follow their distinctive looks. The three postcards from the exhibit (shown above) feature designs by Dieter Rams for Braun that would seem perfectly in place on the tables of an Apple Store, save that they were produced in the late 1950s and early '60s. Rams' influence on Ive's designs is widely acknowledged -- witness the iOS Calculator app, which is a dead ringer for the Braun ET66 calculator -- but there's a difference between knowing that and seeing it right in front of you. The exhibition is a must-visit for any Apple fan passing through Hamburg between now and mid-January. Don't miss the art gallery of prints from photographer Michael Tompert; his 12LVE project destroys Apple products (ow!) in the service of beautiful and haunting images. Enjoy the gallery of products and displays. Thanks to the Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe and curator Ina Grätz for inviting us to visit. Reader Neil Curtis also toured the exhibit and sent us the video walkthrough below. Photos by Michael Rose, © 2011. All rights reserved.
EVE contest winners announced, free Aurum for everyone
Back in July, EVE Online developer CCP Games opened a visual museum of EVE artwork, screenshots, and videos to record the game's ongoing history. Players were invited to upload their work to the site in exchange for entry into a huge contest, with 20 Nvidia graphics cards and an expensive Alienware laptop to be won. Players voted for their favourite videos and pictures on the website during August, and the winners were officially announced on Thursday. The grand prize of an Alienware gaming rig went to Tez Saurus of Test Alliance for his video I Love New Eden, which received a massive 1800 votes (almost 1000 votes more than the next-most-popular video). The song beat legendary videos like Clear Skies III, War Has Come, and the popular official trailer EVE: A future Vision from 2011's Fanfest. At the start of August, CCP gave every active EVE account 1000 free Aurum to spend on Incarna clothing as a thank-you for sharing EVE museum pictures and videos on Facebook. The second sharing milestone for the visual museum was reached this week, and all active EVE players will soon receive 1500 Aurum free of charge. As clothing bought with Aurum can be sold on the normal in-game market, this is a big financial boost to new players. The total value of the Aurum being distributed is around $1.75 million US.
Aion digs through history with an in-game event
Atreia's precious artifacts don't belong in some rich guy's collection -- they belong in a museum! If you're feeling the Indiana Jones vibe and are in the mood for a little treasure hunting, then Aion's got the in-game event for you: Picking Up the Past. The past is a litterbug, we tells ya! Starting today and running through October 5th, Picking Up the Past challenges players on both sides of the faction fence to uncover fossils that are apparently everywhere. Some will be easy to find; others are riding piggyback on dungeon monsters. Once a player find enough fossils, he or she can can turn them in for a variety of rewards including medals, Abyss relics, consumables, crafting mats, and -- why not? -- couples t-shirts. There are no quests associated with the event; simply find and turn in fossils as fast as you can!
15 Minutes of Fame: Come one, come all to the astounding Traveling Museum of Debris
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. Back in October, we profiled triple-threat collector Drrum's coordinated armor, pet, and mount collections, meticulously assembled and screenshot in complementary in-game settings. Last week, we chatted with collector Moonjade of Twisting Nether (US-A), who focuses on items somehow linked to game lore. This week, we complete our trifecta of collectors with an interview with a player who's assembled an actual in-game museum -- yup, curator-led tours and all -- of unusual gray items and assorted oddities. Now, we get crazy emails all the time here at WoW Insider about all sorts of weird things that've been found in game ... but man, I've never even heard of some of this stuff! Pestle, who's also GM of Infinite Asylum on The Scryers (US-A), manages the massive, multi-bank collection via Riplington E. Winchester III, the museum's intrepid gnomish curator character. The list of random items that she sent me is so long that there's literally no reader-friendly way to display it here (let alone the fact that it would take days to slap Wowhead links on all of it); we'll stream it for you in paragraph form just after the jump. For a visual idea of the scope of this massive collection, click through the gallery below before joining us to chat with its curator after the break. %Gallery-129232%
Fujitsu wants to push out location-based apps, pull them back again
Maybe, just maybe, this wireless technology in development at Fujitsu makes some sense. When you walk within range of an NFC sensor or GPS coordinate, the cloud-based system takes the liberty of pushing location-relevant apps to your phone or tablet. Enter a museum, for example, and you'll automatically receive its tour guide app. Your device could even be made to work as a viral transmitter, spreading the app to other visitors' handsets. Finally, when you leave, all the bloatware just magically disappears. Alternatively, the museum's marketing department conveniently forgets to configure this last step, accidentally signs you up to its newsletter and grabs a donation from your PayPal account while it has the chance. We would obviously find this rather upsetting, unless the museum has dinosaurs.
Use an iPad in a kiosk with aluminum nClosures
The enclosures securing and protecting the iPads I spied at LaGuardia looked like custom jobs for Delta's terminal, but if you want to install an iPad for use in a kiosk, it appears nClosures has your multitouch device literally covered. The iPad kiosk mount from nClosures is a complete solution, with a lock to secure the aluminum enclosure around the iPad (and an option to add a cable for added security), radio transparency so you can use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and of course a hole for the power cable. The enclosures sport a VESA bolt pattern on the back so you can use those mounts or you can buy one from nClosures. Plus, the company will work with you on custom enclosures if their stock black or silver basic enclosure isn't what you need. You can buy an enclosure with or without Home button access, all of which cost $169 each. The VESA mount costs $10. These are already in use in some museums, so if you've seen some in the wild, let us know in the comments. These look like a great solution for museums and other installations needing a simple kiosk solution for iPads.
Kiro robot teaches Korean kindergarten by day, discusses Kandinsky by night
This little girl loves Kiro. Why? Because he's probably the raddest robot teacher she's ever seen. Developed by Korea's Robot Research Institute, the bot recently wrapped up a three week trial period in a kindergarten classroom, where he apparently spent most of his time screening educational videos on his abdomen, playing interactive games, and keeping his students in rapt attention. When he wasn't busy dishing out Ritalin to his underlings, Kiro also served as a guide at the Dong-A University Museum, in Busan. After programming the droid with enough knowledge to make him sound smart, engineers set him loose within the art gallery, where he would provide visitors with background information in hushed, docent-dulcet tones. He loves kids. He loves art. He's always smiling. He's the kinda bot you could bring home to Dad. Scope him out for yourself in the video, after the break.
Samsung brings Van Gogh 'paintings' to Korea via Smart TV, makes us reach for the absinthe
This is sort of strange. People in Korea are looking at masterpieces of Western art on a TV screen -- and not from the comfort of their laptops. It's all part of something called Rêve et Réalité (Dream and Reality), a Samsung-sponsored exhibition that brings some of the world's most celebrated works to Seoul's Hangaram Museum via four, 46-inch LEDs. The expo, on display until September, features some of the greatest hits from Claude Monet, Jean F. Millet and, most notably, Van Gogh, whose Starry Night has never been on display in Korea (and, as far as we're concerned, still hasn't). Televised docents provide background info on the artists, whose paintings are all transmitted via a giant Smart TV video wall that blurs out all semblance of texture and nuance -- much like that bottle of absinthe we're about to pound.
