The Internet of Cultural Things

"The Internet of Cultural Things" was an AHRC funded research project (£50k from their “Digital Transformations” scheme, PI Mark Cote and CI Jussi Parikka). It was in collaboration with The British Library as artist-in-residence. The aim of this research was to make visible the cultural data generated in public institutions and to illuminate and transform the way both people and cultural institutions interact.

The main output was “The Elastic System”, exhibited at the British Library for 6 weeks as an installation in 2016. It is in a one year show from May 2017 at the Digital Catapult centre called “Hybrid Landscapes” curated by Hannah Redler.

There were various other events and outputs associated with this project – symposia presentations at Liverpool Biennale, other talks, reports, databases, etc. Including a 10k word report on best practice on accessing and working with cultural data at public institutions.

This was the first time the British Library collaborated in a cultural research project that required access to their operational infrastructure (a live ongiong connection to their requesting database ABRS).
The year long residency has been documented in a 10k report that contributes to the aim of defining best practice in accessing and working with cultural data at a public institution.
"The Elastic System" functions both as a interactive portrait of the pioneering C19th librarian Thomas Watts and a functioning visual catalogue of the British Library's collection. It thereby fufills the project's aim to use cultural data to transform the way people interact with public institutions.