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{page:SectiTonight Kinetica Museum, the UK’s
only museum dedicated to moving art, opens its Art Fair 
featuring 150 exhibiting artists working in kinetic, electronic and new media
art. On view is a pole dancing robot, carnivorous lampshades,
man-animal-machine hybrids, mechanical writing machines, subliminal and
sensitive installations, mesmerising light sculptures and cybernetics, all for
sale to collectors and the general public.

The fair aims to popularise artists and organisations
working in these specialized genres and to provide a new platform for the
commercial enterprise of this field. Alongside the fair there will be special
events, screenings, tours, talks, workshops and performances. These events will
involve some of the world’s most prominent artists working in these fields
including: Daniel Chadwick, Sam Buxton,
Jason Bruges, Martin Richman,
and Tim Lewis.

Kinetica Art Fair, developed by Kinetica Museum in
partnership with P3 with the support of the Contemporary Art Society, runs
through the weekend and day passes are £5.

Dancing with robots tonight,

-Lisa

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London Fashion Week means that visiting fashion industry models, designers, photographers, buyers and other professionals are looking for the best places to stay as well as what parties and shows to attend, but finding the hidden gems is always best discovered by word-of-mouth.

Word is just now getting out among the fashionistas
about newly opened 40 Winks, a boutique lodging in London’s East End that has
long been a favourite location for photographic shoots. Proprietor David Carter,
an interior designer, is opening his home to people from the creative
industries and hoping that 40 Winks becomes a connection hub for its guests as
well as a delightful place to stay.

The magic happens when you step through the door of the 1717
townhouse in Stepney Green and discover a sumptuous environment of cozy rooms
and décor with personality. Enter the lush Green Room lounge and be greeted by
carefully selected objects of art that are reminiscent of when Victorian
travellers brought back items of curiosity for display as conversation pieces.
Unwind with a drink from the small 40 Winks bar and hear about who has visited
this special place over the years. The vibrant rooms have greeted Orlando Bloom, Helen
Mirren, Billie Piper, Nigella Lawson and a long list of other celebrities who have done photo
shoots on the premises. The townhouse has also been the photographic location of choice
for Harrods, Marks & Spencer, Tattler, Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire and other
big names in advertising and media.

“The house is like when Alice walks through the looking
glass and presents visitors with a theatrical moment that is juxtaposition
between being on Mile End Road, crossing the threshold from the grey reality of
London, to entering into a dreamy landscape,” said Carter.

He bought the place in 1996, when the building was a vacant derelict
site with no roof, no flooring, no running water and had never been heated.
Transforming the building, Carter was one of the early artists who fell in love
with the East End, and he is now surrounded by many highbrow neighbours from
the creative world.

“The house was a completely blank canvas and it was
inspiring to be able to bring back an old building to life and now to open it
as an antidote to sterile hotels and cliché boutique hotels,” he said.

With just two rooms available at affordable prices, bookings
should be made in advance. Likely to become a top choice of visiting creative
industry types, Carter is looking forward to seeing how the concept of 40 Winks
appeals to people, and has ambition toward opening other cosmopolitan locations
in the future.

I know where I’m suggesting London visitors to stay,

-Lisa

No wonder our industry is in such a funk. A while back I stumbled upon the redesign of Tropicana in a store over here. I thought it looked cheap and nasty and so did a few other people after I posted a comment about it on my tumblr. After barely a few months PepsiCo are reverting to the old design. That’s a monumental f**k up.

The same branding company – Arnell – that is currently embroiled in the $1m or is it $10m Pepsi redesign farce is behind the Tropicana work. As I said in my original post I could probably write something very lengthy about the complexities of design and meta language and loads of artsy fartsy nonsense (which it seems Peter Arnell is something of a God at) but fundamentally anyone with a brain can surely see that the old design worked well and the new design looks pale by

comparison.

I suppose marketing departments and agencies exist (and make money) through doing things like this but Tropicana is such a strong brand – why fix something that ain’t broke? If they felt like they needed to freshen the brand up a little why not pour all that money into New Product Development, CSR or do something cool in the digital space?

I don’t get it. Can anyone enlighten me? 

So after being on the front page on Marketing the week before last, this week we’ve hit the pages of Campaign, with our inclusion in a feature article about, you guessed it, Twitter:

Three years into its existence, the recent media frenzy around celebrity Twitterers, including Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross, and Barack Obama’s successful use of the medium in the run-up to the US election, has seen the popularity of the “microblogging” site increase 27-fold in 12 months.

Advertisers could learn a lot from celebrity Twitterers using the site to shape their personal branding, creating a close, one-on-one relationship with their fans without constantly filtering their thoughts through a PR sieve.

Robin Grant, the managing director of the social media agency We Are Social, which advises Fry on his use of Twitter, explains: “The advice we gave to Stephen centred on being himself and having genuine conversations with people. It’s the same for brands. It’s about being human, showing your real personality and allowing people to connect with you on an emotional level.”

The article then gets quite bizarre, with Flo Heiss, the creative partner at Dare giving this advice about who should sit behind a brand’s account:

It could be a real person, such as a receptionist, or character made up by yourself

How about an imaginary friend who’s a receptionist, Flo? On to David Bain, an ‘internet marketing consultant’:

it’s cleverer when you don’t anthropomorphise it. What if an inanimate object was to Tweet, for example?

Why is it cleverer David? And what would it say? Amelia Torode, managing partner at VCCP:

It has to be a friendly, chatty brand. A brand such as Coca-Cola would be too large in its entirety. You need to work less at a higher-brand level and go down to the actual campaigns or smaller brands under the umbrella in order to start up the conversation.

Not quite as unhinged as Flo and David admittedly, but I’d point to the examples of brands like Burger King, Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods, Starbucks, JetBlue and even VCCP’s client O2, who are having meaningful and useful conversations at the higher-brand level. As usual, our friend Faris Yakob talks sense:

Previously we had a model of buying attention from media companies. Now we’ve got direct relationships so we have to earn that attention – we have to earn it by being entertaining, useful and also nice.

To be honest, there is no ‘right approach’, but there are some general principles that apply (as expressed by myself and Faris above) and then there is the hard won experience at the coalface, learning what works and what doesn’t, that brands doing it themselves (and the agencies like ourselves helping them) have acquired. Most importantly your approach should be built around, yes, you guessed it again, the business objectives you’re trying to achieve.

This diagram from Fallon’s Aki Spicer of six different potential participation strategies brands could use is a useful thought starter (each of which of course might be used in combination or not at all), but even the approaches I deliberately ridiculed above could be valid in the right circumstances. Fictional characters can work really well as part of a campaign as VCCP’s own Compare the Meerkat work shows, and I’m sure at least one of Zappos’ receptionists is on Twitter. Even inanimate objects might have their place – in fact I’ve been trying to persuade Kew Gardens to get their plant life on Twitter for a while now.

But deciding on a strategy is only the first and easiest step. The hard work is the day after day of micro-interactions with real people, and striking the right balance between the opportunities and risks presented by having a real person as the voice of the brand, which I touched upon in the hotly debated post on learning to speak human. David Armano brilliantly investigates this dynamic in The Age of Brandividualism and his recent follow-up, Battle of the Brands (both of which are required reading here at We Are Social towers):

For each brand on Twitter, there’s an individual (or individuals) behind that effort. It’s both business and personal. The two have become one. The tactic comes from a fundamental truth when it comes to the social spaces on the Web. People want to talk to other people. They want transparency. They want to know who they are talking to.

 

The potential reward of course, is the ability to spread surprise and delight, turn negative word of mouth into positive and to really engage people with your brand at an emotional level. There is no greater prize…

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NB – This is cross posted from the We Are Social blog, where there are already some insightful comments – head on over and join the debate.

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–ArtCore is reported to be the world’s first auction of
British club culture based art, and will be on view at Selfridges’ Ultralounge
in London until wed 25 of February 2009 before being auctioned at Selfridges at
5.30pm on 26th February.

Apart from the music, one of the most significant aspects of
Acid House and the ensuing dance culture was its visuals. The flyers and
posters for the raves and clubs were an integral part of their identity and
brought a new form of street art in to the public domain.

ArtCore, a joint venture between Mary McCarthy of Dreweatts
Auction House and Ernesto Leal from our history, a historical exhibition
celebrating the visual side of 21 years of dance culture and will feature a
host of artwork from the most iconic clubs and raves over that period.

ArtCore Print: 50 limited edition prints by the London based
artist Chu & Back to Basics. Exclusive to Selfridges for £150 each, it will
launch on 12th February at the ArtCore private view and then will be on sale
throughout the exhibition.

Limited Edition Book: A stunning collection of 30 limited
edition prints celebrating club culture, bound in a cardboard cover. Exclusive
to Selfridges it will also be launched on the 12 Feb at the ArtCore private
view and will be on sale throughout the exhibition. There will only be 300
copies, retailing at £150 each.

Dreweatts is the largest auctioneer outside of London
specializing in fine art and antiques. They held their inaugural Urban Art
auction in June 2008 at the Village Underground, previewed at Selfridges. This
was a tremendous success, raising over £800,000 with several artists’ sales
records being broken and a lot of attention created for a number of artists
that hadn’t auctioned before.

To purchase any item from the ArtCore collection register
with Dreweatts Auction House at http://www.dnfa.com/artcore/ or in person at
the Ultralounge in Selfridges, London. The full collection will go under the
hammer at 5.30pm on 26 February, pre-registration is essential, and then the following
methods of bidding are possible: Live online (www.the-saleroom.com), over the
phone, in person or by commission bid. Please visit the website or call 0203
2912832 for more details on how to purchase. If attending the auction please
arrive early to ensure a seat.

For more info on how to bid in the auction download the info
form from Dreweatts website, left click on the GENERAL INFORMATION section:

http://www.dnfa.com/artcore

To view a pdf of the full auction catalogue visit:

http://www.dnfa.com/catalogues/13077.pdf

Auction items include: the Hacienda, The End, Queer Nation,
Spectrum, Beyond Therapy, Raindance, Atlantic Jaxx, Tribal Gathering, Circus
Warp, Trade, DiY Soundsystem, Back to Basics, Sign of the Times, RiP, Altern 8,
Trade, Dream Odyssey, DreamZone, Helter Skelter, The Gallery, Love Ranch, Blue
Note, Underworld, Full Cycle, Massive Attack, Shoom, Fungle Junk, Africa Centre
(series 1/3), SiN, Flesh, Dance Paradise, Mutoid Waste and many more. It will
also feature work on canvas, paper and metal by the movement’s original artists
and designers such as Goldie, Basement Jaxx, Derek Yates, Spectrum, Kaborn,
Wayne Anthony,  Nick Walker, Rogan
Jeans, Trevor Johnston, B-art, Chu, Tom Hingston studio, Ryka, Jason Kedgley
(tomato), (photos from Labirynth-Dalston), Ollie Trimmings, Inkie, Steve Perry
(Pez) and  Dave Little.

Thanks to Ernesto Leal, Director of Our Cultural History http://www.ourculturalhistory.com
for this information.

Wish I was there for British club culture history,

-Lisa

Neatly put by the bloggers today – why don’t we just call it the Carter Report as opposed to the Digital Britain report? I get that it’s a status report on Government not of Government, but it’s a pretty big deal altogether and needs a lot of thought. Unpicking the innumerable strands that make up what Digital Britain is by no means a simple task, but then neither is creating a digital economy out of nothing. Critics of the report have suggested that there is a little too much ‘old media’ in it rather than new media. Peter Bazalgette today at the NESTA debate likened this to propping up the shipbuilding industry in the 70s. Given the news stories around LDV (that great engineering firm once known as Leyland Daf Vans) seeking a relatively paltry sum to stay alive yesterday, it seems an apposite analogy.

I also think there is rather more to content than TV shows and music clips, and the media publishers need to step into the fray a little more with points of view about their economic models of the future. There’s also a relatively new and ever fragile economy creating start up businesses, but this vital and future focussed segment has been ignored by the Digital Britain report, so far anyhow. One could argue that the fragility of the whole economy is more pressing, but encouraging innovation around the edges of the content industry, and commercial advertising industry, has to be an outcome of any discussion around Digital Britain.

Follow me on Twitter

Poor Techcrunch, which can’t seem to help making enemies in the digital industry, accidentally or otherwise.

Less than a month after Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington announced a blogosphere-sabbatical after being spit on at the Davos World Economic Forum (amid apparent threats against himself and his family), co-editor Erick Schonfeld has riled the locals at Last.fm, in what has the makings of a bitter and adorable internet-feud.

On top of that, who’s to blame? Bono. Yes, it’s fucking Bono’s fault.

Well not directly, but the rose-tinted Dubliner is a worthy scapegoat when two of my favourite online portals are at odds.

It’s not something I like to see, like two family members quarrelling, as both Last.fm and Techcrunch are held near to my heart.

It all began with U2′s newest album ‘No Line on the Horizon’, which isn’t due out till March 3, but was mysteriously leaked on the internet last week. Mysterious due to the fact that U2 is notoriously secretive about its new releases, allegedly refusing to send out industry samples and insisting on private, in-person listening parties.

When the album hit the web, it was illegally shared several hundred thousand times, which understandably upset some of the cheery lawmen at the RIAA.

After some investigating, Schonfeld posted a “rumour” on Techcrunch, which said that the RIAA had sent its lawyers to Last.fm to gather data about possible users who had been listening to the new U2 album, a function that is pretty much Last.fm’s crux, showing others what you are listening.

Fuelled by hearsay, Techcrunch alleged that Last.fm had actually handed over data of the possible U2-pirates, which could have resulted in prosecution and legal action of those who were sharing ‘No Line on the Horizon’.

That sparked a revolt from both Last.fm users and its London-based staff, including a blogpost by Last.fm co-founder Richard Jones, titled “Techcrunch are full of ***” in which he lambasted the tech-site, and vehemently denied the rumours.

Jones also offered an explanation on the original Techcrunch article, which has received over 500 comments (TC averages about 30 comments), and said:

“We never share personally identifiable data such as email and IP addresses. The only type of data we make available to labels and artists, other than what you see on the site, is aggregate data of listeners and number of plays.”

There you are, squabbling over scrobbling, courtesy of the rumour-mill.

Hopefully, the two parties will be able to shake and make-up, but that doesn’t answer the biggest question… just how did that U2 album get leaked anyways?

It was U2′s label of course, Universal, who accidentally put the album up for sale a week before the actual release date. Oops.

Getmusic.com.au, which is owned by Universal, put the album up online, and didn’t catch the error until it was too late. Far too late.

Since then, the new U2 release, which is bound to be dreadful in every sense of the word, has been getting some pretty good online buzz, which should help sales when the album does finally hit shelves.

Being a customer service obsessed type of blogger, I couldn’t help notice on www.squaremeal.co.uk (we’re the web agency behind the site!) that the newly voted restaurant of the year Scott’s, was described by the editors as a ‘customer-driven restaurant par excellence.’

This got me thinking. There are a lot of parallels between websites and restaurants. A lot of websites are designed brilliantly, look fantastic, but once you’re in them, the menu, the service and the costs can all be disappointing and you may end up swearing never to visit again.

Whereas the best restaurants and websites are always designed around the customer, with a well thought out ‘customer engagement strategy’. For restaurants this means great food, service, ambience and price. For websites it means roughly the same, a great product or service, lots of interactive functionality, ease of navigation and good value.
To achieve this you have to understand the psychology of the customer and provide the experience they would ideally like to have. On websites, certain key elements like event calendars need to be developed to build the relationship. Website owners often feel they don’t have time to build these types of functions around the customer but without them, customers are going to be sitting at the equivalent of the dodgy table by the loo door.

The CEO of Scott’s, Des McDonald, on receiving the award was quoted as saying that everything hinges on “attention to detail on a daily basis” – easy to say but not easy to deliver, which is why he’s holding the gong I guess.

Earlier in the week, comScore released their latest figures on European social network usage, which Neville then kindly graphed in Excel for us all:

Graph showing percentage of each country’s internet population using social networks

A pretty astounding chart that shows social media’s impact isn’t limited just to the US and the UK. comScore also released data for the Asia Pacific region on the same day – anyone fancy combining the 2 sets of data into one chart?

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–East London filmmaker Laura Hypponen has captured a slice of
the after party in her short Shoreditch Sonata, lending an insider’s eye view to what happens
when the night clubs shut and the fashionable clubbers tumble out onto the
streets.

She made the 11-minute film drawing from her own experience
of life in London, and the interactions she’s had with people, passing through
the scene that is East London’s trendy world. Originally from Finland,
Shoreditch Sonata is her first independently produced narrative short film as
director, which she plans to submit to film festivals and distribute with an
online grassroots approach.

“I’ve been living in and around Shoreditch for the past five
years, and I guess the area has been an inspiration in itself: run-down
neighbourhoods with a lot of creatives and crazy characters, dressing up and endless
parties,” she said. “More generally, the story of a girl meeting a guy and
things going into an interesting direction until, well, you find out that the
guy has a girlfriend already – it’s happened to so many people I know,
including yours truly, it’s so frustrating yet so common, and I thought many
people might be able to sympathise with the story.”

Hypponen studied filmmaking in Denmark, as well as getting a
business degree in Birmingham, UK, and later completing her Masters in Film
Business at London’s Film Business Academy. In addition to developing narrative
film projects, she has worked extensively as a VJ under the pseudonym Belle de
Nuit, shooting, editing and performing live
visuals with cult artists such as The Irrepressibles and Bishi at events in
Dubai, London, Paris and Helsinki. Hypponen is also a published author of
Creative Clusters and Governance: the dominance of the Hollywood film cluster,
with L de Propris, in Creative Cities, and Cultural Clusters and Local Economic
Development, by Philip Cooke & Luciana Lazzeretti, eds, 2008, Edward Elgar
Publishing.

Shoreditch Sonata was produced with Hypponen’s own budget,
as a first step into the film world to showcase her talents. She’s got more in
the works, such as Kir Royal, a 20-minute
thriller about a Russian escort in London who ends up killing most of her
clients to break free from the scene. Kir Royal features Jeff Fahey (Lost,
Grindhouse, Lawnmower Man) and Olga Fedori (of Mum & Dad horror feature
fame). She’s writing a feature film with the working title of Live East, a
music and drug-fuelled multi-character story about ambition, friendship and
betrayal among the East London party scene, and is developing more
experimental, multidisciplinary work within a collective called “Le Fourneau
Cosmique.” Also in works is Hello Helsinki, a half-hour, boozy “road-movie
by foot” set in Helsinki that is a elegiac and dreamy
story of two twenty-something girls who have grown apart and are reunited
during a winter night.

“Film is my favourite form of art, the most hypnotising,
magical, and providing such a great escape – both for me, when I make films,
and hopefully, for the audience when they see my work. And I love how films can
work both at intellectual and emotional and subliminal levels, be about serious
questions yet also work as entertainment, It’s a great challenge,” she said.

She takes inspiration from the directors Bunuel, Bergman,
Fellini and Almodovar and is a big fan of Jean-Pierre Melville, finding his
films to have a coolness combined with deep sadness. Among favourites is Woody
Allen’s films and she suggests Aki Kaurismaki’s “La Vie Boheme” to
check out a Finnish film.

Good luck Laura,

-Lisa

Shoreditch Sonata: