(Within) THIS 8-MINUTE GALACTIC PRIMER IS THE FUTURE OF AR EDUCATION
Clio's Cosmic Quest, the latest augmented reality experience from VR/AR company Within, is meant to help kids learn. It asks children questions and is designed to coax them into reading aloud. It turns any surface they're near—a dining room table, a bunk bed, a park bench—into another galaxy and then explains how it was formed. It might be the best 8-minute astronomy lesson out there. It's not alone.
"We launched with those [first three] to see if there was a signal that people were into augmented reality storytelling for children, since it was a totally foreign concept," says Chris Milk, Within's CEO and the driving force behind Wonderscope. "The signal came back that they were excited about it, so we started a new production cycle to make a bunch more stories."
A paper in the Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange noted "the potential of AR books to appeal to many types of learners, through many paths, is undeniable, and exciting for educators" way back in 2011.
See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/how-we-learn-augmented-reality-wonderscope/
It’s Hard To Notice, But Marketers Are Absolutely On TikTok
It may not be as obvious as it is on other platforms, but TikTok is the new frontier of social media advertising. Savvy marketers are leveraging influential TikTokers to promote brands and music.
For Leanne Bailey, marketers came a-calling once she hit 1 million fans on the app. Bailey runs the @thebaileybakery channel, named after her real-life bakery business in Kentucky.
Now at more than 4 million fans, Bailey said she posts a sponsored video about once a week. She didn't want to get into specifics about the brands she's worked with, but said she's often paid by a music label to use a particular song.
She said she's making a "good little side income" from the posts and has done dozens of sponsored videos.
By the time a sponsored song gets beyond its initial push, no one is tagging the video as an ad, which can make it appear to be an organic trend. But even before that, it's rare to see a video tagged "#ad" on TikTok, even on videos that were definitely paid for. Legally, the tag should be there.
TikTok is still a relatively new platform ,and it seems likely that sponsored content will only increase. The question is whether we'll be able to tell.
See the full story here: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/laurenstrapagiel/tiktok-influencer-marketing
Art Disappears in Private Hands. Can Social Media Resurface It?
Private art collections are notoriously secretive. A collective website aims to make them viewable by all.
The Oralkans have uploaded their personal collection online, as have Mr. Toscano and about 1,200 others. Anyone with a computer can now scroll through images of the work they own. Using and accessing it at a basic level is free. But users can sign up for two higher-tier plans (one at $15 a month and another at $125 a month) that provide access to features like passes to art fairs and the opportunity to to be interviewed for the site’s editorial platform.
In addition to sharing, art collectors are seeking tools to organize growing collections, connect online with gallerists and curators and, perhaps, to humblebrag about what’s on their walls.
“Collecting used to almost be like a private club with people who were very traditional in their privacy and comportment,” Ronald Varney, an independent fine art adviser in New York, said in an interview this week. “Nowadays, it’s often, ‘How much publicity can I get out of this?’”
Collecteurs is attempting to harness the energy of social media without all of its associated noise, and offer a window into the secretive and exclusive world of private collections.
See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/arts/design/art-collection-digital-museum.html
Ironic, Informal And Expressive, ‘New Rules Of Language’ Evolve Online
But in a lively and wide-ranging new book called Because Internet, the linguist Gretchen McCulloch argues that a huge part of our Internet lives is conducted in a common vernacular, what she calls in her subtitle the New Rules of Language. I think of it as "chatspeak." McCulloch traces its origins back to the early days of email, but it came into full flower in the modern era of social media. It's the style of informal writing people use when they go to the Internet to reproduce the sense of connectedness they get hanging out in physical gathering places like high school cafeterias, bars and coffee houses. To that end, they've had to devise ways of compensating for the loss of the gestures, expressions and vocal effects that convey meaning in face-to-face conversation — that is, they've had to create what McCulloch calls a "typographical tone of voice."
They've done that through what social scientists call bricolage, cobbling together the scraps of material they happen to have on hand. They convey emphasis by putting spaces between l e t t e r s, using all CAPS, or repeating exclamation points. They lengthen words like "yesss" or "noooo" to suggest a friendly intimacy. Or they achieve other effects by repurposing the rules of formal writing. There's no need to mark the end of a text message with a period, so when somebody does use one, it's taken as a sign of passive aggressiveness — "I'm fine."
Then there are all the graphic indicators such as emoticons like smileys, which morphed into a whole army of emojis, particularly the emblematic ones like thumbs up and praying hands.
See the full story here: https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/749946265/opinion-ironic-informal-and-expressive-new-rules-of-language-evolve-online?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=75915037&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_8BgLQc_oZ_ohoGWc73Pyss9AB64Wv2bh1YQGQw4TEgLjLWryoHAqresiCZ3G4bYv7q0nGx1AQqDPb__3NP3DaeT_jGg&_hsmi=75915037
Old age is over—if you want it to be
Some huge advances in longevity medicine may be coming, and as they do, we’ll have to grapple with the challenges and opportunities of a world in which people live longer and healthier lives.
The latest issue of MIT Technology Review is all about the biological and technological advances that will help us all to live longer, and the implications for society.
For such a world to be prosperous and harmonious, society needs to shed stereotypes of older people as unproductive, inflexible, and technologically challenged. Our very notion of “old age” was invented around the same time as the theory of eugenics and is about equally valid. Groups like the Longevity Explorers and Senior Planet give the lie to the idea that older people can’t start new ventures or learn to use technology.
Art: Of augmented reality and social realities
ARTWORKS depicting social issues, graphite drawings and installations, and paintings of an industrial landscape viewed with augmented reality came out on top in the 16th edition of the Ateneo Art Awards held on Sunday at the Ateneo Art Gallery of the Ateneo De Manila University in Quezon City.
See the full story here: https://www.bworldonline.com/of-augmented-reality-and-social-realities/
Five Companies Using Virtual Reality To Improve The Lives Of Senior Citizens
Viarama
Viarama is adding joy to the lives of senior citizens who are receiving end-of-life care. Using HTC Vive headsets and Google Earth VR, those in nursing homes or hospices are taken on journeys they never thought possible. The company is enabling the elderly to travel back to where they got married, or where they did their national service.
Mynd VR
MyndVR is on a mission to improve the lives of senior residents and assisted living communities by introducing virtual reality solutions into outdated health-care practices.
Rendever
The latest National Poll on Healthy Aging (February 2019) revealed that one in three elderly adults felt a lack of companionship, which suggests that millions of older adults across the U.S. feel lonely. Research shows that chronic loneliness can impact older adults’ memory, physical well-being, mental health, and life expectancy. In fact, some research suggests that chronic loneliness can shorten life expectancy as much as smoking.
VR Genie
VR Genie is run by the nonprofit organization Equality Lab. The company’s mission is to “use cutting-edge technology to enable communities to thrive and to improve their quality of life.”
Virtual Exercise
In the U.S., it is recommended that elderly adults get 150 minutes of exercise per week in order to enhance their overall quality of life and reduce the likelihood of accidents related to frailty.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/solrogers/2019/08/21/five-companies-using-virtual-reality-to-improve-the-lives-of-senior-citizens/#657c5d734279