Leiden City of Science References, Part 2: Campaigns and Happenings

On Friday I wrote-up some references in response to an inquiry on Twitter from Meta Knol, Director of the Leiden City of Science initiative, about “the most engaging, interesting, mind blowing, and inclusive websites and/or online campaign[s]” in the field of art and/or science.

After an initial brainstorm I thought it would be easier and more useful to organize my thoughts in a series of posts here than in a zillion tweets.

Today I’ll add another category, Campaigns & Happenings, to the list of things I would want rattling around in my brain if I were creating a year-long festival of science.

As with my previous post about Websites & Channels; Platforms; and Campaigns and Happenings, my viewpoints and experiences here are limited (or blinded) by my predominantly Western, European/North American field-of-reference (What are the best citizen-science campaigns in South America? Where are the best science happenings in South Korea?!), and I am coming at this with an interest in looser, more informal, more bottom-up kinds of productions than one would typically find from cultural and scientific institutions; more “How can we see or reveal the know-how / curiosity / creative capacity of this community?” than “How can we tell audiences about this thing that we want them to know?”

In the next few days I’ll put up some thoughts about interesting Media & Products, and Convenings, Places, and Activities.

Campaigns & Happenings

Ask-a-Curator

Creative Mornings

Curators of @Sweden

  • What: A 2012-2019 campaign: Twitter account for the nation of Sweden, given to a different citizen every week.

  • Why: Official entities, governments, and institutions often choose to use friendly but stilted and inauthentic voices for their social media presence; Sweden chose to trust their voice to everyday citizens. It’s a testament to their faith in the power of democracy — messy, diverse, surprising, authentic. Also a good lesson in trusting your audience and not freaking out when user-generated-content gets controversial (per the New Yorker story, below).

  • Website: Twitter, https://twitter.com/sweden

  • Press/info: “The Pleasing Irreverence of @Sweden“ (New Yorker, 2012), https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-pleasing-irreverence-of-sweden; “Say Goodbye to @sweden, the Last Good Thing on Twitter (Wired, 2018)”, https://www.wired.com/story/goodbye-sweden-twitter/

  • Sample: Here’s the first tweet (and dialogue/replies) from Lars Lundqvist’s tenure as Curator of Sweden in July, 2012. Or dive into the archive of Tweets https://twitter.com/sweden or pick up a thread/theme from the articles above.

Day of Facts

DIY Bio community

Email to trees

  • What: City of Melbourne, Australia assigned email addresses to city-owned trees so residents could report problems, but people started writing letters to the trees!

  • Why: Example of strange, awesome, unexpected ways that people will use simple tech platforms (email!) for remarkable things. (“The street finds its own uses for things.” — William Gibson.) Evidence that people have an un-met need to express and explore their relationships with nature.
    Website: …

  • Press/info: When You Give a Tree an Email Address (The Atlantic, 2015), https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/when-you-give-a-tree-an-email-address/398210/

  • Sample: See the examples from the Atlantic article, cited above, or this lovely interactive from ABC News Australia.

Imgur Art Crawl

  • What: Community art show from one of the Internet’s largest image sharing & social sites.

  • Why: Making the skills, talents, and passions of the community visible. Non-transactional and non-financial. “Art” as defined by non-experts, largely absent the hangups and preconceptions of art museums, galleries, and academics.

  • Website: Announcement: https://imgur.com/gallery/RzG2mku
    Press/info: …

  • Sample: https://imgur.com/t/artcrawl — My favorites are the ones from people who cook, sew, and craft who say “I don’t know if you consider it art, but…”

Maker Faire

MOOCs

NASA Planetary Rovers and Space Probes on Twitter

Wikipedia Edit-a-Thons


Other post in this series: Part 1: Websites, Channels, and Platforms | Part 2: Campaigns and Happenings | Part 3: Media and Products | Part 4: Convenings, Places, Activities