Cybraphon: Collecting the Physical or the Digital at National Museums Scotland?

Abstract

In 2013, National Museums Scotland collected Cybraphon, an interactive autonomous internet- connected robot band, created in 2009 by artists’ collective and musicians FOUND. Cybraphon obsessively Googles itself every 15 seconds to see how popular it is. All Cybraphon activity rests in the hands of the online community and as such provides a means of displaying online social interaction in a unique way, manifested through an object. It captures its makers’ interest in social media interaction at a point in time, 2009, when the phenomenon was still relatively new. This case study will provide background on the making of Cybraphon and then explore the Museum’s approach and the audience reaction to this experimental foray into social media ‘collecting’.

Contributors

Alison Taubman

Conference

Publication date: July 2014

Publication date (Print): July 2014

Pages: 122-128

Affiliations

Department of Science and Technology

National Museums Scotland, Chambers Street

Edinburgh EH1 1JF, Scotland

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2014.31

Copyright statement: © Alison Taubman. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2014), London, UK

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2014)

Conference acronym: EVA

Conference number:

Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 8 - 10 July 2014

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2014)

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2014.31

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

Categories

Series title: Electronic Workshops in Computing