Real name registration went into effect last week in many Chinese cities. Tricia Wang and I have penned a new op-ed for Wired that looks at why this is such a big deal: In a move to exert greater control on citizen speech online, the government is requiring that Sina Weibo and China’s other microblogs [...]
I was recently honored with an invitation to join the advisory board for Prix Ars Electronica 2012, focusing on the Digital Communities section. Prix Ars Electronica, part of the larger Ars Electronica umbrella, is the prestigious award ceremony for new media based in Linz, Austria. Here’s what their Digital Communities section looks at: The “Digital [...]
Ethan Zuckerman just published an interesting post about the importance of studying Sina Weibo, the popular microblogging tool in China. He references WeiboScope, a very useful and informative tool put out by the University of Hong Kong to help visualize the popular trending topics on Sina Weibo, one of China’s leading microblog services (there are [...]
Two social media-related events these past few weeks in Beijing. I’ve spoken about social media art and done social media art in a few countries now, but China always presents the most potent site for exploration. I gave a talk at the Maker’s Carnival, a festival of making in partnership with UNESCO, Qinghua University, Shanghai [...]
It’s difficult to underestimate the importance of the mingpian (名片), or business card, in Asian culture. Literally, “mingpian” means “name card”, and people carry different cards for different needs. It’s not necessarily about business: with a stack of 500 cards going for less than 20 USD, it’s an expected investment. In Japan and Korea, it’s [...]
Back in Beijing after nearly a month in Korea. Left Seoul just as they began celebrating Chuseok, which friends translated as “Korean Thanksgiving.” And then I arrived in Beijing for Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie: 中秋节), where we drank, sang songs and ate mooncakes. It’s interesting to think about the many harvest-themed festivals in the industrialized [...]
Had a lovely discussion this weekend at Xindanwei to discuss “The Future is Co-”, a look at the future of coworking, collaboration and collective creativity. I wrote recently abotu Xindanwei’s coworking model in Hyperallergic, and in a way, the panel was a way to continue that dialogue. What added to the event was that Tony [...]
My friends, the telegraph has arrived on Sina Weibo. Remember that Morse code project I did for the Brooklyn Museum a while back? Beijing artist Yang Jian (杨健) discovered it on my web site and as a result started posting Morse code on his Weibo account. I’ve spoken a lot about how I’ve been pushed [...]
Swung by the Old Drum and Bell Towers area this weekend to see Chak Man Lei’s tango dancing, as part of Stephanie Rothenberg’s Travel Office, an art installation/performance art intervention she’s set up in Beijing. The area reminds me a bit of Brooklyn, a historic part of Old Beijing quickly gentrifying and attracting “hipster” types [...]
I’m thrilled to appear in “The Social Revolution: The Art World on Facebook“, a cover story by Barbara Pollack for the June edition of ARTnews: “Artists who have been working with the Internet and with new media since that genre began are interested in participatory systems and social networking,” says Lauren Cornell, the curator of [...]