Tales of Things: Exhibition and symposium on the Internet of Social Things.

The creative explorations across the TOTeM project have defined the many ways of articulating the potential for a social form of an Internet of Things. Often characterised by logistical solutions for manufacturing and distribution, artistic and playful uses of the Tales of Things platform have introduced the principle that objects may be linked to the internet in a benign and accessible manner to people. Therefore it seems only appropriate to continue to use this genre to explore the broader opportunities and fears that 'ubiquity' creates.

Subsequently we propose to have an exhibition and symposium showcasing the variety of work that TOTeM has been involved in and setting it within the context of wider research on the Internet of Things by other institutions and artists.

An exhibition would be held in a high profile venue such as Media City, Salford, National Galleries Scotland or The Lighthouse (Scotland's Centre for Architecture and Design) in Glasgow. This offers a large exhibition area in a big city to maximize audience and open up the debate to a wider public outside the academic field. The symposium would be focused on the academic research aspect of the project and would be hosted by the TOTeM team resulting in a small publication of the project's outputs to date. This would be available at the symposium but also sent out to key stakeholders in the field.

It is envisaged that the exhibition would be a pilot for a national touring exhibition with applications made to the Arts Council of England, the Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland. As a touring exhibition of arts, design and industrial works the exhibition will be unique in introducing the public to the cultural and social complexity of an Internet of Things.

The exhibition and symposium would follow the theme of social uses of the Internet of Things. The emphasis on the exhibition would be on creative uses of the Internet of Things creating a visually appealing exhibition made understandable to a general public. We would invite artists and designers such as Anab Jain, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Durrell Bishop, Christian Nold, UsmanHaque and Anne Galloway, as well as extend our existing relations with Microsoft Research Labs, Mozilla and NCR to explore a continuum between creative and industrial platforms. It is envisaged that this continuum would allow the public to engage with the complex social, ethical and technical issues that are emerging as more of our personal and business networks become 'hooked' up to the environments, artefacts and people that constitute society.

Who will benefit from the research?

Businesses, charities and community groups would benefit from this research as well as the general public.

How will they benefit from the research?

Our partners listed above will have a direct benefit from the exhibition and symposium as they will be named and/or showcased at a high profile venue and mentioned in any publicity material.

The exhibition will benefit the culture of the UK as it will bring a number of internationally recognised artists together in the same space.

Accessible and engaging context for knowledge transfer:
The intention of the exhibition is that it engages as many members of the cultural and industrial communities as possible. To date we consider the adoption of the Tales of Things technology to be an important indicator to the potential for creative approaches to both cultural and industrial possibilities for the Internet of Things. But set alongside work by international artists we hope that the possibilities will become ten fold and inspire many more opportunities - commercial, educational, creative etc. In this way the show will become a catalyst for a series of social / industrial threads. Appropriate and relevant members of the press will be invited along to articulate the show and its key themes to specific audiences. Workshops will support industrial articulation as well as the cultural.

New research knowledge:
We consider the show to be a research output and expect to apply to Creative Scotland and the Arts Council of England for funding to tour it throughout the UK. Work of thise kind has never been brought together under such a culturally and industrially relevant theme before and in this way the show will act as an important research output that helps qualify the history for the Internet of Things. The UK Science, Art and Design community have a strong track record in defining this field by developing projects that indicate new futures for research and industry. We expect that the show will consolidate this history but through the clarity of the show, allow new narratives to be born.

New research knowledge on curatorial practices in an Internet of Things
The creative approach to the show itself will challenge established approaches to curatorial practices within the art and heritage communities. There has been much discussion about the nature of a contemporary museum in a networked world, and the talk of museums without walls is a popular vision of the future. Our exhibition expects to deliver on this in the present, and offer innovative methods for considering how artefacts are handled, shared and distributed rather than being kept within a glass case. We expect these methods to attract global attention as innovative demonstrators for new methods of sharing knowledge, and breaking down the hierarchy between knowledge producers and knowledge consumers.

Our partners:
ByBox
National Galleries of Scotland
Tate
Artist Rooms
National Museum of Scotland
University College London
University of Dundee
Universityof Salford
Brunel University
Oxfam
Artists- Anne Galloway, Christian Nold, Jonnet Middleton
Designers- Anab Jain, Durrell Bishop, Bruce Sterling