The BL Labs team are pleased to announce that the eighth annual British Library Labs Symposium 2020 will be held on Tuesday 15 December 2020, from 13:45 - 16:55* (see note below) online. The event is FREE, but you must book a ticket in advance to reserve your place. Last year's event was the largest we have ever held, so please don't miss out and book early, see more information here!
*Please note, that directly after the Symposium, we are organising an experimental online mingling networking session between 16:55 and 17:30!
The British Library Labs (BL Labs) Symposium is an annual event and awards ceremony showcasing innovative projects that use the British Library's digital collections and data. It provides a platform for highlighting and discussing the use of the Library’s digital collections for research, inspiration and enjoyment. The awards this year will recognise outstanding use of British Library's digital content in the categories of Research, Artistic, Educational, Community and British Library staff contributions.
Ruth Ahnert will be giving the BL Labs Symposium 2020 keynote this year.
We are very proud to announce that this year's keynote will be delivered by Ruth Ahnert, Professor of Literary History and Digital Humanities at Queen Mary University of London, and Principal Investigator on 'Living With Machines' at The Alan Turing Institute.
Her work focuses on Tudor culture, book history, and digital humanities. She is author of The Rise of Prison Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2013), editor of Re-forming the Psalms in Tudor England, as a special issue of Renaissance Studies (2015), and co-author of two further books: The Network Turn: Changing Perspectives in the Humanities (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Tudor Networks of Power (forthcoming with Oxford University Press). Recent collaborative work has taken place through AHRC-funded projects ‘Living with Machines’ and 'Networking the Archives: Assembling and analysing a meta-archive of correspondence, 1509-1714’. With Elaine Treharne she is series editor of the Stanford University Press’s Text Technologies series.
Ruth's keynote is entitled: Humanists Living with Machines: reflections on collaboration and computational history during a global pandemic
There will be Awards announcements throughout the event for Research, Artistic, Community, Teaching & Learning and Staff Categories and this year we are going to get the audience to vote for their favourite project in those that were shortlisted, a people's BL Labs Award!
There will be a final talk near the end of the conference and we will announce the speaker for that session very soon.
So don't forget to book your place for the Symposium today as we predict it will be another full house again, the first one online and we don't want you to miss out, see more detailed information here.
We look forward to seeing new faces and meeting old friends again!
People 'automatically' identified in digital TV news related programme clips.
Guest blog post by Andrew Brown (PhD researcher), Ernesto Coto (Research Software Engineer) and Andrew Zisserman (Professor) of the Visual Geometry Group, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, and BL Labs Public Award Runner-up for Research, 2019. Posted on their behalf by Mahendra Mahey, Manager of BL Labs.
In this work, we automatically identify and label (tag) people in large video archives without the need for any manual annotation or supervision. The project was carried out with the British Library on a sample of 106 videos from their “Television and radio news” archive; a large collection of news programs from the last 10 years. This archive serves as an important and fascinating resource for researchers and the general public alike. However, the sheer scale of the data, coupled with a lack of relevant metadata, makes indexing, analysing and navigating this content an increasingly difficult task. Relying on human annotation is no longer feasible, and without an effective way to navigate these videos, this bank of knowledge is largely inaccessible.
As users, we are typically interested in human-centric queries such as:
“When did Jeremy Corbyn first appear in a Newsnight episode?” or
“Show me all of the times when Hugh Grant and Shirley Williams appeared together.
Currently this is nigh on impossible without trawling through hundreds of hours of content.
We posed the following research question:
Is it possible to enable automatic person-search capabilities such as this in the archive, without the need for any manual supervision or labelling?
The answer is “yes”, and the method is described next.
Video Pre-Processing The basic unit which enables person labelling in videos is the face-track; a group of consecutive face detections within a shot that correspond to the same identity. Face-tracks are extracted from all of the videos in the archive. The task of labelling the people in the videos is then to assign a label to each one of these extracted face-tracks. The video below gives an example of two face-tracks found in a scene.
Two face-tracks found in British Library digital news footage by Visual Geometry Group - University of Oxford.
Techniques at Our Disposal The base technology used for this work is a state-of-the-art convolutional neural network (CNN), trained for facial recognition [1]. The CNN extracts feature-vectors (a list of numbers) from face images, which indicate the identity of the depicted person. To label a face-track, the distance between the feature-vector for the face-track, and the feature-vector for a face-image with known identity is computed. The face-track is labelled as depicting that identity if the distance is smaller than a certain threshold (i.e. they match). We also use a speaker recognition CNN [2] that works in the same way, except it labels speech segments from unknown identities using speech segments from known identities within the video. Labelling the Face-Tracks
Our method for automatically labelling the people in the video archive is divided into three main stages: (1) Our first labelling method uses what we term a “celebrity feature-vector bank”, which consists of names of people that are likely to appear in the videos, and their corresponding feature-vectors. The names are automatically sourced from IMDB cast lists for the programmes (the titles of the programmes are freely available in the meta-data). Face-images for each of the names are automatically downloaded from image-search engines. Incorrect face-images and people with no images of themselves on search engines are automatically removed at this stage. We compute the feature-vectors for each identity and add them to the bank alongside the names. The face-tracks from the video archives are then simply labelled by finding matches in the feature-vector bank.
Face-tracks from the video archives are labelled by finding matches in the feature-vector bank.
(2) Our second labelling method uses the idea that if a name is spoken, or found displayed in a scene, then that person is likely to be found within that scene. The task is then to automatically determine whether there is a correspondence or not. Text is automatically read from the news videos using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and speech is automatically transcribed using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). Names are identified and they are searched for on image search engines. The top ranked images are downloaded and the feature-vectors are computed from the faces. If any are close enough to the feature-vectors from the face-tracks present in the scene, then that face-track is labelled with that name. The video below details this process for a written name.
Using text or spoken word and face recognition to identify a person in a news clip.
(3) For our third labelling method, we use speaker recognition to identify any non-labelled speaking people. We use the labels from the previous two stages to automatically acquire labelled speech segments from the corresponding labelled face-tracks. For each remaining non-labelled speaking person, we extract the speech feature-vector and compute the distance of it to the feature-vectors of the labelled speech segments. If one is close enough, then the non-labelled speech segment and corresponding face-track is assigned that name. This process manages to label speaking face-tracks with visually challenging faces, e.g. deep in shadow or at an extremely non-frontal pose.
Indexing and Searching Identities
The results of our work can be browsed via a web search engine of our own design. A search bar allows for users to specify the person or group of people that they would like to search for. People’s names are efficiently indexed so that the complete list of names can be filtered as the user types in the search bar. The search results are returned instantly with their associated metadata (programme name, data and time) and can be displayed in multiple ways. The video associated with each search result can be played, visualising the location and the name of all identified people in the video. See the video below for more details. This allows for the archive videos to be easily navigated using person-search, thus opening them up for use by the general public.
Archive videos easily navigated using person-search.
For examples of more of our Computer Vision research and open-source software, visit the Visual Geometry Group website.
[1] Qiong Cao, Li Shen, Weidi Xie, Omkar M. Parkhi, and Andrew Zisserman. VGGFace2: A dataset for recognising faces across pose and age. In Proc. International Conference on Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition, 2018.
[2] Joon Son Chung, Arsha Nagrani and Andrew Zisserman. VoxCeleb2: Deep Speaker Recognition. INTERSPEECH, 2018
BL Labs Public Awards 2020
Inspired by this work that uses the British Library's digital archived news footage? Have you done something innovative using the British Library's digital collections and data? Why not consider entering your work for a BL Labs Public Award 2020 and win fame, glory and even a bit of money?
This year's public and staff awards 2020 are open for submission, the deadline for entry for both is Monday 30 November 2020.
Whilst we welcome projects on any use of our digital collections and data (especially in research, artistic, educational and community categories), we are particularly interested in entries in our public awards that have focused on anti-racist work, about the pandemic or that are using computational methods such as the use of Jupyter Notebooks.
The sixth BL Labs Public Awards 2020 formally recognises outstanding and innovative work that has been carried out using the British Library’s data and / or digital collections by researchers, artists, entrepreneurs, educators, students and the general public.
Please help us spread the word! We want to encourage any one interested to submit over the next few months, who knows, you could even win fame and glory, priceless! We really hope to have another year of fantastic projects to showcase at our annual online awards symposium on the 15 December 2020 (which is open for registration too), inspired by our digital collections and data!
This year, BL Labs is commending work in four key areas that have used or been inspired by our digital collections and data:
Research - A project or activity that shows the development of new knowledge, research methods, or tools.
Artistic - An artistic or creative endeavour that inspires, stimulates, amazes and provokes.
Educational - Quality learning experiences created for learners of any age and ability that use the Library's digital content.
Community - Work that has been created by an individual or group in a community.
What kind of projects are we looking for this year?
Whilst we are really happy for you to submit your work on any subject that uses our digital collections, in this significant year, we are particularly interested in entries that may have a focus on anti-racist work or projects about lock down / global pandemic. We are also curious and keen to have submissions that have used Jupyter Notebooks to carry out computational work on our digital collections and data.
After the submission deadline has passed, entries will be shortlisted and selected entrants will be notified via email by midnight on Friday 4th December 2020.
A prize of £150 in British Library online vouchers will be awarded to the winner and £50 in the same format to the runner up in each Awards category at the Symposium. Of course if you enter, it will be at least a chance to showcase your work to a wide audience and in the past this has often resulted in major collaborations.
(Top-Left) Full-Text search of Early Music Prints Online (F-TEMPO) - Research, (Top-Right) Emerging Formats: Discovering and Collecting Contemporary British Interactive Fiction - Artistic
(Bottom-Left) John Faucit Saville and the theatres of the East Midlands Circuit - Community commendation
(Bottom-Right) The Other Voice (Learning and Teaching)
Teaching and Learning / Educational (2019) Winner: The Other Voice - RCA - Innovations in sound and art by Masters' students from the Royal College of Art, submitted by Dr Matt Lewis, Tutor of Digital Direction and Dr Eleanor Dare, Reader of Digital Media both at the School of Communication, at the Royal College of Art and Mary Stewart Curator, Oral History and Deputy Director of National Library
It has been heartening to see many joyful responses to our recent post featuring The British Library Simulator; an explorable, miniature, virtual version of the British Library’s building in St Pancras.
Giulia will be joined by Leeds Libraries Central Collections Manager, Rhian Isaac, who will showcase some of Leeds Libraries exciting collections, and also Izzy Bartley, Digital Learning Officer from Leeds Museums and Galleries, who will talk about her role in making collections interactive and accessible. Places are free, but please book here.
ICIDS showcases and shares research and practice in game narrative and interactive storytelling, including the theoretical, technological, and applied design practices. It is an interdisciplinary gathering that combines computational narratology, narrative systems, storytelling technology, humanities-inspired theoretical inquiry, empirical research and artistic expression.
For 2020, the special theme is Interactive Digital Narrative Scholarship, and ICIDS will be hosted by the Department of Creative Technology of Bournemouth University (also hosts of the New Media Writing Prize, which I have blogged about previously). Their current intention is to host a mixed virtual and physical conference. They are hoping that the physical meeting will still take place, but all talks and works will also be made available virtually for those who are unable to attend physically due to the COVID-19 situation. This means that if you submit work, you will still need to register and present your ideas, but for those who are unable to travel to Bournemouth, the conference organisers will be making allowances for participants to contribute virtually.
ICIDS also includes a creative exhibition, showcasing interactive digital artworks, which for 2020 will explore the curatorial theme “Texts of Discomfort”. The exhibition call is currently seeking Interactive digital art works that generate discomfort through their form and/or their content, which may also inspire radical changes in the way we perceive the world.
Creatives are encouraged to mix technologies, narratives, points of view, to create interactive digital artworks that unsettle interactors’ assumptions by tackling the world’s global issues; and/or to create artworks that bring to a crisis interactors’ relation with language, that innovate in their way to intertwine narrative and technology. Artworks can include, but are not limited to:
Augmented, mixed and virtual reality works
Computer games
Interactive installations
Mobile and location-based works
Screen-based computational works
Web-based works
Webdocs and interactive films
Transmedia works
Submissions to the ICIDS art exhibition should be made using this form by 26th June. Any questions should be sent to [email protected]. Good luck!
Today is the start of Mental Health Awareness Week (18-24 May 2020) and this year’s theme is kindness. In my opinion this starts with being kinder to yourself and there are many ways to do this. As my colleague Hannah Nagle recently reminded me in her recent blog post, creative activities can help you to relax, lift your mood and enable you to express yourself. Also, I personally find that spending time in green spaces and appreciating nature is of great benefit to my mental wellbeing. UK mental health charity Mind promote ecotherapy and have a helpful section on their website all about nature and mental health.
However, I appreciate that it is not always possible for people to get outside to enjoy nature, especially in the current corona pandemic situation. However, there are ways to bring nature into our homes, such as listening to recordings of bird songs, looking at pictures, and watching videos of wildlife and landscapes. For more ideas on digital ways of connecting to nature, I suggest checking out “Nature and Wellbeing in the Digital Age” by Sue Thomas, who believes we don’t need to disconnect from the internet to reconnect with the earth, sea and sky.
Furthermore, why not participate in this year’s Urban Tree Festival (16-24 May 2020), which is completely online. There is a wide programme of talks and activities, including meditation, daily birdsong, virtual tours, radio and a book club. The festival also includes some brilliant art activities.
Urban Tree Festival 2020
Save Our Street Trees Northampton have invited people to create a virtual urban forest in their windows, by building a tree out of paper, then adding leaves every day to slowly build up a tree canopy. People are then encouraged to share photos of their paper trees on social media tagging them #NewLeaf.
— SaveOurStreetTrees (@SaveStreetTrees) May 14, 2020
Another Urban Tree Festival art project is Branching out with Ruth Broadbent, where people are invited to co-create imaginary trees by observing and drawing selected branches and foliage from sections of different trees. These might be seen from gardens or windows, from photos or from memory.
Paintings and drawings of trees are also celebrated in the Europeana’s Trees in Art online gallery, which has been launched by the festival today, to showcase artworks, which depict trees in urban and rural landscapes, from the digitised collections of museums, galleries, libraries and archives across Europe, including tree book illustrations from the British Library.
Europeana Trees in Art online gallery
Not wanting to be left out of the fun, here at the British Library, we have set a Tree Collage Challenge, which invites you to make artistic collages featuring trees and nature, using our book illustrations from the British Library’s Flickr account.
This collection of over a million Public Domain images can be used by anyone for free, without copyright restrictions. The images are illustrations taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books. You can read more about them here.
As a starting point, for finding images for your collages, you may find it useful to browse themed albums. In particular the Flora & Fauna albums are rich resources for finding trees, plants, animals and birds.
To learn how to make digital collages, my colleague Hannah Nagle has written a handy guide, to help get you started. You can download this here.
We hope you have fun and we can’t wait to see your collage creations! So please post your pictures to Twitter and Instagram using #GreatTree and #UrbanTreeFestival. British Library curators will be following the challenge with interest and showcasing their favourite tree collages in future blog posts, so watch this space!
Like many at the British Library, the last couple of months has seen my role as a Senior Imaging Support Officer drastically change. While working from home, it has been impossible for me to carry on my normal digitisation work. Despite this, the time spent at home has reminded me why the work I do can be so important. Digitised collections have become essential during this time in allowing institutions to carry on engaging with the public at a time when their doors are closed. The potential and opportunity accessing heritage collections from the comfort of your own home can bring is being highlighted every day.
Research and academic use of online collections is recognised. However, the vast creative potential is still not always identified by users and institutions. This is something I have been interested in for a long time and I am always keen to produce work that changes people’s perceptions of how people can use online collections. The Hack Days I have taken part in over the last couple of years at the British Library have given me a chance to explore this, producing creative responses to the Qatar Digital Library. Whether through zine making, print making or colourisation, I have been able to produce this work thanks to the digitised material made available for free.
The format and layout of websites designed to showcase digitised collections is normally more geared towards researchers and academics. When using online collections creatively, I want to work with a website that is image focused rather than text based. As a result, I have found institution’s uploading to Flickr to be the easiest to use. The Library of Congress, The National Archives and The National Archives of Estonia are just some of the accounts I have used in the past. This meant that when I found myself working from home, one of the first things I wanted to do was work with the British Library’s Flickr account. With over a million images uploaded in 2013, there are some incredible images to use and I have long recognised its potential for use in creative projects. All of these images have been uploaded without copyright restrictions so that they can be used by anyone for free. Yes - including commercially! The images are taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books. Digitised by Microsoft, they gifted the scanned images to the British Library allowing them to be released into the Public Domain.You can read more about this collection here.
It’s also important to note this certainly isn’t the first time the British Library Flickr images have been used creatively. Among others, artists like David Normal, Michael Takeo Magruder, Mario Klingemann and Jiayi Chong have all produced very different work using the book illustrations from this collection.
Animated collage created by Jiayi Chong, using Creature, a Cutting-edge 2D Animation Software
Getting Started
I knew I wanted to produce a series of collages but without access to a printer I was unable to print any of the images out. However, downloading the images allowed me to begin making digital collages. I used both Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop to create them. The collages I produced were in a similar vein to some of the images and artwork included in zines I have made in the past. These were normally made to illustrate a piece of text or data. However, this time I wanted to do something purely for fun, bringing random images together with lots of colour to create weird and wonderful images.
I began scrolling through the photo stream, collecting images into a folder on my computer. I enjoyed the serendipitous nature the Flickr interface brings and there were so many images I found just by chance rather than by using the search bar. There are also useful albums under different themes, including cats and cycling, which helped during my initial search. You can see some of the collages I created below.
As I was creating them, I realised that not only were they enjoyable to make, the process was giving me something to put my mind to. It took me away from the stress and the uncertainty of everything going on around me and once again proved the benefits creativity has on mental health. Studies have shown that getting creative can have a similar affect to meditating. It helps you to relax, lifts your mood and allows you to express yourself in ways you wouldn’t normally. Additionally, there’s no wrong or right when making art. It can be a bit of freedom without any pressure or stress - something so many of us need right now.
The Guide
Having realised and experienced the benefits of this myself, I began putting together a guide on how to make collages using images from the British Library Flickr page. ‘How to make art when we’re working apart’ contains simple instructions on how to produce a collage, both digital and physical. If you don’t have access to printer, the guide focuses on using Microsoft Word to produce a digital collage. I am also currently producing a second guide for anyone interested in gaining a basic understanding of how to use Adobe Photoshop. Included is a list of artists who use collage in their work, along with a simple ‘formula’ of how to make a collage for those who are feeling a bit stuck. The guide is for anyone interested in creating a bit of art while stuck indoors. Even if you’re not creatively minded, it’s easy to use and ideal for anyone looking to give themselves a small distraction from the situation we all find ourselves in.
Cover image for "How to make art when we’re working apart" guide
Click here to download the "How to make art when we're working apart" guide.
Dr Matt Lewis, Tutor of Digital Direction and Dr Eleanor Dare, Reader of Digital Media both at the School of Communication, at the Royal College of Art and Mary Stewart Curator, Oral History and Deputy Director of National Life Stories at the British Library reflect on an ongoing and award-winning collaboration (posted on behalf of them by Mahendra Mahey, BL Labs Manager).
In spring 2019, based in both the British Library and the Royal College of Art School of Communication, seven students from the MA Digital Direction course participated in an elective module entitled The Other Voice. After listening in-depth to a selection of oral history interviews, the students learnt how to edit and creatively interpret oral histories, gaining insight into the complex and nuanced ethical and practical implications of working with other people’s life stories. The culmination of this collaboration was a two-day student-curated showcase at the British Library, where the students displayed their own creative and very personal responses to the oral history testimonies.
The culmination of this collaboration was a two-day student-curated showcase at the British Library, where the students displayed their own creative and very personal responses to the oral history testimonies. The module was led by Eleanor Dare (Head of Programme for MA Digital Direction, RCA), Matt Lewis (Sound Artist and Musician and RCA Tutor) and Mary Stewart (British Library Oral History Curator). We were really pleased that over 100 British Library staff took the time to come to the showcase, engage with the artwork and discuss their responses with the students.
Eleanor reflects:
“The students have benefited enormously from this collaboration, gaining a deeper understanding of the ethics of editing, the particular power of oral history and of course, the feedback and stimulation of having a show in the British Library.”
We were all absolutely delighted that the Other Voice group were the winners of the BL Labs Teaching and Learning Award 2019, presented in November 2019 at a ceremony at the British Library Knowledge Centre. Two students, Karthika Sakthivel and Giulia Brancati, also showcased their work at the 2019 annual Oral History Society Regional Network Event at the British Library - and contributed to a wide ranging discussion reflecting on their practice and the power of oral history with a group of 35 oral historians from all over the UK. The collaboration has continued as Mary and Matt ran ‘The Other Voice’ elective in spring 2020, where the students adapted to the Covid-19 Pandemic, producing work under lockdown, from different locations around the world.
Here is just a taster of the amazing works the students created in 2019, which made them worthy winners of the BL Labs Teaching and Learning Award 2019.
Giulia created On the way back an installation featuring two audio points – one with excerpts of Irene’s testimony and another an audio collage inspired by Irene’s description. Two old fashioned telephones played the audio, which the listener absorbed while curled up in an arm chair in a fictional front room. It was a wonderfully immersive experience.
“In a world full of noise and overwhelming information, to sit and really pay attention to someone’s personal story is an act of mindful presence. This module has been continuous learning experience in which ‘the other voice’ became a trigger for creativity and personal reflection.”
Memory Foam by Karthika Sakthivel
Inspired by Irene’s testimony Karthika created a wonderful sonic quilt, entitled Memory Foam.
Karthika explains,
“There was power in Irene’s voice, enough to make me want to sew - something I’d never really done on my own before. But in her story there was comfort, there was warmth and that kept me going.”
Illustrated with objects drawn from Irene's memories, each square of the patchwork quilt encased conductive fabric that triggered audio clips. Upon touching each square, the corresponding story would play.
Karthika further commented,
“The initial visitor interactions with the piece gave me useful insights that enabled me to improve the experience in real time by testing alternate ways of hanging and displaying the quilt. After engaging with the quilt guests walked up to me with recollections of their own mothers and grandmothers – and these emotional connections were deeply rewarding.”
Karthika, Giulia and the whole group were honoured that Irene and her daughter Jayne travelled from Preston to come to the exhibition, Karthika:
"It was the greatest honour to have her experience my patchwork of her memories. This project for me unfurled yards of possibilities, the common thread being - the power of a voice.”
Meditations in Clay by James Roadnight and David Sappa
Listening to ceramicist Walter Keeler's memories of making a pot inspired James Roadnight and David Sappa to travel to Cornwall and record new oral histories to create Meditations in Clay. This was an immersive documentary that explores what we, as members of this modern society, can learn from the craft of pottery - a technology as old as time itself. The film combines interviews conducted at the Bernard Leach pottery with audio-visual documentation of the St Ives studio and its rugged Cornish surroundings.
Those attending the showcase were bewitched as they watched the landscape documentary on the large screen and engaged with the selection of listening pots, which when held to the ear played excerpts of the oral history interviews.
James and David commented,
“This project has taught us a great deal about the deep interview techniques involved in Oral History. Seeing visitors at the showcase engage deeply with our work, watching the film and listening to our guided meditation for 15, 20 minutes at a time was more than we could have ever imagined.”
Beyond Form
Raf Martins responded innovatively to Jonathan Blake’s interview describing his experiences as one of the first people in the UK to be diagnosed with HIV. In Beyond Form Raf created an audio soundscape of environmental sounds and excerpts from the interview which played alongside a projected 3D hologram based on the cellular structure of the HIV virus. The hologram changed form and shape when activated by the audio – an intriguing visual artefact that translated the vibrant individual story into a futuristic media.
Also inspired by Jonathan Blake’s interview was the short film Stiff Upper Lip by Kinglsey Tao which used clips of the interview as part of a short film exploring sexuality, identity and reactions to health and sickness.
Donald in Wonderland
Donald Palmer’s interview with Paul Merchant contained a wonderful and warm description of the front room that his Jamaican-born parents ‘kept for best’ in 1970s London. Alex Remoleux created a virtual reality tour of the reimagined space, entitled Donald in Wonderland, where the viewer could point to various objects in the virtual space and launch the corresponding snippet of audio.
Alex commented,
“I am really happy that I provided a Virtual Reality experience, and that Donald Palmer himself came to see my work. In the picture below you can see Donald using the remote in order to point and touch the objects represented in the virtual world.”
Donald Palmer describes his parents' front room (C1379/102) Interviewee Donald Palmer wearing the virtual reality headset, exploring the virtual reality space (pictured) created by Alex Remoleux. Listen here
Showcase at the British Library
The reaction to the showcase from the visitors and British Library staff was overwhelmingly positive, as shown by this small selection of comments. We were incredibly grateful to interviewees Irene and Donald for attending the showcase too. This was an excellent collaboration: RCA students and staff alike gained new insights into the significance and breadth of the British Library Oral History collection and the British Library staff were bowled over by the creative responses to the archival collection.
Examples of feedback from British Library showcase of 'The Other Voice' by Royal College of Art
With thanks to the MA Other Voice cohort Giulia Brancati, Raf Martins, Alexia Remoleux, James Roadnight, Karthika Sakthivel, David Sappa and Kingsley Tao, RCA staff Eleanor Dare and Matt Lewis & BL Oral History Curator Mary Stewart, plus all the interviewees who recorded their stories and the visitors who took the time to attend the showcase.
The BL Labs team are pleased to announce that the seventh annual British Library Labs Symposium will be held on Monday 11 November 2019, from 9:30 - 17:00* (see note below) in the British Library Knowledge Centre, St Pancras. The event is FREE, and you must book a ticket in advance to reserve your place. Last year's event was the largest we have ever held, so please don't miss out and book early!
*Please note, that directly after the Symposium, we have teamed up with an interactive/immersive theatre company called 'Uninvited Guests' for a specially organised early evening event for Symposium attendees (the full cost is £13 with some concessions available). Read more at the bottom of this posting!
The Symposium showcases innovative and inspiring projects which have used the British Library’s digital content. Last year's Award winner's drew attention to artistic, research, teaching & learning, and commercial activities that used our digital collections.
The annual event provides a platform for the development of ideas and projects, facilitating collaboration, networking and debate in the Digital Scholarship field as well as being a focus on the creative reuse of the British Library's and other organisations' digital collections and data in many other sectors. Read what groups of Master's Library and Information Science students from City University London (#CityLIS) said about the Symposium last year.
We are very proud to announce that this year's keynote will be delivered by scientist Armand Leroi, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Imperial College, London.
Professor Armand Leroi from Imperial College will be giving the keynote at this year's BL Labs Symposium (2019)
Professor Armand Leroi is an author, broadcaster and evolutionary biologist.
He has written and presented several documentary series on Channel 4 and BBC Four. His latest documentary was The Secret Science of Pop for BBC Four (2017) presenting the results of the analysis of over 17,000 western pop music from 1960 to 2010 from the US Bill Board top 100 charts together with colleagues from Queen Mary University, with further work published by through the Royal Society. Armand has a special interest in how we can apply techniques from evolutionary biology to ask important questions about culture, humanities and what is unique about us as humans.
Armands' keynote will reflect on his interest and experience in applying techniques he has used over many years from evolutionary biology such as bioinformatics, data-mining and machine learning to ask meaningful 'big' questions about culture, humanities and what makes us human.
The symposium will be introduced by the British Library's new Chief Librarian Liz Jolly. The day will include an update and exciting news from Mahendra Mahey (BL Labs Manager at the British Library) about the work of BL Labs highlighting innovative collaborations BL Labs has been working on including how it is working with Labs around the world to share experiences and knowledge, lessons learned . There will be news from the Digital Scholarship team about the exciting projects they have been working on such as Living with Machines and other initiatives together with a special insight from the British Library’s Digital Preservation team into how they attempt to preserve our digital collections and data for future generations.
Throughout the day, there will be several announcements and presentations showcasing work from nominated projects for the BL Labs Awards 2019, which were recognised last year for work that used the British Library’s digital content in Artistic, Research,Educational and commercial activities.
There will also be a chance to find out who has been nominated and recognised for the British Library Staff Award 2019 which highlights the work of an outstanding individual (or team) at the British Library who has worked creatively and originally with the British Library's digital collections and data (nominations close midday 5 November 2019).
As is our tradition, the Symposium will have plenty of opportunities for networking throughout the day, culminating in a reception for delegates and British Library staff to mingle and chat over a drink and nibbles.
Finally, we have teamed up with the interactive/immersive theatre company 'Uninvited Guests' who will give a specially organised performance for BL Labs Symposium attendees, directly after the symposium. This participatory performance will take the audience on a journey through a world that is on the cusp of a technological disaster. Our period of history could vanish forever from human memory because digital information will be wiped out for good. How can we leave a trace of our existence to those born later? Don't miss out on a chance to book on this unique event at 5pm specially organised to coincide with the end of the BL Labs Symposium. For more information, and for booking (spaces are limited), please visit here (the full cost is £13 with some concessions available). Please note, if you are unfortunate in not being able to join the 5pm show, there will be another performance at 1945 the same evening (book here for that one).
So don't forget to book your place for the Symposium today as we predict it will be another full house again and we don't want you to miss out.
We look forward to seeing new faces and meeting old friends again!
