Artists Ai Wei Wei and Olafur Eliasson have come together to collaborate on the project Moon. The Moon Project is an interactive platform that consists of an open online interface, which anyone with an internet connection can access and leave their mark on the moon. The project was first presented this past November at the Falling Walls Conference in Berlin.
In the past few years we have seen a growing awareness and concern with Internet freedom and privacy, fuelled by Edward Snowden’s revelations of the vast U.S.
In this mobile game, the studio Molleindustria makes commentary on the people and practices behind the creation of mobile devices. Not lost on the authors is the deep sense of irony in that the game itself relies on mobile platform. The "game" is structured as a narrative where the process begins in mining materials in Africa (slavery) to putting together the devices in China (labor abuse), to heavy purchasing in the U.S.
A couple of weeks ago, a group of activists working with Rainforest Action Network’s Energy and Finance campaign hit the streets of San Francisco to bring a little truth about Bank of America’s misdeeds to its customers—not in the lobbies of the bank’s local branches, but at its ATMs throughout the city.
ScareMail is a web browser extension that makes email “scary” in order to disrupt NSA surveillance. Extending Google’s Gmail, the work adds to every new email’s signature an algorithmically generated narrative containing a collection of probable NSA search terms. This “story” acts as a trap for NSA programs like PRISM and XKeyscore, forcing them to look at nonsense.
Spent is an online in-browser game designed by ad agency McKinney as part of a partnership with Urban Ministries of Durham, NC, calling attention to the problem of poverty and educate people about homelessness. In the game, players are challenged to live on $1000 over a month, often having to decide between essentials and utilize outside options in order to survive.
There’s a fine line between offensive and hilarious, and Arizona lawmakers aim to make that boundary legally protected. If House Bill 2549 passes, online harassment could become a criminal offense – but some hacktivists are there to help you rejoice.
Sojo Studios, a new entertainment company, made plenty of headlines this week with its first social game, WeTopia. The studio is gaining plenty of attention with news of its $8 million arsenal, a roster of partnerships with non-profits like Save the Children, Children’s Health Fund and buildOn, consumer brand advertisers, and Ellen DeGeneres as one its business investors and partners.
Games for Change is a community of game designers, activists, artists and individuals focused on creating and using digital games for purposes of social change. Games for Change is a large and loose community, but it has a major nonprofit organization at its center, who organizes the majority of the meetups and work of the movement.
From New 24By SAPAHanoi - When riot police broke up a recent protest over a forced
eviction, Vietnam's bloggers were ready - hidden in nearby trees, they
documented the entire incident and quickly posted videos and photos
online.Their shaky images spread like wildfire on Facebook, in a
sign of growing online defiance in Vietnam, in the face of efforts by
War Drags You Out is a project by artist "Saint Hoax" looking at the similarities between defining characteristics of Drag Queens and Political Leaders.
Text from St. Hoax's website:
"After attending a drag show for the first time, I was struck by the richness of this glamour oriented culture.
I took a minute to actually look at the faux queens and deconstruct their main components.
Trash Tycoon is an upcycling social network game developed by Guerillapps. The game applies traditional social gameplay features to highlight real-world issues such as waste, water, and “green” activities. Gameplay includes cleaning trash, recycling, and constructing products and decorations out of recycled material.
The Guardian
By Tania Branigan
In the opaque world of Chinese censorship, a few red lines shine through the murk. One of the clearest is: no gossip about top political leaders, their families or internal party affairs.
Oakland Wiki (oaklandwiki.org) is a free website about Oakland that anyone can edit. It's a wiki that can house any kind of information about Oakland, from historic figures to native plants to City Council meeting notes to your favorite leafy walk.
Fundacion Via Libre is an Argentinian digital rights group that advocates for more user awareness of internet surveillance and policy. To build this awareness the group not only conducts activist projects and attend events, but they also work with legislative bodies to reflect the growing technology and protect users.
From Konami Digital Entertainment (makers of Dance Dance Revolution, Castlevania, and other hits) comes a significant expansion of their long-running support of the World Food Programme’s gaming initiatives. The result is the re-emergence of Food Force, one of the most successful early games for change titles.
The elimination of Net Neutrality is a much bigger issue than most people would like to admit. This issue stems far from just an issue dealing with an open internet, free from biased control of the internet service providers, whom which we rely on.
Located within Boston’s historic (brick) core, and using the history of Boston as example, this kinetic, site-specific, public art installation is a humorous commentary on our use and trust of the internet for learning.