Monster-Munch Celebrating The Internet - The Webby Night At The ICA

A couple of weeks ago now we popped down to the ICA for a quick-fire celebration of the internet - The Webby’s Night. Organised by our eminent Mr. Roope. This is a little run down of the bits that stuck in my head… Guess what, David Bowie, Beck, and Matt Groening are among the judges for next year’s Webby’s - pretty cool huh? Some pics of the night here. And some rough, from memory, highlight notes below:

Sam: Lean Mean Fighting Machine

“Dem phones, dem phones them iPhones” video track pointing out how simple new media is, and how much of a fuss people make about it. His advice? “Focus on the things that don’t change”. People - how and why they talk to each other, what they enjoy - emotional connections. “Don’t focus on learning every piece of new technology”. That’s not where the magic is. Wise words :)

Matt: The Viral Factory

“Cat’s rule the internet”. ( People laughed the most at this one ). He’s probably right. After porn, cats are probably more popular than anything else on the web. Although no-one would admit it, we’ve all watched the odd cat compilation on YouTube ; ) Essentially, a comment on how a bit of fun and humour are one of the most powerful ways to attract people’s attention. It’s the Guilty Pleasures that make the internet go round.

Marcus: Deezeen

“Light Bulbs Direct”. A comedy look at something that could only be achieved online. As Marcus found out after he couldn’t find a bulb for any of his sixties design-classic lamps. Something useful! - a solution to a maddening situation, however mundane, is great. People will thank you for making their life easier, and simpler, and be better off for it. We noted there ‘happened to be’ a very suspicious resemblance between him and the chap making off with the light bulb in the logo. Marcus is there something you’re not telling us ?

Miltos: Neen

What a lovely fella. He showed some of the work of Raphaël Rozendaal, who’s wry look at everyday life in the form of simple flash interactions always gets a smile out of me. It’s the details that count. The main point made, was the idea of buying physical art, transferred onto digital art. He argues that every digital art piece is a one off. “You can copy the content, but only one person can own the situation”. By that he means the url, it’s point in space and time, and the message within it. To that end he’s been buying up pieces of online art. He might have something there. I liked that it was a really new way of looking at creativity, and digital ownership. And that no matter how much you copy something, the original is still the original, and therefore worth more. It’s an upside down way of looking at things, but i like it. The music and film industry should think about that - and also this from Feltron Eight.

It’s been a while since the event, so if any of you out there would like to add to this ( comments open below ), or set me straight on details, add links etc - shove it in there! : ) Cheers, Nicky.

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