Tuesday, April 13, 2010

When provenance becomes to cheap to meter

Jim Giles reports for New Scientist on “Barcodes help objects tell their stories”:
The Tales of Things website, which goes live this week, aims to take this idea into a new realm. It allows users to create an entry on the site for any object they like. A basic entry features an image and associated text, but audio, video and other content can also be added. The site then generates a unique two-dimensional barcode, known as a QR code, for the user to print off and attach to the object.

...

Linking objects with people's memories of those items could be one of the most interesting uses for the site, says Andrew Hudson-Smith of University College London, one of the five UK academic institutions behind the project. Museum curators have also expressed an interest in tagging their collections, he says.
(via Bruce Sterling: Beyond the Beyond)

Friday, April 09, 2010

George Kolbe auction 110

Apologies for light posting the past month.

The catalog for George Kolbe Auction 110 is now online. 565 lots of numismatic books, closing May 13th.