GOOGLE / WEB LAB & THIS EXQUISITE FOREST

Radical Media director Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, creative director of the Data Arts team in Google's Creative Lab, have teamed up with Google and Tate to create a collaborative online project that merges art and technology. 

This Exquisite Forest allows users to create short animations that build off the work of other users, generating a collection of narratives visualised as trees. The initiative was inspired by The Johnny Cash Project, which Koblin and Milk collaborated on in 2010, as well as the Surrealist parlour game Exquisite Corpse, which sees players add a word to a sequence without knowing what a previous player has contributed. A physical installation of The Exquisite Forest is currently on display at London's Tate Modern gallery.

Also launching this week is Web Lab, Google's collaboration with London's Science Museum, which offers a behind-the-screens  glimpse of the inner workings that drive the wonder of the internet.

Housed in a basement bunker at the museum, the Lab's five experiments can all be experienced in person or via the web. While some, like the Sketchbots and Teleporter (persicopes that let the user spy on far-flung locations) are particular fun at first hand, others feel better suited to the web.

The Data Tracer, for example, demonstrates how information travels across continents in answer to search queries with a WebGL 3D fly-through to add a dynamic visual edge to the process. Of all the experiments, Universal Orchestra delivers the most magical experience, allowing web users to play the specially-commissioned instruments from anywhere in the world and listen in real-time to the sounds - and the response of museum visitors too!

Online, Google Creative Lab worked with B-Reel to develop the user experience. Each visitor, either online or in the museum are given a visual code, or Lab Tag, that can be used to keep track of their activity.