The Times Newseum Mobile
September—October 2013
80 Android smartphones presenting realtime content from newswires, image desks and Twitter for The Times.
The Times of London commissioned Pixie Labs to develop a digital art installation as part of the Times Newseum exhibition at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
The theme of the Newseum exhibition was “Getting the news back” and revolved around the way the news-gathering process has changed from the days of field journalists to the modern era of social network monitoring.
The digital installation was comprised of 80 mobile Android phones hanging in a cluster from the ceiling, with each phone showing synchronised news content pulled from wire services and social media feeds.
The continuous ebb and flow of content flickering across the phones creates a mesmerising display, as each screen lights up in turn with a new snippet of content: an image, a tweet, a breaking news headline. The feeds are fast-moving, raw and unfiltered—highlighting the transient way in which news is formed and captured.
Visit Hanging phones from the ceiling on Storify for Tweets and Instagrams from the team during the build.