this is my mug of tea.

Thanks to Tales of Things I can now tell the story of my mug of tea to any one who has the technology to scan the QR code attached to my mug. It’s brilliant! you can see my mug’s tale here

Tales of Things is part of a research project called TOTeM (tales of things and electronic memory) that explores social memory and the Internet of Things. Users can add stories to objects, enabling connections to be made to other people who share similar experiences. The possibilities this project brings are absolutely mind blowing.  Automatically adding context to an object! and then unleashing visitors upon it, to add their interpretation.  Just think of the possibilities this brings to museums!  An opportunity to provide a greater understanding of an object’s past, and how it connects to the present, to its surrounding environment and what the viewer thinks of it. I love it.

Plus its really simple to do (and I like the musical accompaniment) check out Trailer for Tales of Things from digitalurban on Vimeo.

One of the really interesting projects they are doing is with Oxfam. Providing context to charity shop items, putting the history back into objects with the Art Project: RememberMe.
for example: Vienna Travel Guide useful to someone, tagged given to an Oxfam shop, next person can scan the tag and find out about where its been before, and then add their own memories. brill.

I cant wait to see how the project progresses.