Articles
for The Times by Chloe Barker
Headline: Stray site for puppy love
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 3
Spanky the cat is a temperamental nine-year-old. He is quite independent and has a regal nature. This moggy would be happy as theonly cat in his new home. Pet-rescuers can now view up to 20 animals online (including Spanky) before heading down to the Mayhew Animal Home, whose website goes live today.
Typically Mayhew has a waiting list of people ready to adopt animals. And although the website is a useful viewing aid, it does not make the adoption process any easier. Interested parties still need tovisit the home and complete an application form with some personal details which will enable staff to assess their suitability.
The site's purpose is to educate the public about the home's work. Other animal charities, such as the Battersea Dogs Home and the RSPCA, also have their own websites. The RSPCA doesn't show pictures of animals up for adoption, while the Battersea Dogs Home, which has 600 dogs awaiting adoption, posts only the hard-to-house animals.
The Mayhew Home was established in 1886 by
the Mayhew sisters as a sanctuary for
"We still have links with the RSPCA in many ways but now have a bit more autonomy and are able to fund-raise and promote ourselves nationally without conflicting with the RSPCA," says Kim Pearce, fundraising and development manager. "It costs just over Pounds 1,500 per day to look after all the needy animals in our care."
The Mayhew does not receive state aid or National Lottery grants, so the support of individuals and commerce is crucial. At the last count it was housing 131 cats (27 of them kittens), 20 dogs (four puppies), seven gerbils, two hamsters, ten birds, ten rabbits, three guinea pigs, a hedgehog and a rat. Spanky has a new home - mine.
http://www.charitynet.org/ (The Mayhew Animal Home)
Headline: Post-gig chat for dance fans
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 3
Sentience, the new
three-piece techno band recently signed to Nuckleuz
Records, are to perform live at
A cybergig or "webcast", where bands broadcast both live audio and video transmissions, is the newest medium available for musicians to reach their fans. It offers hope for unsigned bands who can promote themselves directly to the public. Webcasting big bands, on sites such as www.liveconcerts.com and www.real.com , has been around for a few years now but rarely before have new dance bands been transmitted live over the Net.
The event will be facilitated by interFACE, an Internet broadcaster that transmits music 24-hours a day. "We hope not only to create a regional fan-base, but a truly global following" says Ed Jenkins, label manager of Nuckleuz Records. He says of Sentience: "They write and perform music that fits in exactly with the tastes of a generation of technology-literate young people who use the Internet and computer games to express themselves."
Producer Nick Fryer, vocalist Tom Neville and guitarist Martin Dawson, all 20 years old, will talk to fans via the online Chat Forum immediately after the gig.
http://www.sentience.net/ - for samples of the band's music
To view the webcast,
log on to interFACE at http://www.pirate-radio.co.uk/ on
Thursday June 3 at
Headline: Fit for summer; Internet Shopper
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 6
Picture Caption: Salad days? Get ready for healthy summer with a nutrition-frenzy. Photograph by Scope - Transworld
What could be worse than starting the summer feeling dreary and dull? Well, now help is at hand on a health and nutrition website which also acts as an online store. The virtual shop has a special offers section containing mainly health books; there is the glossy Optimum Nutrition Bible (Pounds 10.99), and attractive-looking vitamin combination packs, such as the city dweller nutrition pack (Pounds 20.10 for 30 days), put together by Patrick Holford, a qualified nutritionist and founder of the Institute of Optimum Nutrition.
The site does recommend that advice be taken from one of the qualified nutrition consultants before an order is placed. This can be done in My Consultation, which consists of filling in an online questionnaire of 100 questions, so that the consultants can calculate a personal programme to suit each individual's needs.
The special offers did not grab me, so I ventured into the online shop itself, where I did a product search. Items are grouped according to their description; Korean Ginseng Super Potency pills (Pounds 3.90 for 30 tablets) come under Vitality, and Neversnore (Pounds 14.95) tablets are listed under F for Feel Good. It made sense to me, so much so that I decided to purchase both products. Ordering the goods from this pastel coloured site could not be easier.
Once the items had been selected, I clicked on the shopping basket icon, which if you are buying several products adds the total up for you so you can keep track of your out-goings.
When my spree was over, I headed for the checkout for a breakdown of my expenses. Unfortunately, the bill was more than expected, thanks to 17.5% VAT and Pounds 2 delivery charges. My grand total came to Pounds 24.15.
Immediately after my credit card details had been registered and recorded, I received a message congratulating me on my purchases. Soon thereafter, I received an e-mail confirming my order. The prospect of a summer replete with vitality and a non-snoring boyfriend is bliss and I didn't even have to traipse around city streets to find the solution. Wonderful! VERDICT//
Website: http://www.mynutrition.co.uk/
Ease of use: 9/10
Value for money: 8/10
Encryption: yes
Delivery: within 7 days
Headline: How the Net can work for students
Byline: Chloe Barker and Sam Wild
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 8
Picture Caption: Arty types: the website design team at Candid Arts Trust
NICK RAY
Graduates get a break, write Chloe Barker and Sam Wild
Students no longer leave college as the naive types they once were. Today, reality bites hard, with intense competition and financial pressures forcing graduates, especially cash-strapped art students, to drop the idealism and wise up to life. Adopting a good self-marketing technique is essential to establishing a career,and help can be found online.
An ambitious project is taking place at the
Candid Arts Centre,
"I set up an event called the London Contemporary Design Fair in 1985," says Barlow. "It became a central show with graduates' work from around the country. The website is just a natural progression of that logic, allowing people from all over the world to see what's going on in the contemporary British arts scene."
"The website is a great comparative tool," adds Avino. "It allows people to really find out where the talent is. It's also good for students who want to sell their work- this is a perfect way to become more marketable."
Similarly, the New British Artists website was launched eight weeks ago by Kay Austin and is devoted to the promotion and sale of works by new graduates.
"Artists leave art school with almost
no understanding of art as business and are desperate for any type of exposure.
Unlike
NBA uses the Net to provide a quicker, more user-friendly way to buy original works of art. The site is keen to encourage private commissions as well as contact between client and artist and although the number of artists on the site is limited, it is set to grow after next year's degree shows.
http://www.newbritishartists.co.uk/
Headline: Hanging around in webspace
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 8
Picture Caption: Nina Pope: Betting on a prize Read Only Memory: film and video techniques were used to create this work. But will examining art on the web make people too lazy to see great works "in the flesh"?. Photograph by JOHN MAYBURY;Catching up: Old Masters get a new canvas as galleries go online. Photograph by NATIONAL GALLERY
Online exhibitions could change the way we look at art forever, writes Chloe Barker
There is a phenomenal amount of art hanging
in
But under this apparent modernity lies a labyrinth of old-fashioned attitudes. Often under-funded and lacking the support enjoyed by large businesses, many small arts organisations have been slow to jump on the internet bandwagon.
It is a harsh fact that 60 per cent of artists earn less than Pounds 5,000 a year, although galleries often make a mark-up of between 35 and 50 per cent on each work sold. Avoiding that percentage is one motive for artists diving enthusiastically into digital art. For this is the world of sparkling new ideas.
Nina Pope, 30, is one of the finalists for
the Olay Award for Women Artists as well as being shortlisted
for Imaginaria: the Art of the Future at the
Nina created a website where browsers are encouraged to place bets on who will actually win the award: "I have been working on the internet a lot now, but I use other kinds of technology too, such as video, when developing my art, plus the Net allows me to reach a vast audience I never would have come into contact with otherwise."
Although Nina received a classical art training at college, she progressed to digital art by incorporating technology into the creative process. "The Web is an instrument for the artist to play with, opening up new horizons that were previously closed to myself, the artist, and the audience," she said. "The Web also allows people to spend more time, on a one-to-one basis, looking at art, in their own homes." Nina believes that studying art online will allow the relationship between the artist and the art-lover to prosper. Unlike the traditionalist, Nina does not see the Net as being responsible for the fragmentation of art and the art-going experience.
The effects that can be produced by
technology are illustrated by the main image on this page Read Only Memory by
John Maybury. The picture of Leigh Bowery dancing was
shot on film then telecinied on to video and then
digitally edited using an Avid editing system at the Lux
Centre in Hoxton,
Another passionate artist who works in the multi-media field is Argentinian Alicia Felderbaum, 46, who also designed and created a website. Like Nina, Alicia also works with digital video: "Multi-media gives us the possibility to open up the communication channel," she said. "On one project I can use video, sound voice-clips, photography, text and interact with the people who surf on my site by e-mail."
Richard Cork, art critic for The Times recognises that huge advances have been made in certain artistic
fields thanks to digital technology, which is particularly useful when studying
microscopic detail on screen. However, he fears that the gallery-goer will steadily become more lazy:
"The infinite detail of digital art allows us to roam inside the great depths of an image but might cause the audience
to lose themselves within and neglect the original concept." He is quick
to point out that the internet will never be able to replace that "real
world" sensation of strolling through a gallery at leisure.
For
The Net's importance cannot be denied though, either as a tool for the artist or the audience. The notion that technology kills creativity is extinct.
Nina Pope's website
Alicia Felderbaum's website
Imaginaria, at the
Headline: Art for art's sake;Internet Shoppper
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 9
Picture Caption: A rural idyll: buying a local landscape on the internet
bridges the gap between town and country. Photograph by PAMELA
In the heart of the Cotswolds a small gallery called Walton House has just gone online. So, art-lovers can now pin down a remote artist on the Net, examine his or her work and spend money on acquiring a worthwhile print rather than tedious travel. The new website features 21 limited edition fine art lithographic prints from three established landscape artists; each one is signed and numbered by the artist. It is an easy gallery from which to buy prints with clear instructions, providing first-time users with all the information to make them feel at ease.
Sally Keir painted
the "
According to the biography,
through, and into, the Cotswold countryside that she paints." After credit card details have been processed, where a few hidden surprises lurk, such as Pounds 6.13 VAT and delivery costs, it is only a matter of a few days before a piece of the Cotswolds could be adorning your very own wall.
Ease of use: 9/10
Value for money: 7/10 (there are a few hidden extra costs such as the
VAT and Pounds 3.17 delivery)
Encryption: yes
Delivery time: within 4 days.
Headline: Tracking down the best
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 9
WHEN browsing the Web you'll come across numerous sites that offer lists of galleries, but one of the more interesting is the Gallery Channel.
The listings service is free to galleries and artists alike. Launched last October by Nancy Proctor, creator and curator of the site, the
Gallery Channel serves as an online guide
to current exhibitions in the
As an ardent supporter of experimental and artist-led projects, Proctor admits a certain bias to the avant garde: "We do put more effort into recruiting listings from the new and the unknown, mainly because these are so much more difficult for art-goers to find out about." The site focuses on 'real-world' exhibitions because they are most in need of this kind of support. Below are other worthy
websites:
http://www.thegallerychannel.com/
http://www.newbritishartists.co.uk/
http://www.artefact.co.uk/ - listings and up-to-date information on more than
700 galleries, antique shops, fairs and internet-only galleries.
http://www.museums.co.uk/
- useful if unattractive guide to what's on in
http://www.tribalartdirectory.com/ - directory of International dealers, galleries, museums and related services specialising in Tribal Arts.
www.icom.org/vlmp/world.html - directory of web museums from around the world
http://www.safebet.org.uk/ - Nina Pope, a finalist in the Olay Award for Women Artists, created a site where you can place a bet with
Ladbrokes on who will win the prize.
http://www.timeout.com/ - online listings as seen in Time Out magazine.
Headline: Pru hatches easy way to a nest egg;Internet shopper
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 4
Money makes the world go round, but it takes more than a wallet's worth to get the globe spinning on its axis - perhaps that's why people save.
If you shrink at the mere mention of the word "spending" then the internet is an ideal source of information for you, with one of the best sites being www.times-money.co.uk .
Among the many investment schemes available on the Net is Egg, the new financial organisation backed by Prudential, which is a tempting option. Besides presenting its customers with a 6 per cent savings rate - 0.5 per cent above the current base rate - it is going online and becoming a free ISP (internet service provider).
Egg is strengthening its emphasis on
e-commerce by switching to internet-only applications for accounts. "Egg
has made electronic trading a reality in
There have been 400,000 visitors to the site since its launch in April, so I decided to join them and download Egg's ISP. The process was fast and easy, but I later discovered that the server had overwritten the contents of my e-mail and prevented me from using it further. According to Egg, which was quick to advise on how the difficulty could be resolved, this was just a teething problem that only affected Freeserve and LineOne users.
The Web offers a stress-free way of approaching a complex world. Customers can peruse pages of information at leisure and discover no-nonsense ways of arranging finances. And there are savings to be made.
"One obvious advantage of personal finance on the Net is that costs can be as much as four times lower than telephone transactions and ten times lower than high street branches," says Harris.
It was time to go online and save. I found the section reserved for the Egg Savings Account. The great thing about these accounts is that you need only Pounds 1 to open one. If you decide to open an account, you will have to give the bank extensive demographic details, which are required by law, but also serve advertisers, too.
Once you have filled in all your personal details and specified how much you want to save annually, your application is processed within three working days. A signature and proof of identity is required by law to open the account. Once Egg has the application it will post it to the customer to sign and return with proof of ID. Payment is made by cheque or direct debit.
Banking online with this strangely named financial institution may prove a wise investment, both in terms of time and money.
Website: http://www.egg.com/
NET RESULT//
Ease of use: 6/10 (bearing in mind the e-mail crisis)
Value for money: 9/10
Encryption: Not applicable
Headline: With this ping I do thee Web
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 3
Picture Caption: In virtual as in reality: Posh and Beckham's big day is revealed
David Lethbridge and Andrew Doe spend their days thinking about marriage. Yet neither man is planning to get hitched: they are the team behind the most comprehensive wedding site on the Web.
If you are getting married, it's worth looking at confetti.co.uk for advice. If you are not getting married, it's still worth looking for entertainment.
"We created confetti to service what is an obvious gap in the market. The internet allows consumers to simplify an unnecessarily complicated and stressful processs," says Lethbridge.The site makes the wedding process more fun, and by using the power of the Web we can give couples the information and advice they need when they need it so they can enjoy the wedding."
One of the site's highlights is the celebrity wedding page, featuring caricatures of the celebrity weddings of the summer: Sophie
Rhys-Jones and Prince Edward, Posh Spice and David
Beckham (with baby
For Pounds 59.95, happy couples can have their own caricatures drawn and posted on to their website for friends and families to view. This is especially useful for long-distance viewing when your dearest aren't your nearest.
The site was inspired by American wedding sites such as theknot.com and weddingchannel.com. In March confetti, in association with
virgin.net, went live with an online vicar who gave advice on both church and civil weddings.
Some 50 online participants discussed the art of matrimony, including Kim Prior, a fashion consultant for You And Your Wedding, who advised on what to wear on the big day. Also on hand was a "stag" group to offer tips on jokes for nervous best-men-to-be.
There is an entire section dedicated to men. Up until now, the male of the species has been able to get away with knowing little about weddings and all the arrangements that take place beforehand. Now there is no excuse not to find out more and become more involved.
According to
The site's success soon became apparent: it now has an average of 150,000 hits a month, and 1,000 couples have already had their wedding profiles set up on the site, free of charge.
Once this is done, the couples receive their own Web address and can have it password protected, if they wish. This personal touch is the
main attraction of confetti, with personalised to-do lists, budget planners, online wedding lists, shopping guides and weekly reminders.
There is also information on venues, photographers and honeymoon options.
And if your arrangements don't quite match up to those of Posh and
Beckham, at least you won't have to cater for the paparazzi.
http://www.theknot.com/
http://www.weddingchannel.com/
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 3
Picture Caption: See how they run: techophobe artist Firmin interprets
computer language in 3 Blind Mice. Photograph: ROY RILEY
Nettie Firman may be a technophobe but the 39-year-old
artist is exorcising a few of her demons in a
Intrigued by the word "technophobe", Firman set about embracing what she feared most. With a little help from an IT consultant, who gave meaning to words such as mouse, Internet, e-mail, Windows, online and motherboard, Nettie created light-hearted works that played with the essential meaning of the words. One of the exhibits, for example, is entitled Mice but you have to look twice to realise that the work is a striking colourful montage of mice (the hand-held variety).
"When I left school I departed with a manual typewriter and computers were just coming in. I had my first child and focused on other things and lost all interest in cultivating a knowledge in technology – it passed me by. "I'm afraid to confess that I have a mental block about computers and IT. I can't sit in front of a keyboard," she said. "I used to go to dinner parties and feel horribly inadequate as everyone used to talk about the information revolution and the Internet. I felt left out."
Firman's art evolved from her ambivalent feelings towards the computer age.
The show where she is exhibiting her work, titled Technophobia, runs until the end of June. Anne Currell, who organised the exhibition, believes Firmin's work may help other technophobes to overcome their fears.
She said: "Computer technology underpins the infrastructure of our society, yet there still remains an overwhelming distrust towards it.
Through our support of Technophobia we are showing that there is an accessible and friendly side to the world of technology."
Many of the works are wonderfully surreal: 8 Megabites sees four pairs of dentures, two pink, two black, wide open and ready to bite;
3 Blind Mice shows three mice wearing sunglasses, stuck to a furry pink block (pictured above).
Technophobia is showing at Currell & Co Residential, 321 Upper
Headline: Surf into a new job
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Creme de la
Creme 5
Picture Caption: Online in the office: the Internet can be an invaluable tool
The Net can help you to find work, says Chloe Barker, and to work better, says Chris Partridge
With the advent of new technology, job-hunting has changed. The Internet can no longer be avoided. So why traipse miles between agencies when you can venture into cyberspace and find numerous sites worth exploring?
Make friends with the Net in your search for work and you will undoubtedly come across www.goldensquare.com, the brainchild of Harry Doyle and Tony Hogan, who work in close association with the Angela Mortimer recruitment agency. The site was created last November and now has 30,000 visitors each month, many of whom e-mail their CVs.
Says Mr Hogan: "The calibre of candidates is extremely high, as they have to be reasonably computer-literate to work the Web and to send off their CVs. And we get candidates from all over the world."
The site is easy to use, simple and fast. It can also be viewed in the office without drawing attention to itself (and a CV could be inconspicuously e-mailed as an attachment).
Boyce Recruitment, the bilingual recruitment agency, is also aiming to raise its profile through the Net, and is having asite designed.
"Nowadays all college-leaversareNet-friendly," says Boyce's Deborah Radburn. "From a recruitment perspective, 18 months ago the Net was mostly being used for technological vacancies. Now it plays a considerable role in the secretarial sector, too."
While Boyce works on its site, its
vacancies can be viewed on www.topjobs.net (featuring vacancies both in the
Most sites such as these offer temporary as well as permanent positions, and plenty of advice on interview techniques.
Other interesting sites include: www.aboutwork.com/ (an American site with useful information for all job-seekers); www.ajb.dni.us (the largest database of US jobs available on the Net); www.cando.lancs.ac.uk (a British website for disabled students and graduates); www.cib.org.uk/careers (specialising in banking and finance); and www.gti.co.uk (a lively site that claims to tell you the truth about any job).
Background reading: Using the World Wide Web to Develop your Career and find Work by Irene Krechowiecka (Kogan Page, Pounds 8.99, ISBN
7494 2422 2).
Headline: World Wine Web;Internet Shopper;Internet
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 6
Picture Caption: Exhausted by the prospect of buying wine? Order your favourite plonk over the Internet and let your fingers do the staggering
If there's one thing I loathe about parties
it's carting heavy cases of wine back from the
supermarket. This time I wanted to do it differently - I wanted delivery. So
onto the Internet I hopped and surfed until I came across the Berry Bros &
Rudd site. A colourful shop front greeted me and made
me feel considerably at ease. My problems were solved,
my wine would be with me by tomorrow if ordered before
I chose Berry Bros for two reasons; first and foremost because it was the only Net wine shop that I came across in my manic hunt for guaranteed overnight delivery, but also because they had the most attractive and easy-to-use site.
I do like my wine - who doesn't? - but ask me to describe the difference between a Margaux and a Chateau Calon-Segur and I start to feel dizzy. Indeed, I had no idea what to order, with no fewer than 1,300 wines available. Fortunately the shop manager offers useful advice on which wines are worth investing in at the moment, and there are excellent descriptions of all the wines, as well as handy tips for those seeking that perfect wine and food combination.
Even though Berry Bros was awarded the
Bordeaux Specialist Merchant of the Year prize in 1998 and started out as
classic French wine specialists, I was keen to delve into the realm of the
purchase, by e-mail.
Finally, able to relax about my social
life, I had a good look around the Berry Bros site. I studied the manager's
advice on how to wrestle with a hangover, before moving on quickly to focus on
a lush Bloody Mary recipe. His pointer on how to open a bottle of
Wine Cellar have a rather good-looking site too, but delivery takes much longer.
The purpose of online shopping is speedy
delivery without leaving home. Nevertheless, I did end up venturing into the
great outdoors, but only because I was not at home when
I had to get a cab to their shop and pick it up myself. The firm delivers orders of over Pounds 100 free of charge (Pounds 7.50 for smaller orders) but they only try to deliver once: tough luck if you are out.
The taxi fare cost me Pounds 18, but this attack on my wallet did not detract from the pleasure of drinking the wonderful wines, even if this virtual adventure had suffered a few hiccups. NET RESULTS
Website: http://www.berry-bros.co.uk/
Value for money: 9 out of 10,
10 out of 10 if they had returned to try to make the delivery again.
Ease of use: 9 out of 10.
Encryption: Yes.
Delivery times:
Headline: It's site and sound at the online nightclub
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 12
Picture Caption: Reporter Chloe Barker, main picture, logs on to her laptop
for a night out at home at The Ministry of Sound where a
candid Webcam catches clubbers off guard in the club's
"Beauty Spot", left, while others rock the night away on
the dance floor, top left. Photograph: RICHARD CANNON;Logo
on, dude: the in-crowd boogies down at another night at the
Ministry of Sound;Beauty in the eye of the beholder -
Webcam catches the action
A candid Webcam strategically placed in the ladies loo catches clubbers off guard as Chloe Barker discovered when she went for a boogie night out at the cyber-club otherwise known as The Ministry Of Sound.
It's past
Surrounded by beautiful people, clad in cellophane clothing and platform shoes, I aimed for the ladies loos and the webcam.
Eloise looked pretty as a picture in all four mirrors and the webcam reflection. She didn't know she was being transmitted live on the World Wide Web. Her instinctive response was calm: "It shows real life," she said. "People will be natural if they don't know the camera is there.".
And unlike a fiery lady who called herself "Miss Hayer", she did not object to the invasion of privacy. But then "Miss Hayer" was adjusting the finer point of her cleavage as I pointed the camera out to her.
Philippa and Christina stumbled into the lavatory, each brandishing a lollipop firmly between their perfectly painted lips. When asked, they say they only use the Web when conducting the occasional bit of research but never for the likes of e-shopping, especially not CDs.
Neither knew about the Ministry's website, nor were they keen to visit it after having "experienced" the club. The webcam was right up their street though and prompted silken smiles on both faces and shrieks of delight: "Brilliant".
I left for a chat with the lads, a bit of a
boogie and experience the music. The DJs that night were The Kosmonauts from
When I approaced a long-legged German lass clad in leopard-skin hotpants who was standing by the DJ's set, she announced that she didn't want to talk to me, really.
Perhaps, the large number t of foreigners in the club was due to the German DJ spinning. But the music never fully kicked off, as the box room (the big dance room) was never opened up as there were not enough people to fill the club.
Nevertheless, the atmosphere was fun and next, I approached three sharply dressed men; Will, Dominic and Charlie. None actually liked the Ministry on the grounds that it is "naff and full of egos on stilts". Charlie's words: "Oh, and we only had to pay Pounds 1 to get in 'cos we know someone, can't say who..." with a conspiratorial wink.
All three are constant users of the Net and might well go and have a little peek at the Ministry's site out of curiosity now that they have been to the club even though it was not their scene. Enough talking for a while. I felt a sudden pulsating need to focus on the beat; amidst the throb of heaving and hot bodies I did my stuff and watched Batman on a giant screen.
Great while you're there, but not if you are watching. Which is why the webcam is now strategically placed in the ladies' loos, for it used to be focused on the dance floor. However the live webcasts proved dull for the viewers at home with hundreds of people simply bopping up and down all night long and no conversation to listen in to. Amid the smoke and the strobes I met straight-faced Frank and shiny-eyed Ben, a lawyer and a banker, great movers and shakers and Web users too.
Ben uses the Net for news, sport, chat sites and employment opportunities but has not visited the Ministry's site as yet. He might do so in the future though. Frank was less of a computer-user and but was eager to offer his opinion on the Ministry's recent refurbishment which he thought was great and an improvement on the past.
Given this limited vox pop, then, it seems that people who actually visit the club don't log on to it from their homes. So how many people look at the Ministry site?
According to Will Lovegrove, head of the Ministry's Internet operations and the team of four who update the site daily, the number of browsers has increased dramatically: in October 1997 there were 578,000 hits per day, compared to a staggering 3,419,000 in January
1999.
This astonishing increase is partly due to
advertising on other sites such as dotmusic, Loaded,
Juiced and Fashion
"The Internet is still a brand new medium and is still growing fast. We've worked very hard to develop a sizeable presence on the Net. The Ministry of Sound is a very successful brand, and has a great global reputation, so the World Wide Web is the ideal place for us."
And believe it or not, it isn't alone.
There are a number of other fascinating clubs out there on the Web well worth
checking out such the Tunnel in
Browse: www.ministryofsound.co.uk the other sites mentioned are at www.tunnel.co.uk and
HIP HAPPENING AND ALL AT HOME
THE Ministry of Sound is pretty much at the cutting-edge of the clubbing experience, writes Chloe Barker.
But is its latest product more than just a
gimmick? Can a PC reproduce the same sensation as a club? After my night out
and much patience I logged in and caught sight of a dull-looking home page (it
was
But as live music was piped from the website, it did the trick, miraculously reactivating my party feet and gyrating hips. Too tired to be seriously energetic on my own, I tapped my toes, went into the "Beauty Spot" and observed more painting and pouting and boyfriend-natter.
The live chat channel at the bar is a giggle too but libelous messages will be erased. Previous topics were: "Anyone know where to send Demo tapes?" and "Free sex: Am I wasting my time or is anyone here?" Other than these two sections, I found little to keep my clubbing mind stimulated; online shopping, whether it be Ministry merchandise or their magazine, was not enough to keep me awake.Nevertheless, I did get a chance to catch all the gossip from the Ministry's Channel Hot, before I dived into my pit.
The virtual club night is becoming increasingly popular with more and more clubs having live webcasts and it is well worth sacrificing a precious Friday or Saturday night to go clubbing from the comfort of your home.
There is a lot to see and a variety of places to see it happen but at the end of the day (or night, or morning) you might start to feel really stupid dancing around your house with your laptop ( I most certainly did) and the dance floor will start to draw you back to its centre because that is where the life, the action and, most
importantly, the people are.
* SITES - SORTED
Only seven years old and
now the
This famous club in
the most of Shockwave. The site promises more than it delivers.
A well-designed site is full of shocks and surprises. Expect a
rollercoaster ride and great introductory tour around the
club.
Infamous indeed, but the site is a must. For Pete offers more than
just a club full of girls with succulent navels.
This
Wacky, eccentric and bold - and some would say gay.
Contrary to its name, this club looks like an easy ride from its
website; colourful and different.
http://gold.globalcafe.co.uk Hosts "Sprawl" every Thursday and one of
the select few places in the
once Oscar Wilde's tipple.
Club listings websites:
This site looks after the needs of high-profile clubs such as The End
as well as filtering viewers on to new sites they would not otherwise
visit.
Planning a trip to
Designed, coded and maintained by 29-year-old Jason Shipman. This site is an impressive labour of love by a dedicated clubber.
Headline: Film fans go dotty.com;Award;Oscars
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 3
Picture Caption: Fansite fantasy Brad Pitt lines up another bout of tonsil
hockey. Photograph by UNIVERSAL;Gwyneth Paltrow is in hot
water for snogging the Bard and Brad. Photograph by
Universal;Titanic's Kate and Leonardo gasp as their names
go up in sites. Photograph by Reuters;Poor Cate: no one's
bothered
With only four days to go before the 71st Academy Award ceremony on Sunday, the time is just right to explore the strange and intriguing world of web-shrines to the wild, the gifted and beautiful stars of the silver screen.
Since cyberspace lends itself to the sane and the zany in almost equal measure it is no surprise to discover web-shrines to our current screen gods and goddesses to suit many tastes.
And where better to start than with the
winners of this year's Oscars - no matter that the Academy envelopes are still
unopened, the academy of armchair judges has spoken and first off the blocks
are Heath, Lucas and Brian.
They call themselves The Hi-Fi Geeks, (www2.1starnet.com)
and have published who they think should win the Awards. Tom Hanks gets the
laurels for his role in Saving Private Ryan, which is named Best Film in the
armchair awards and Meryl Streep
in One True Thing is named Best Actress.
But back in the nearly real world of Tinseltown I tapped into the shrines to Best Actor nominee (proper) Roberto Benigni - up for an Oscar for his starring role in his own movie Life Is Beautiful. The hero worship was, however, a little lost on me since most of the devotion to him was couched in gushing and passionate Italian.
I had something of the same linguistic
difficulty with the fansite to one of the Best
Actress nominees (proper), Fernanda
Shrine? Well, not this one since it cut straight to the chase and ripped
her to pieces for having dated Brad Pitt. "How dare she!"
yelled Denise in
As for Brad Pitt's presence on the Net, it
is constant, pretty and well-illustrated, much like his ex-girlfriends. Most of
Brad's sites are the creations of young women - probably the same women who
then look up Gwyneth's website and leave poisonous
messages – venting spleen but, no doubt, utterly ignored by their intended
target but then who knows? That's the joy of the Net. Cate
Blanchett, who played the title role in Shekar Kapur's
Perhaps it is because she is Australian, and not yet a superstar, or perhaps it is because she has fallen foul of what seems to have become an immutable cyberlaw that the sexier a star the more shrines there will be dedicated to him or her and, although she may be beautiful Blanchett may not be that sexy.
What is certain, though, is that pornography does seem to underpin many of the shrines - even poor innocent-looking, girl-next-door Gwyneth has a porn site (of which I'm sure she knows nothing) and as for Pamela Anderson, I nearly had to unplug my computer from the socket - which was starting to steam - as it was downloading so much heavy-duty porn.
On the less steamy side there's Tom Hanks and Nick Nolte, who is back in the headlines for Affliction and The Thin Red Line and, of course, Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio, who have thousands of adoring shrines each - North Atlantic icebergs did nothing to cool the ardour of their fans. STAR SITES//
www.etonline.com/html/Interviews
Headline: Toon army hits town
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 12
Picture Caption: A Grand Day Out promised at Poole Festival;IT made Woody a quick draw
A students' festival animates cinema big hitters, says Chloe Barker.
A festival in
Dreamworks, the Hollywood studio founded by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and former Walt Disney boss Jeffery Katzenburg, which recently released Antz and The Prince of Egypt, will be represented at tomorrow's Poole Animation Festival, as will the leading British animation studio Aardman Animations, who gave the world Wallace and Grommit
The free festival, the brainchild of three students at the nearby Arts Institute of Bournemouth, Sue Luminati, 44, Vashti Waite, 26, and Richard Conian, 18, will also screen the English premiere of Walt Disney's Mighty Joe Young.
The organisers chose animation because they felt passionately about the subject because their college has a strong connection in that field. They concede that another factor has been the collapse of the Cardiff Animation Festival which left a gap.
They started from nothing but after hours on the phone, they had almost free use of a venue, a good deal of high-quality work to display, and not only the premiere of Mighty Joe Young, but the rights to screen Animal Farm.
However, the pinnacle of the students' success has to be persuading three highly-respected animation experts to attend the festival.
Shelley Page from DreamWorks will be talking
about the making of Antz and The Prince of Egypt
and Barry Purves of Cosgrove Hall and Bare Boards,
one of the
Together with star speakers, students' work will be on show and there will be an Animation Cafe running throughout the day where visitors can try their hand at making animation, from simple moving toys to the world of computer graphics. A range of companies supporting the animation industry will be offering advice and information on a variety of subjects from software to production.
The Poole Animation Festival takes place tomorrow
at the Poole Arts Centre from
Headline: Spring a question on Jerry
Byline: Chloe Barker
Source: The Times
Issue Date:
Page: Interface 3
Picture Caption: Springer: Web host could confess to his fans
THE man who presides over rows on screen is
now generating heated discussion online. Jerry Springer, the American TV chat
show presenter, will broadcast live on the Internet this afternoon between
It will be the first online venture in the
His answers to their questions are printed on the website with the help of a speedy typist for all to read and react to. Fans will also get a chance to see Jerry as a webcam will take and transmit photographs of him every 30 seconds.
In contrast to Springer's TV show, the fans remain faceless and anonymous. We should not expect harsh confessions or virtual punch-ups in this chat room session, and cyberbrawls are unlikely to occur, especially as the fans are "rotated" to keep the tempo up and to let as many visitors on to the website as possible.
A confession or two may well come from Springer himself: hundreds of questions are fired his way by starstruck fans.His followers in the
US have already witnessed several online chatting sessions chaired by Springer.
His public relations team described these
as a great success, but it seems unlikely that Springer's charisma in front of
the TV cameras will translate on to the Web, with a virtual reality audience
and an identity based on photographs and typescript. Furthermore, technical constraints
are bound to interfere, at least until high-speed
cable modems become widely available in the
But as a PR stunt, and an opportunity for Springer supporters to get a fraction closer to their main man, it cannot fail.
Born in a
the Oxford Union entitled Contemporary Family Values in