Ruskin said 'the sky is for all; … and yet we never make it a subject of thought'. For COP26, The Ruskin and PhD Candidate in the Department of History, Ben Wills-Eve, have developed a conversational Twitter bot to share content related to our shared planet, and pilot new models of digital engagement post-pandemic.
This Ruskin Twitter Bot Project aims to explore whether new digital tools like social media bots can provide engaging and educational access to museum collections, especially during this time of increased virtual provision following the Covid-19 pandemic. Social bots are automated social media accounts that can share information with users via tweets and interact with them through scripted replies. The Ruskin has selected a portfolio of images and developed three accompanying scripts, that resonate with themes relevant to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26). The Ruskin has manually tweeted these sets of images and scripted replies, modelling the behaviour of a bot. A starter tweet prompts users to reply 'yes' if they would like to see more content, followed by three threads each containing three tweets if requested through user interaction. These threads are included as Image Galleries on this page.
The aim of the research is to understand whether social media bots are useful for museums, and their virtual visitors. Ben Wills-Eve is gathering responses to the Ruskin bot via an online survey. The survey aims to find out what users think of the tool, the content it shares, and whether it would encourage users to engage with The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection online.
The project is a collaboration between The Ruskin - Museum & Research Centre, based at Lancaster University, and a PhD student in Lancaster University’s History department, Ben Wills-Eve.
Curious? Help us develop new research into the use of social media bots by museums, by taking this short survey. You will be guided through a series of questions, and shown examples of the bot as it appears on Twitter. You do not need to use Twitter to take part.
John Ruskin, Frederick Crawley, 'Rheinfelden: Entry tower to the covered bridge' 1858
The Ruskin Twitter Bot: Clouds
Ruskin said 'the sky is for all; … and yet we never make it a subject of thought'. This set of images and scripted text explores Ruskin's views of the skies: from experimental studies to aerial perspective, to the first signs of climate change.
Ruskin said 'the sky is for all; … and yet we never make it a subject of thought'. His drawings and paintings of the sky bridged new scientific understanding of the flux of atmospheric elements, and new forms of experimental image-making.
Ruskin’s first love was the natural world, and it was through his writing on ‘truth to nature’ that he turned to art criticism.
The project that became the five volumes of Modern Painters began as a defence of the landscape artist J. M. W. Turner, ‘the father of modern art’.
Ruskin describes Turner’s trailblazing skies:
‘It is a painting of the air, something into which you can see, through the parts which are near you, into those which are far off; something which has no surface, and through which we can plunge far and farther, and without stay or end, into the profundity of space’.
Ruskin wrote, 'Attention to the real form of clouds, and careful drawing of effects of mist… becomes a subject of science with us; and the faithful representation of that appearance is made of primal importance, under the name of aerial perspective'.
Ruskin’s technical drawings illustrate his precision skills as a draughtsman and scientific thinker.
For Ruskin, gradations of line as well as colour were central to the delineation of the skies. His ‘Cloud Perspective’ studies from Modern Painters show geometric compositional rulings applied to cloud formations.
Clouds also offered a model of a permanently changing natural world.
Ruskin argued that the power of drawing to understand the clouds ‘alters and renders clear our whole conception of the architecture of the sky’.
Ruskin painted the skies using a cyanometer, a device for measuring the blueness of the sky.
It was invented by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, who wanted to trace colour intensity of the sky over Mont Blanc. In 1787, Saussure reached the summit and measured the sky: 39 degrees blue. #COP26
From his home at Brantwood, Ruskin noticed the colour of the sky was changing.
Ruskin’s arguments and his careful documentation of what he described as the ‘plague wind’, accumulated over a lifetime’s study of the skies, were dismissed by his contemporaries as ‘imaginary or insane’. #COP26
Meteorological records show, however, that Ruskin was correct.
The effects of human activity on the atmosphere were reaching a critical point. Ruskin’s calls for active stewardship of the natural world remain urgent today. #COP26
Help us develop new research into the use of social media bots by museums, by taking this short survey.
