Presentation by Editor Andy Miah for the British Library

In the past month since Vancouver 2010 came to a close, London 2012 has made important strides in its progress towards its Games. It has appointed a new director for the Cultural Olympiad, Ruth Mackenzie, it’s been under fire for equivocating on the use of the concept ‘Cultural Olympiad’, and it has just approved the design of Anish Kapoor’s ‘Orbit‘ viewing tower for the Olympic Park (pictured). It will be the largest public art work in the UK, though has already attracted controversy. Regardless of your aesthetic taste, the headline …

‘Vectorial Elevation’ is an interactive art installation, by Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, which features 20 10-kilowatt robotic searchlights along the shoreline. The beams illuminate over a one-kilometre patch of sky and are visible from more than 15 kilometres away.

Taking advantage of the influx of Olympic visitors, the Whistler Arts Council promotes the endives of local artists throughout the Village as part of its Arts Walk, which links 43 host galleries together hosted by a variety of spaces from coffee shops to hotel lobbies. However, it’s not only these locations that promote artistic interest. The centre of the village offers as well plenty of opportunities to explore or observe artwork.

Roundhouse, Vancouver’s community centre is a historical monument, its 374 steam engine being the one that pulled the first transcontinental train into Vancouver. Ten of the Roundhouse staff had to be laid off a week before the Olympics started due to money diverted to finance the Games.

Artist Ken Wesman, who has been drawing inspiration from the Olympics since the 1988 Games of Calgary, is raising money for the YWCA in Vancouver, a non-profit organisation working mainly with children and women who have suffered from domestic abuse, by auctioning his Olympic themed paintings.

Atos Origin, the Olympic’s IT partner since Beijing and suppliers since Barcelona, do not want to grab the limelight during this, or indeed, any games. In fact, they actively seek out to be as invisible as they can, knowing that the entire technical infrastructure; from press releases to results, to venue computer terminals and international media coverage depends on their ability to remain ubiquitous, a silent but incredibly important factor of mega events facilitation. A error in the delivery, a server crash or a system failure, could spell disaster for the whole operation.

The Aboriginal Pavilion, based in the heart of downtown Vancouver (West Georgia Street & Hamilton St), promotes the culture and heritage of Canada’s oldest people, as part of British Columbia’s showcase during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. A light and visual effects show, traditional food and artwork have attracted 14,000 spectators each day since the start of the Games.

Citizen journalism is nothing new to our world of available technology. It has become second nature for people to capture their experience, events or news in their environments on their phones, cameras or computers. We live in a world were journalism is an action and all of citizens have stepped forth into that call to action.

However, this is the first Olympic Games of its kind were the real stories that are happening are not necessarily the ones that are showcased by the sponsor holding media companies. The internet with its …

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights launched its Champion Human Rights! Campaign during the media opening of the CentrePlace Manitoba pavilion at LiveCity Vancouver Downtown.

The campaign, aiming to promote respect and human rights action, asks visitors of the CentrePlace Manitorba pavilion to complete the “Everyone has the right to…” protest sign and have a picture taken with their sign and then future museum in the background. Currently all photographs taken are displayed on a screen in the pavilion but some of them will be shown again when the museum will open in 2012 in Winnipeg.