Cultural Digital newsletter #76 - avenues for wonder
Cultural Digital
Hello
This week there's music (sweet music), data, strategy, and I just about manage to avoid going on a long rant about 404 pages.
Thanks to Ableton, you can learn music with Learning Music. "In these lessons, you'll learn the basics of music making. No prior experience or equipment is required; you'll do everything right here in your browser".
Or if Gregorian chanting is more your kinda thing, check out Gregorian Voices.
Complicite - The Encounter Online. Headphones at the ready. You can watch this online until Thurs 25 May. Incidentally, are there any listings for free streaming performances like this? If not can someone make that happen please? Thanks.
Digital Works #2: Data, Analytics, Strategy (and group therapy). I spoke at this (about ways of using Google Analytics data without logging in - so not cultural sector-specific), along with people from ENO, The Audience Agency, and the Royal Opera House.
When Wrong Goes Right: 30 Creative Museum 404 Error Pages. I always think it's odd that the one place institutions feel it's ok to add some 'personality' to their websites is also the one place you don't want your users to find themselves. Also, some of these are terrible (coughcooperhewittcough) with more thought put into being 'creative' than being helpful. As you can probably tell, I could go on.
Museums & technology: New avenues for wonder. The Knight Foundation on how they're giving "$1.87 million in support to 12 art museums to explore new ways technology can connect people to art".
Key Frame: pilotting a virtual animation project "So what do we do with all the knowledge gained from Key Frame? We’re going to attempt to package a sellable unit of work that can be delivered to multiple schools simultaneously using a similar project structure". More from ACMI who are really on their blogging game.
The Lost Picture Show: Hollywood Archivists Can’t Outpace Obsolescence "Studios invested heavily in magnetic-tape storage for film archiving but now struggle to keep up with the technology".
The Domain ".art" and the Quest to Bring Order to the Art Market. "By investing in the domain, .art, Ulvi Kasimov hopes to bring digital order to a market that can suffer from mystery, forgery, and an aversion to new technological tools". I still don't get this.
When a 'Remix' Is Plain Ole Plagiarism "Digital technologies make it easier for people to copy the work of other artists—yet the same tools make it more likely for them to get caught".
Big Glass Microphone is a data visualisation of a 5km long fiber optic cable buried underneath Stanford University. It's a collaboration between Stamen Design (who've done this project write-up) and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
New websites
Creamfields 2017, CU Presents, Stockholm Jazz Festival, Super16.
Jobs
There are digital-related jobs available at English Heritage, and the BFI.
Events
10 - 12 July 2017, Oxford: Digitizing the Stage
Thanks y'all. Please share things and pressure your colleagues to subscribe. Or don't, and this newsletter can just be our secret. That's cool too.
Cheers
Chris Unitt
@chrisunitt
When not writing emails like this, I run a digital analytics and user research consultancy called One Further, working with some truly excellent cultural organisations.