Cultural Digital newsletter #94
Cultural Digital
Hello
If you're interested in data visualisation, content strategy, website spend, VR, and vandalising digital artworks, then this is the place for you.
Bear Abouts is a multi-sensory storytelling platform that uses physical things (models, kaleidoscopes, and so on) with screens.
Machine Visions. Yannick Assogba has been using neural networks and such to explore visual motifs in Wes Anderson films. This is really pretty. And informative.
Cultural organisations: how much should you spend on your website? Specifically maintenance, not rebuilds. The poll asked for hypothetical annual spend as a % of revenue (which isn't perfect, but then what is?). The numbers came in rather higher than I'd have expected, although if respondents were factoring in staff time, commissioned content (words, pictures, videos), and other sundry costs it's maybe not so far off.
Museum for the United Nations - Content Strategy. There are lots of good bits in here. I liked the thinking around 'Connect with audiences at eye level' and 'Connect thin/symbolic participation with deep/impactful engagement'.
Facebook have announced Venues for Oculus, their VR thing. The audience members look like they've come over from a Nintendo Wii game, but I wouldn't write this off just on that basis.
The Digital Museum: A Conversation between Loic Tallon and Julia Kaganskiy.
The BFI are recruiting a New Forms programmer (PDF) to "develop a series of programmes and events that address and explore the culture that exists in the spaces between moving image, creative technologies, music, gaming, theatre, fashion and social and artistic thought leadership". Job descriptions are always so interesting.
BFI Filmography. Speaking of the BFI, this is "a complete history of UK feature film, explorable and shareable".
PLAYTIME. A microsite to accompany an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum. They've gone quite big on the supporting digital content for this one. Although have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the general concept of exhibition-specific microsites?
REVEAL online 2018 submissions open. Octagon Theatre are "looking for inventive pieces of work that present, explore and respond to new technologies and a variety of media".
MCG's 2017 Survey: challenges and opportunities in museum/heritage technology. Do fill this out if you work in that kind of area.
Someone digitally 'vandalised' the Snapchat x Jeff Koons thing.
Jobs
There are digital-related jobs available at the Royal Opera House, National Theatre, National Trust, Natural History Museum, and Marlowe Theatre.
Please share things with think it's worth it, and thanks as ever for reading.
Until next week.
Chris Unitt
PS. Last week I mentioned culturaldigital.com and a few of you spotted The Library, which I'm launching soon. There are still a few cheap slots remaining if you fancy being an earlybird.
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.