Cultural Digital newsletter #98 with Sam Scott Wood
Cultural Digital
Hello
This week I've handed the Cultural Digital keys to Sam Scott Wood. Sam is a digital & marketing consultant specialising in all things arts & culture and you can find her on Twitter @samscottwood.
So, with no further ado, here's Sam…
Kicking off with news that Facebook are planning to move all non-promoted posts out of the news feed. It’s hardly surprising, but would still be a blow to lots of organisations. But then again, maybe they’re not.
…although there’s probably not much more to lose in terms of organic reach on Facebook, as this piece from The Drum on how many people actually see your digital content shows. Spoiler: email kills Facebook, but Snapchat is where it’s at (if you’re not doing SMS, which still feels a bit icky to me).
The RSC’s study measuring whether audiences respond differently to a live, cinema or virtual experience found that physical responses are pretty similar to all three. What’s more interesting is people’s perceptions (gathered through post-show feedback) of the different formats.
You probably already saw news of the National Theatre’s use of augmented reality for hearing impaired audiences, which was widely covered a few weeks ago. It’s being trialled now for David Eldridge’s Beginning. I’m looking forward to hearing feedback from anyone who’s used the service.
I love reading about what Shelley Bernstein has been working on, and this piece on using machine learning to tag the collection at the Barnes Foundation is no exception. “In an instant, you can see a concept being applied across the collection. This gets you thinking and making connections; it’s this magic that we want to keep.”
Adding to an already impressive range of online resources, Europeana’s new Impact Playbook for standardised impact measurement could be an incredible resource for the heritage sector.
The British Council have released Mix the Body, created with Company Wayne McGregor, which allows you to create your own contemporary dance piece, just like Wayne (apparently).
At the Institute of Directors Digital Summit, UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham gave a good summary of why we need GDPR and *almost* managed to make it sound interesting.
As one door closes, another door opens…
This is a nice eulogy to Xbox Kinect and its importance to artists, written somewhat oddly by the art director of Nine Inch Nails. While news about Alexa playing the ‘host’ of a new board game got me thinking about the potential of ‘voice augmented’ applications in the arts.
Jobs
There are very likely to be some digital-related jobs listed here, but this is being written ahead of time, so I'm not sure exactly what.
Thanks Sam! Please give her a hearty round of applause (@samscottwood on Twitter) for looking after things this week.
I'll be back again next week. If I can remember how it works.
Chris Unitt
The Library is a treasure trove of arts/digital info and it launches very (very) soon. There's still time to take advantage of a hefty pre-launch discount.
Find out more about The Library.