Cultural Digital newsletter #105
Cultural Digital
Hello
Welcome to 2018! I hope you did something enjoyable over the past couple of weeks.
For the first proper CD newsletter of the year we've got future-gazing, virtual museums, digital collections, and a few things from the BBC. In fact, here's one now…
Ever felt like recreating the sounds of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop? Well now you can, with "4 demos of Radiophonic equipment, built with the Web Audio API standard" .
Digital Is More Than a Department, It Is a Collective Responsibility. From Loic Tallon at The Met. "As the digital demands of both external users and internal colleagues continue to grow, digital departments are trapped in an institutional tension: should institutions scale their departments to meet that ever-growing need, or should digital responsibilities be cultivated and distributed across the organization?"
Thinking Outside the Boxset: How Technology Changed the Story. A short BBC Radio 4 series on "how the stories being told on television in the digital age have adapted to the advent of streaming services, binge-watching and catch-up TV". Also includes a chat with Kwame Kwei-Armah about livestreaming theatre.
2017 in Interactive Fiction. Emily Short's round-up of the year in interactive storytelling.
Looking forward
Five visions for the future of music. Well, four plus some people who'd just like things to stay as they are. Does it count as a vision if it's currently the norm?
Our 2018 Culture Predictions from leaders at HTC Vive, Barbican, Spotify & more. AI, AR/VR and blockchain. There, I saved you a click.
The #FutureMuseum Project: What will museums be like in the future? Museum-iD asked museum professionals from around the world to share their ideas about the future of museums. I'll be honest, I gave up after the first few. There's got to be a better digital format for this sort of thing than a massive long wall of text. Also, a warning: someone's used the work 'phygital'.
Virtual museums
This Trump Presidential Twitter Library Virtual Tour from The Daily Show is actually kinda impressive.
UK’s first permanent Virtual Reality space in an arts institution to open in London. "London’s Zabludowicz Collection will focus its programme—called 360—on film, video and VR next year and will open a dedicated room for artists to explore the developing medium".
Digital collections
Q&A with Trevor Owens. He's the Head of Digital Content Management Library of Congress.
A Deep Dive into The Met’s Collection Information Digital Work System. And interview with Jennie Choi, Manager of Collection Information at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Natural History Museum is going high tech to save its archive. "The Natural History Museum has set itself the mammoth task of digitising all of its specimens".
Surveying the state of site search. Love this. The V&A are looking at adding a search function to their site, so they've looked at how others have tackled this and published what they found. Because why not? It might be helpful to someone.
ReACH is a "global research programme exploring the digital reproduction of cultural heritage". This is from the V&A too (with others). For some context, here's why it’s time to talk seriously about digital reproductions. "The declaration retains the spirit of Cole’s original: at its heart lies the same conviction that ‘works of art and cultural heritage should be preserved and shared as widely as possible throughout the world.’"
Jobs
There are digital-related jobs available at the National Trust, Royal Academy of Arts, Manchester International Festival, Trinity Laban, and Royal Museums Greenwich.
Thanks for reading. Please pass this on to others if you think that'd be a good thing to do and I'll be back with more next week.
Chris Unitt
The Library is a treasure trove of arts/digital info. It even includes a spreadsheet with every link from this newsletter (for easier searching). Find out more about The Library.