Cultural Digital newsletter #114
Cultural Digital
Hello
This week there's government policy - wait! Don't run away. There's also social media, The Sims, and different ways to transform images. The British Museum features heavily too.
Hold the World was commissioned by Sky VR Studio. It's a guided tour of the Natural History Museum's collection highlights with a 3D version of Sir David Attenborough. You'll need a VR headset to use it. If you've not got one, I've also just discovered the Sky VR iOS app has 360 video features with English National Ballet and Jonathan Yeo (among others).
The UK government released the Culture is Digital report. Some people made fun of the VR highlights (me included, I'm only human) but it uses a platform with a free tier and was probably quick to put together. There's a handy HTML version too, but where's the fun in talking about that?
Similarly, the headlines from the launch event seemed (I was following on Twitter) to focus on flashy tech futures. But the good stuff in the report (IMHO) is grounded in improving skills, getting digital know-how onto boards, and improving guidance around intellectual property.
There are policy commitments around:
Audiences - using digital technology and tools to drive audience engagement
Skills and the digital capability of cultural organisations
Future Strategy: Unleashing the creative potential of technology
Le « Pass culture » lancé dans quatre départements en septembre. France's Ministry of Culture is launching an app loaded with 500 Euros worth of credit for under 18s to spend on tickets to shows and other cultural offerings.
How a World-Class Museum Inspires Millions of Followers on Social Media. A podcast in which Kate Carter, the British Museum’s senior digital marketing manager, is very patient with a couple of people from Hootsuite whose opening line is "When you think of a museum you don't immediately think of social and being really active in that space, so…".
Speaking of the BM, I hadn't previously noticed that they worked with Oculus on a virtual tour. Also, this piece from Eurogamer checking the correctness of the logo for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 with their duty curators has a puppyish enthusiasm to it.
Sticky tape and string: Learning faster from Tripadvisor reviews. Greg Turner at ACMI saw the British Museum's work analysing their Tripadvisor reviews and had a play. "I decided to see how far I could get with a bit of computational sticky tape and string, in the form of a Python script to scrape our TripAdvisor reviews, and the simplest thing that could possibly work to visualise it".
The Royal Shakespeare Company announced a partnership with Magic Leap to "look at how spatial computing can change the way audiences experience theatre".
Volume is "a tool for reconstructing a single 2D image or video in 3D space", while Melodist is a "magic music app" that can turn each of your photos into unique melodies.
The Sims 4 -Speed Build - Waddesdon Manor. I did not know this was a thing. Cool.
Sheldon Country from James Ryan is "a generative podcast about life in a simulated American county that inhabits your phone".
Jobs
There are digital-related jobs available at Cog Design and National Museums Scotland.
Thanks and well done for making it to the end. As ever, share the good stuff, and forget you ever saw the boring bits. Until next week…
Chris Unitt
The Library is a treasure trove of arts/digital info. Find out more about The Library.