Cultural Digital newsletter #118
Cultural Digital
Hello
This week there's the Museums and the Web conference, accessibility, European collaborations, and some other things too. Including this nightmare fuel…
The Smithsonian are experimenting with Pepper, a robot that can "answer frequently asked questions, tell stories, and collect limited information, as well as dance, play games, and pose for selfies". Many of the replies to this tweet express my feelings on the matter.
It was Museums and the Web in Vancouver the other week. Here are a few round-ups:
Kajsa Hartig - Some quick notes from #MW18
Kate Myers Emery - My Top Takeaways from Museums and the Web 2018
Jessica Taylor from Preloaded - Takeaways from Museums and the Web #MW18
Here are the papers for MW18, these are the GLAMi Finalists (and winners), and here's a playlist of the lightning talks.
Accessibility
Building an accessible online collection for Sarjeant Gallery
In this post I’ll cover the ways in which we’ve thought about the accessibility of the site. Specifically, what we did put in place to make the site accessible to the most people on the widest range of devices.
Design O’ the Times "I have taken a newly-created Digital Accessibility & UX Specialist position within the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh". Not a job title I'd come across in this sector before.
European collaborations
Call for participation in first European Dansathon! This is a three-city event for "dancers, technologists, designers, creatives and makers to imagine the future of dance". It's also 'playful' because isn't everything these days. Maison de la Danse Lyon are leading, with Sadler’s Wells and Théâtre de Liège also taking part.
Operavision was new to me. It's supported by the European Union's Creative Europe programme and features performances and editorial. A word of warning - the 4th image in the main carousel might not be safe for your particular workplace (depending on where you work).
Other things
Knight Foundation Grants $970,000 to Eight US Museums "for the hiring of tech-savvy staff to enhance the museum going experience".
Ben Cooper: Reinventing Radio for the Alexa Age. "Radio, therefore has a huge opportunity with new platforms and technology. Radio 1 has excelled at doing this over the last 6 years, becoming the biggest radio station in the world on YouTube. Our channel has had over a billion views and now gets over 10 million views a week. I hope we can take what we have learnt and have the same success with voice protocol".
Data Digest: Jazz Visitors | Guitar Chords | Top Albums. Some musical data from data.world.
RA News: Artists pull out of Belgrade festival Resonate over alleged payment issues. "A number of artists have cancelled gigs at Belgrade's Resonate Festival this week after hearing of previous years' payment issues".
Meet the Literary Design Studio Bringing Classic Literature to New Technology. A chat with Plympton's founders about "crowdsourcing creatives, whether they fear (or are causing) the death of print, and how they’re bringing classic literature to the brink of new technology".
Jobs
There are digital-related jobs available at Art UK, Tate, British Library, Kew Gardens, Underbelly, RAF Museum, Philharmonia Orchestra, National Museums Scotland, the Natural History Museum, and more.
With that I shall humbly approach the front of the stage, bow deeply, catch the bouquet of flowers thrown my way, and exit stage left. Until next week.
Chris Unitt
The Library is a treasure trove of arts/digital info. The latest update includes info on loads of Aus and NZ websites (who built them and which CMS they use). Find out more about The Library.