#185 - Hard graft
Hello
This week we have quite a varied assortment. There's some digital performance, some webinar recordings, and some stuff about in-gallery touchscreens.
Also, I'm doing a free training session on search engine optimisation for cultural website managers/editors at 1.30pm today. Late notice, but do join us if that's of interest. Sign up to Coach for access (the free plan will get you in).
I was pretty impressed that they managed to 3D scan the whole of Edinburgh Castle. Although when they say it "gives the chance to explore hidden parts of the castle", that's true to the extent that I've spent a fair amount of time accidentally looking at it from bizarre angles when trying to rotate and zoom.
Still, it's very striking. As is the graffiti-covered Robert E. Lee Monument on Sketchfab, captured in 3D from 15 June 2020.
Touchscreen thoughts
Is this the end of touchscreens in museums? The use of touchless gesture-based controls. Bethan Ross at the Science Museum Group offers "six lessons and questions to ask yourself before diving into the world of touchless gesture control".
Is this the end of touch? How will museum exhibits have to change going forward? More on this from Inpixelated.
Webinar recordings
There have been so many webinars recently. Some have made recordings available, so here are a few good ones:
Think Inside the Square is a series from the Australia Council for the Arts covering lots of topics
Ticketing Professional Conference, including me getting a little bit technical about web analytics data and ticketing
London Museum Development also have a YouTube channel covering social media, online collaboration, and more
Digital performance
Punchdrunk and Niantic have some news. They're working together "to develop the next generation of live experience".
Theatre 2021: Javaad Alipoor on… digital theatre. "To build an audience for a digital work takes the same care that it does for work in a physical theatre. It can be a hard graft to build it – but through digital, it’s possible to reach the world".
Perspective: Meshing technology and dance with Moving Layers. "Digital artist, Rob Eagle, shares his experience of working on National Dance Company Wales' R&D in dance project, Moving Layers".
RE:Surface Live Music – Introduction to Blueprint. A pretty good series of short vids from Microsoft showing how they applied a bit of tech and creativity to a (home-based) live show.
CultureCase - The reasons musicians favour free streaming services "This paper uses survey data from 1100 French professional musicians to draw out four main reasons why they favour free streaming".
Miscellaneous
A closure and a… relocation? Zurich's Museum of Digital Art is closing down, while Los Angeles' A+D Museum is "thrilled to announce an organizational restructure that reprioritizes our audience and impact through exploratory programming through digital platforms and short-term community-driven physical exhibitions and events".
Arts Council of Ireland welcomes report from Covid-19 Expert Advisory Group Includes committing to (among other things, "working with the arts sector to address challenges of digital dissemination".
IIIF Week 2020 - Museums Showcase. "Learn about how museums are using IIIF to further education, provide access to their collections and be relevant amongst pop culture. Participating institutions: The Getty, National Museum of Scotland, and Digirati".
Deep Discoveries: A new way of exploring and connecting digitised image collections. From the National Archives "The Deep Discoveries project will explore new machine learning methods to create a computer vision search platform that can identify and match images across digitised collections on a national scale".
Introducing the CC Global Network Platforms! - Creative Commons "the Open GLAM Platform is currently working to provide a space to share resources, enhance collaboration, and raise awareness on open access to digital cultural heritage, working with GLAM professionals and open advocates".
Coach is my new thing. It's all about digital skills and knowledge for cultural professionals. There are several free sessions in July.
Sign up for the FREE plan, or grab an earlybird discount on the PRO plan.
More info about Coach here.
Digital Jobs
National Museums Scotland are looking for a Digital Media Content Producer. There's not a lot else right now.
Thanks for reading and please forward this on to anyone you think might find it interesting.
Chris Unitt