Cultural Digital #004
Cultural Digital
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Hello
Firstly, subscribe here if someone's forwarded this email to you. Please and thank you. Secondly, thanks to all who completed the quick survey last week. That was really useful, thanks.
Now, here's an exciting development. This week there are some guest links, so I'll just hand things over…
Guest links
This week's recommended reading comes from Ash Mann who is Digital Manager at Directors UK (previously Digital Manager at Opera North amongst other things).
After The Spike and After The Like (Notes on emerging patterns of digital attention)
I really like this piece from Matt Locke (he's on Twitter, you should follow him - @matlock), it's from 2013 but is still (in my view) very relevant.
"the last 50-60 years have been a blip - a time in which the relationship between storytellers and audiences was effectively broken. We’re coming to the end of that blip now, and we’re seeing a transition as interesting and profound as the beginning of the 20th century, when storytelling moved from the live performance circuits of music hall and variety to the new mass mediums of cinema and broadcasting."
Introducing Digital Triage
This post from Paul Boag (again, worth following on the Twitters @boagworld) struck a chord with me. As a digital manager within an arts organisation you are part (or the entirety) of a very stretched resource. It is often difficult to be able to deal with the deluge of requests/demands/ideas that are shoved your way. This post provides some suggestions with how to deal with that effectively in a way that I think should be (relatively) quick and easy for people to adopt. It's basically common sense, but sometimes things like that aren't immediately obvious when you're fire-fighting all the time.
Case study: National Theatre Live
I realise that this is from 2011 but it refers to the Judge Business School case study, “The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproduction: The National Theatre Goes to the Movies†which remains the only (as far as I am aware) authoritative study into the costs/reach/impact of these live streaming initiatives that so many of the big NPOs have pursued over the last few years. I would strongly recommend that if your organisation is considering anything around broadcast into cinema then you read the actual study itself (for which you have to pay), although some of the figures around costs are probably a bit out-of-date now I think the broader findings are still really useful.
Oil tankers, learning, issues and NPOs
This is something that I wrote on leaving Opera North a couple of years ago. Having just reread it I think a lot of my observations about the problems the arts sector faces around "digital" are still relevant, although admittedly I haven't been "within" the sector for the past couple of years so everything may now be fixed…
You can follow me on Twitter @biglittlethings and find out more about me/read my inarticulate rambling at www.ashmann.uk.
Chris's links
Some excellent stuff there. Here are a few more things you might like…
Yume
An interactive music journey created by Luke Twyman aka Whitevinyl (check his portfolio) to promote a new album by Helios. Headphones recommended.
Data-scientists-in-residence
Looks like some good stuff came out of putting data scientists in the Barbican, National Theatre and ENO. Wondering if any of those orgs would now invest in the same kinds of people/tool development now the funding's ended.
The New SFMOMA.org
"Throughout this process, I’ve often been asked, “What museum sites did you look at for inspiration?†The answer: not many".
Top 5 lessons from a website redesign | Digital Goldsmiths
Some wise words here.
Libby Penn: Your theatre's website needs work
The Spektrix MD lays the smack down on shoddy theatre websites. Doesn't name names though, which is a shame.
How people really react when judged – as shown by game data
From Andrew Lewis at the V&A: "This post shows what we found when we set up data capture to tell us exactly what people did when this happened to them, in the fabulous game The Definery."
The making of Black Tonic: Where technology meets a theatre adventure in a hotel
Write-up of a Lunchtime Talk at Bristol's Pervasive Media Studio.
The Lovie Awards - 2015 Winners Gallery
Gaze upon the best new Arts websites (that bothered to enter the awards and pay the entrance fee) of the past year. Check some of the other categories too - artsy types were awarded in other categories too.
Virtual Stories
I missed this, but the London Film Festival presented a bunch of VR projects, so here's an idea of who's up to what in that area. National Theatre, Chris Milk, David Attenborough, and Jurassic World among the names you'll recognise (not in the same project though - imagine that).
Events
23 Oct - 1 Nov, Lincoln, Frequency Festival
6 Nov, Birmingham, Many & Varied
20 Nov, London, Creating Digital Change
23 Nov, London, Unboxing the Archive: How Tate is transforming access to our artistic heritage
23 Nov, Leeds, Beyond the Hashtag: Social History taking on the Social Network
Jobs
Provided by Artful Jobs
Digital Manager, V&A Dundee
Digital Marketing Officer, Welsh National Opera
Digital Marketing & Box Office Coordinator, Pavilion Dance South West
Digital Information Assistant, Sadler's Wells
As always, please pass this on to others if you found it useful.
Chris Unitt
@chrisunitt | chrisunitt.co.uk
When not sending newsletters like this, I work with cultural organisations on projects that involve digital strategy, content and analytics. Visit One Further if you're at all interested in that.