Cultural Digital #201
Digital theatre, podcasts, and awards.
Hello again
It doesn’t seem all that long since the last one of these. There’s a mix of old and new stuff below, all nicely grouped together. So let’s dive in.
Have you ever wanted to make your own Bayeux Tapestry? Well, if you change your mind then you can use this Historic Tale Construction Kit.
Apparently, the original version was made by a couple of German students in Flash and, since that doesn’t work anymore, a few people got together to recreate it.
Digital theatre
What now for the future of digital theatre in a post-lockdown world? A long read from The Stage featuring contributions from the RSC, NT, Chinese Arts Now, and Adam Lenson.
The Jury Is In on Virtual Theatre. From American Theatre: "Most theatres found that COVID-era digital offerings have lost money, a new survey shows, though some continue to value the access and experimentation".
Digital pivot reverses as theatres struggle to monetise online shows. ""It's not a philosophical objection; it's practical," study author Dr Richard Misek says. "The funding structure is very fragmented right now. There's no long term funding for digital projects and there's no clear route to monetising yet."
Podcasts
COBOs & Cocktails. If ticketing and box office matters are your thing, Hatti Simpson has a new podcast just for you.
Reflecting Value: The digital (r)evolution? The podcast from the Centre for Cultural Value with a digital-themed show to kick off their second season. Featuring the Royal Opera House on TikTok, museums’ hyper-local digital activity, and African digital heritage.
Numart is a podcast 'sur la transformation digitale de l'art' featuring interviews with people from the Grand Palais and Château de Versailles among others.
Awards
The GLAMi Awards 2021 dished out prizes to various museums and galleries last year.
The Digital Culture Awards from Arts Council England announced their winners back in January.
Lovie Awards went to various cultural organisations in various categories, including the art and cultural institutions ones. Zendesk’s Museum of Annoying Experiences won an award too.
Miscellaneous
I wrote a thing about what the looming shutdown of Google Analytics 3 (and switch to GA4) means for cultural organisations. The deadline for the switchover is a little aggressive (Want to come to a webinar/Q&A about this on 29 March? Sign up here.)
Stories and the Covid-19 pandemic. Kate Wilkinson does an interesting deep dive into how articles were commissioned for Wellcome Collection’s Stories platform.
Uses This / Lucie Paterson. I’ve followed this series of interviews with various makers talking about the tools of their trade for ages. Then last week up popped Lucie Paterson, ACMI’s Head of Experience, Product & Digital.
Into the ether: How a German museum accidentally lost access to two highly valuable NFTs. Ha! Ahem.
One last thing: if you ‘do’ digital content for a cultural organisation (website, social media, etc) then please take a few minutes to fill out the 2022 Cultural Content Survey. Good things will happen if you do.
See you next time.