The Foundations of Media, Arts, and Museums
- [Picking Wildflowers - Leopold Franz Kowalski]
Digital Meets Culture
"Technology alone is not enough - it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities that yields us the result that makes our heart sing." --Steve Jobs
- Overview
The intersection of digital technology and culture is shaping a future where digital tools are increasingly used to preserve, access, and enhance cultural experiences, while also influencing how cultural identities are formed and expressed. This includes advancements in digital preservation, immersive experiences, and the use of digital media to explore and understand diverse cultures.
1. Digital Preservation and Access:
- Digital technology is being used to preserve and digitize cultural heritage, making it accessible to a wider audience.
- Digital Heritage International Congress is an example of a global event focused on digital technology for cultural heritage.
- The European Commission is developing a common data space for cultural heritage to accelerate digital transformation in this area.
2. Immersive Experiences:
- Immersive technologies like VR and AR are being used to create more engaging and interactive museum experiences.
- These technologies can allow users to explore historical sites and artifacts in a more realistic and immersive way.
3. Digital Media and Cultural Identity:
- Digital media plays a significant role in shaping cultural identities, influencing how people express themselves and interact with others.
- Online communities, social media, and digital art platforms are all contributing to the formation of cultural identities.
- However, this also raises questions about the impact of digital media on traditional cultural practices and values.
4. Challenges and Opportunities:
- One challenge is ensuring the authenticity and ethical implications of digital preservation and representation.
- Another is bridging the digital divide and ensuring that everyone has access to digital cultural resources.
- Despite these challenges, the future of digital-meets-culture is filled with opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and the preservation of cultural heritage.
- Digital museums offer virtual tours and exhibits that can be accessed from anywhere.
- Digital archives and databases are providing researchers and students with access to a wealth of information.
- Digital art and creative platforms are allowing artists to explore new forms of expression and engage with wider audiences.
- The Cultural Industry
The cultural industry is a sector of the global economy that includes the production and commercialization of creative content. It includes industries such as: music, literature, film, video, television, radio, video games, and publishing.
The cultural industry is a significant part of the global economy, generating more than $2.25 trillion in revenue annually and employing nearly 30 million people worldwide (2024).
The term "cultural industry" originated from the work of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, who believed that mass media had a negative impact on society. They argued that media presents an idealized world that aims to entertain and manipulate people.
The cultural industry is different from the creative industry, which includes design, architecture, and advertising. The cultural industry is more concerned with delivering cultural and social wealth, rather than monetary value.
- Digital Creative Arts
Digital creative arts are works of art or practice that use digital technology as part of the creative or display process. Various names have been used to describe this process since the 1960s, including computer art and multimedia art. Digital art itself is placed under the larger generic term new media art.
The influence of digital technology has transformed activities such as painting, literature, drawing, sculpture, and music/sound art, and new forms of web art, digital installation art, and virtual reality have become accepted artistic practices. More generally, the term digital artist is used to describe an artist who uses digital technology in the creation of art. Broadly speaking, "digital creative art" is contemporary art that uses methods of mass production or digital media.
Digital art techniques are widely used by mainstream media in advertising and by filmmakers for visual effects. Desktop publishing has had a huge impact on the publishing world, even though it is more related to graphic design.
Both digital and traditional artists use many sources of electronic information and programs to create their work. Given the similarities between the visual arts and the musical arts, the general acceptance of the value of digital visual arts may be about the same as the increase in acceptance of electronically produced music over the past three decades.
- [Top Gun: Maverick]
- Digital, Global and Local Culture
Digital heritage consists of computer-based material with lasting value that should be preserved for future generations. Digital heritage comes from different communities, industries, sectors and regions. Not all digital material has lasting value, but if the continuity of digital heritage is to be maintained, an active approach to preservation is required.
Digital heritage is likely to become more important and broader over time. More and more individuals, organizations and communities are using digital technology to record and express their values and what they want to pass on to future generations. New forms of expression and communication emerged that did not exist before. The Internet is an important example of this phenomenon.
The development of Internet tools to support greater use of multiple languages and scripts is also likely to lead to further rapid growth of digital heritage in parts of the world that are currently disadvantaged by the predominant use of English on the Internet.
Therefore, ensuring that this emerging digital heritage remains available is a global issue of relevance to all countries and communities.
- Future Digital Cultural Heritage
Digital technologies are becoming a standard tool for the collection, preservation and dissemination of art and cultural heritage around the world. From the 3D configuration of ancient artifacts to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to reveal how we view human ancestry, cultural heritage is heading towards a digital future.
Only 15% of the world's cultural heritage is currently available in digital format. No matter how well protected and preserved, the vast majority of ancient cultural relics and sites are naturally susceptible to corrosion due to age.
In addition, there have been unexpected natural and man-made catastrophic events, such as the recent fires that engulfed the 200-year-old National Museum of Brazil and its collections and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Notre-Dame de Paris, France.
Once a heritage site is lost, damaged or destroyed, the restoration process can be slow, if at all possible.
- Future Museums
Over the past two decades, technology has become one of the most important aspects of modern society. From our perspective today, it is nearly impossible to imagine life without digital devices, the Internet, or computing tools. From business leisure to communication and information, our reliance on technology permeates nearly every aspect of our daily lives, changing the way we see and interact with the world.
Museums around the world need to keep up with the times. What's the next big thing? Which technologies and solutions are worth investing in? How does innovation in the field of museums land?
Technology and museum experience. Institutions around the world are using technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to make history more real inside and outside of museum spaces. This virtual reality experience is enabled by the museum's collaboration with four leading digital platforms: Patron 2.0, Feel, 3intech and Krill Audio.
Take people to the museum. In the United States, gallery spaces receive 850 million visitors a year, more than most sports venues. Technology can act as a useful conversation starter and marketing tool. Sometimes, a compelling gimmick is needed to encourage people to experience the depth the museum offers.
[More to come ...]
