Project Tag: digital

Two producers in a booth sit with multiple computer screens in front of them on a desk. On a green screen stage in front of them are 5 performers. 2 are standing, one is in a wheelchair and another two appear to be listening as they sit on the ground.

How is art/ tech work reaching the public?

Collusion asked Flow Associates to undertake research into the current context of practice, commissioning and accessing art/tech works, and make this short report available for others to use. Flow spoke with venues, commissioners and artists to get a sense of the state of play and where and how R&D support is working or throwing up barriers for a thriving area of practice.

Read the report here

What do we mean by art/tech? Artwork, any artform, where technology is used in a practice led way to create experiences for the public. We are interested in physical work that the public needs to engage with in a particular location. We are excluding purely digital work that is experienced on the internet only. Artworks in this field can take a wide variety of forms, lengths and locations: from traditional venues to outdoor works and festivals, 10 minutes to an hour or more, using technology subtly or more substantially.

The pipeline for making practice-led art/tech work is broken, if indeed it ever existed. Alongside access to a range of expertise and resources, the cost of living crisis and subsequent hypercompetition for funding has led us to a situation where creativity, innovation and production is stifled by the lack of access to funding, whether application led or venue commissioned.

Further, where traditional commissioning is taking place for art/tech work, the ‘deliver this as a finished piece by X’ is failing to account for the iterative nature of art/tech work that requires more R&D and audience testing over a longer period of time to reach a truly finished state. As an emerging sector, when compared with a traditional sector such as dance or visual arts, there also appears not to be a strong shared understanding of who the key players and networks are in this field, with an apparent lack of connection and collaboration.

Scarborough Museums Trust: Digital Learning Review

We carried out a review of Scarborough Museum Trust’s capacity to develop a digital learning programme to extend their reach, open access to their collections, support cross-department collaboration on digital projects and create programmes that are relevant and inspiring for their audiences and local communities.

The review was framed by extensive consultation with local Primary and Secondary schools as well as colleges and SEND academies. An online survey was distributed and interviews with teachers about how SMT could support the delivery of their curriculum informed a series of recommendations to support the development of online content. A full audit of digital content and resources was carried out, identifying where existing materials could be reused and support was given to the Learning team in testing new digital platforms and modes of engagement.

We provided consultancy in advising on the brief for the redesign of the website in technical and usability requirements and led a presentation and workshop session to embed the insights into their future thinking.