Roundtable: Digitizing culture April

Roundtable:

Digitizing culture

April 26 2013

Participants

Andreas Lundberg, Skanska Tim Sheratt, University of Canberra

Maarten Brinkerink, Netherlands institute for sound & vision Göran Nyström, Landskrona stad kultur

Karolina Rosenkvist, MEDEA Henrik Berven, Achangement

Noemi Causse, Creative Capital Conference Berlin Christin Persson, Media Evolution

William Davis, Media Evolution

Anna Lyrevik, Malmö stad kulturstrategi Johanna Sjögren Duthy, Form/Design Center

Anna J Ljungmark, SWIM

Paul Gardner, Manymade & Duffy Agency Katharine Simpson, Doc Lounge Network

1. What is it we digitize and why?

What kind of content can or should be made

available through digital platforms?

2. Who digitizes culture and how?

Does the combination of cultural content and digital

formats demand new competences, structures and/

or partnerships?

3. How can we digitize culture?

What needs to be done, at policy and operational

level? What should the support structures or

initiatives look like?

1. What and Why? Democracy, accessability, goals, stakeholders,

brokers/door opener-how to find content, piracy-demands,

technology as a tool for emotion/telling di

ff

erent stories,try out

what we can do w the technique, creating values, the digital

solutions are because of our needs, making meaning, feedback loop

back to the culture producers, co-creation, ...

2. Who? New processes, innovative product development, develop

new skills, navigators needed, concepts evolve, enable each other,

build up knowledge whats possible by doing, play/explore,

audience, businesses, mind shift of the creators/producers, frames

for co-creation, quality expectations, the filtering role is

changing, ...

3. How? Fund for digital strategy, developer in residence shared by

di

ff

erent culture forms (internships?), integrative role -part of

concept evolving, use public spaces also in buildings, collaborative

arenas including business side, form network of doers

experimenting sharing knowledge on a subject, look at what we do

and who should be included, focus areas supported by region/

municipality, artist in residence at companies, framework, ...

”We need to get beyond thinking of

technology as technology. We should use

technical solutions to create a more

emotional world. Get in contact with our

emotions, and the most important thing is

to tell a lot of stories, and make space for

small stories within larger stories.”

- Gitte Wille

”The technologies are there because we needed them. It's basically about us humans communicating. That is what culture is all about” - Anna Ljungmark

”We tend to get caught up with the new world when it fact they are old needs. Making meaning. We need to make sure to create the spaces online where this can happen. Spaces for emotion online.” - Tim Sheratt

”Thinking on the why we shouldn't

digitize, just because we can... We're not

only making meaning, we're breaking

meaning, destroying values and creating

new ones. Of course there are ethical and

responsibility-issues to be considered”.

- Anna Lyrevik

”Today a lot of digital projects are re-enforcing the

existing canon rather than providing new opportunities. We have to keep these questions in mind as we set the agenda. Be transparent and open when we select what content we digitise. The power aspect. The what is also the question of what is digitisation? Is it creating digital

images, digitising metadata, enriching metadata through computational means? It's important that we address the metadata as well as ’creating nicer versions of things’-issues.” - Tim Sheratt

What & Why?

”A key question is the goal. Ideally the goal and the vision are in the same

direction. Personally – that's not always the case. In my own project – the reason we got funding for digitisation was for digital preservation – not access or re­ use. It was based on the argument that the material was decaying and would disappear if we didn't digitise it. This was very well known, canonical material – nationally identifiable and popular. There is never enough funding to digitise everything”. - Maarten Brinkerink

”Digital culture gives us completely new possibilities to work with culture in a public space. Be more interactive, be more

accessible and curate it in new ways and so on. I see very big potentials in creating public spaces in new ways where culture is really more accessible and easy to find.”

- Andreas Lundberg

”For me as an artist... thinking about paintings and digitising or uploading an image online, you remove the richness of the experience. When you just give it away to everyone for free, they can just see it. They don't have to fall in love with it or buy it. Digitising art and artefacts makes them

more accessible. But are you the same person experiencing it on social media as in the

gallery?” - Paul Gardner ”I come from the film world with films that

are digitised through piracy. The films that are digitised that way are the films that there is a public demand for. That's also the films that people already know about. There is so much opportunity for digitisation of independent produces. These films aren't actually available

through torrent­sites which reach a lot of people. It's been really interesting to

watch independent filmproducers look to the piracy ecology and learn from that. Releasing it for free and looking at others models for funding.

- Katharine Simpson

”I work with three symphonic

orchestras. The reason for it being online is to get the stories out and create alternative stories to get emotional feedback from a different audience. It creates a different

feedback loop and then you could go into co-creation. It's the shift into learning from each other”

- Karolina Rosenkvist

”It’s a completely different way of thinking of products. We’re used to think in an industrial way, where we know how the process will look like and what product it will lead to. This is a completely new way of working, by working and testing and working and testing, but not knowing what the product will be like. We’re not used to things that are that uncertain. So I think we need to develop new skills.” - Gitte Wille

”Brokers and matchmakers are needed in the system, people that can navigate within the system and connect the different ways of working.” - Henrik Berven

Who?

”We need to test and test and test. When creating stories, and taking part of other creative contents, suddenly a concept evolves. And the creatives are not used to taking care of those cross­ cultural concepts. So we need

structures to support this.” - Anna Ljungmark

”Giving people enough knowledge so

they can go around and poke away,

building the knowledge on what’s

possible. Building possibilities for

people to play around. Give time to

explore what’s possible

­

people

always tend to come back with great

ideas. So if that’s something we can

build in to the structures I think that’s

worth exploring”. - Tim Sheratt

Who?

”We have to think about languages.

People working with culture don’t

necessarily understand a developer. In a

digitization project I worked on the

librarians asked the developers ’what can

you do’? The developers asked ’what do

you want us to do’? They never met until

the librarians saw what they really could

do and create together”. - Annelie

Börjesson

”We get focused on technology but it’s a

way of thinking. It’s about an identity

shift. It’s about who you are and how you

collaborate with others. It’s about how we

do it

­

we need to be aware this has to

happen within the creators”.

- Anna Ljungmark

”It’s also about enabling everyone to create digital culture. We have all these stories documented

digitally. What if you put up a theatre play and ask others to help you put it up on digital platforms. We all have these tools to create digital culture everyday, so it’s about enabling each other of doing it.” -

Christin Persson

”

Having the audience to share their

stories. Open up and decide the

framework for people to collaborate in.

We can learn from our audiences. Have

the courage to test it out and see how it

works out.” - Karolina Rosenkvist

”By experience of working with co­creation. It’s a high bar for people when we have quality

expectations. Also, people need or want to be paid when investing their time. And that it’s easier to get things when you give the frame.” - Katharine Simpson

We’re used to acting as either

users or cultural gatekeepers

­

but the roles are changing and

shifting. We’re letting go of

control.” - William Davis

”Letting go of quality is scary. Or to think of quality in a different way.” - Johanna Sjögren Duthy

”We need a shift in mindset. We’re used to working in the role of producer. When

creating something you don’t really involve anyone else. Trying to involving someone in that creative process is a shift, that takes courage and time.” - Gitte Wille

”We’re creating meaning,

breaking meaning, adding value.”

- Christin Persson

”Digitizing is on one hand documenting and

preserving, making available. Who will fund that, making it happen? On the other side we have the shifting media landscape involving different

producers and users. How are we going to preserve that? So we have the digitized old culture and the new digital cultures, and the new using the old to create new. There is a challenge of archiving - what, how and who. Today Youtube in one way functions as an archive for online archiving, but does it really?” - Maarten

Brinkerink

Three ways of creating a more emotional

society through digitized culture

1. Engagement

Engage in development

Give people voices and power

Create space for engagement

2. Provide cultural context

The historical context, constantly discuss the change and evolving

Create meaning & values

3. Stories

Creating experiences & meaning

Translate rich experiences

7 new collaborations/initiatives

to digitize culture

1. Embed developers in residence

Share resources, use students, the integrated role where everyone in the end learns the tools and possibilities - co-creating. Also having artists in residence with digital developers.

2. Show examples of what’s possible

Playing, trying, learning by doing Bring together + sharing

Show room -> bring into educations

Share what’s happening - look att what we’ve got and reach out to people with it #fail - what didn’t work?

3. Cross structure at policy levels

Re-define how to work and support Defining some areas to collaborate on

4. Unlike minds meeting

Mind shifting

5. Open up data

For people to create on frame and activities

Form network of doers, start doing it and build on that

6. Crowdfunding as a model

idea/concept/talent etc.

7. Corporations/businesses

Social agenda + cultural treasures

Show and create culture in buildings public spaces. Experiment with digitization. Involve big companies resources and social agendas.