Every month, AMT Lab publishes a collection of recent arts management and technology news. Here are a few top arts and technology stories from January.
An Ingenious Museum Design That Turns Visitors Into Creators (Wired) - New York's Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is finalizing plans to reopen not just with increased gallery space, but also 15 interactive screens where, "users can draw, design, and virtually explore the Cooper Hewitt collection."
App serves new orchestra audience (Philly.com) - On Wednesday, January 14th, the Philadelphia Orchestra displayed their new LiveNote app for the first time. Offering both program notes and guidance on symphonic structure, this first public trial reached about 100 of the 600 patrons in attendance.
Microsoft's new HoloLens technology brings the world of Minecraft into the living room in its new promotional video. Source - Flickr user Pierre Lecourt
Microsoft's Holographic Vision Triggers a Flashback (NY Times Bits) - Microsoft unveiled an exciting new augmented and virtual reality headset this week, called HoloLens. Though the device is still early in development, this article argues that Microsoft has a proven record after the success of the Kinect. Augmented reality has some excited possibilities for the arts, as contributor Thomas Rhodes wrote about last year in his hands on review of Google Glass.
Museum-goers Are Big Data's Latest Targets (Artnet news) - The ever-increasing abundance of data has transformed many industries few decades, so perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that big data is finally coming to the arts. This article profiles the Met and Guggenheim's recent experiments with digital beacon technology which can, "both communicate with museum-goers via their smartphones - for instance, sending information about the art they are looking at - and record their behaviors.
Google Brings Museums to Mobile Users, Armchair Travelers with New Technology Platform (Tech Crunch) - Google announced a new software platform to help museums build mobile applications based on Google technologies. This article profiles some of the institutions already planning to take advantage of this opportunity, as well as other efforts of the Google Cultural Institute.
Selfies turn museums into playgrounds for a day (CNN) - A social media campaign started by Mar Dixon exploded over social media on January 21st. Impressions in the field ranged from amusement to outrage, but there can be no doubt that the images in this article offer a lighthearted way to engage with art.