Greetings AMT Lab Readers,

I hope you summer was wonderful and relaxing. We here at AMT Lab are refreshed, and ready to boot up for the new year. Returning to our team this year are some exceptional researchers from last year, as well as a few new voices. Personally, I am returning to AMT Lab and CMU after a one year hiatus to complete my first year of law school. As the Chief Editor of Research I look forward to incorporating my background in museums, development, marketing, and legal research to help analyze how technology impacts arts organizations.

Research and practical application are at the heart of AMT Lab, and the team is excited to announce that we have received a grant from Metro21 to research and deploy methods of utilizing smart technology to measure community engagement with public art. Over the next few months we will be benchmarking best practices, investigating approaches to measuring audience engagement, and prototyping innovative data collection methods. We look forward to sharing our research process and results with you!

This year we will also be exploring the emerging artistic and managerial uses of new technology, as well as continuing research on audience favorite topics. Research themes for the year include:

• Blockchain
• Machine Learning
• Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality
• Data Analytics
• Digital Security and Infrastructure
• Measuring Audience Engagement
• Inclusion  
• CRM Systems
• Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media
• Community & Civic Engagement

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback this year as the AMT Lab team builds up new audience engagement measuring methods, and break down what the technology of tomorrow means for our industry. Join us on our home page, on Facebook and Twitter, or on our forthcoming Instagram page!

Jenée Iyer, Chief Editor of Research

Jenée is a third year Master of Arts Management/Juris Doctor student with a passion for all things old, ancient, and dusty, as well as new and emerging technology. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago with a double concentration in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, and Law, Letters & Society. Professionally Jenée has worked in for-profit education, museums, and served as a legal intern at the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Her current interests center around ways that arts management, technology, and the law intersect.

jiyer@andrew.cmu.edu