Dear AMT Lab readers,

We are busy kicking it back into high gear here at the Arts Management & Technology Laboratory, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed the steady stream of our summer content! My name is Liz, and I am thrilled to be taking on the role as Chief Editor of Research for 2021-2022. Lutie Rodriguez, last year’s Chief Editor, focused on the intersection of arts, technology, and policy, in addition to the ever-changing realities of the global pandemic. This year, we will investigate how arts organizations are using technology to adapt through Covid-19, as well as topics such as Climate Justice, Big Tech, Gaming, and the always-fascinating subjects of Blockchain and NFTs.

Big Tech

The past year and a half created a strange space between reveling in the joys and convenience of technology, as well as reckoning with its many pitfalls. We were able to virtually connect with family and friends, while enjoying entertainment in new ways. However, we also saw how policymakers scramble to combat Big Tech in wars of privacy, as well as in market and propaganda control. The increased attention on the impact of big tech encouraged us at AMT Lab to focus research on how technology connects with the broader aspects of our lives.

Covid-19

As Covid-19 continues to be a substantial presence, even with the rise of vaccination rates globally, our contributors will examine how arts organizations will continue to adapt to pandemic conditions, which technologies will stay permanent, and which ones will become obsolete.

Climate Justice, Art, & Tech

In this vein of examining crises in our world, we will be taking a deeper look into climate justice. While this has been a longstanding issue, in the last year discourse increasingly revealed the impact climate change is having on our lives. Thus, we want to make an effort to figure out how artists and organizations can be more ecologically conscious, how tech impacts the environment, and how we can do our part to make it sustainable and work for the better.

However, tech is still as fun as it is useful, and there’s a world of exploration out there! AMT Lab looks to the future in all ways, thus we will continue our research on how technology is shaping the future of creative industries. Personally, I plan to look a little deeper into how arts organizations can leverage the video gaming industry – which, in our field, is a fairly untapped world of popular entertainment.

We have an eclectic selection of research topics for you all this year, and I hope you are as excited as I am to continue our exploration of the intersection of Arts Management and Technology!