With AI’s ability to automatically produce content and process complicated datasets with high accuracy, museums worldwide are exploring ways in which this innovative technology can help them better achieve their missions and advance accessibility efforts. Through case studies, learn about three applications of this technology: content digitalization, language accessibility, and visual description.
October was filled with new debates on AI policies, a halt to one of the most significant AI safety bills in the United States, and a host of new AI developments in video, music, and even podcasts.
Arts and cultural nonprofits often operate in multiple markets for earned and contributed revenue. With increasing attention on data-driven decision making, effective market orientation often depends on effective data use. This fundamental collection, transmission, use, and interpretation of data within an organization collectively contributes to what can be considered an organization’s data culture.
Museums have increasingly begun to volunteer their spaces as polling places, acting as a democratic vehicle for their communities and adding to the greater fabric of America’s election infrastructure. In doing so, they can support local democratic processes and prove to their communities that they are not unbreachable temples for the elite, but open platforms for the people.
As exemplified by the Hollywood strikes of 2023, we find ourselves in a new era of Artificial Intelligence in film and television. While studios are looking to cut costs, performers seek job security, and consumers seek quality content. Through research conducted in collaboration with facial motion capture technology provider Faceware Technologies Inc., Master of Entertainment Industry Management students at Carnegie Mellon sought to gain insight on how AI-generated content will transform existing industries, including how this technology could affect employment in the entertainment industry, content development, budgets, contracts, legislation, and privacy rights.
The current status of digital programming and investment varies widely across the arts and cultural sector. Some organizations have abandoned the streaming technology they experimented with, while others continue to incorporate digital programs and performances into their offerings. The following research reveals U.S. streaming trends and audience behaviors.
Opera Australia attempts to make opera “for all” while maintaining the linguistic diversity of presenting opera in their original languages. To enhance the connection of audiences to the work, Opera Australia uses digitization and other technologies to create a holistic storytelling mechanism. This case demonstrates that (1) language and linguistic identity can advance and strengthen artistic storytelling and (2) audiences want to see linguistically diverse and accessible stories.
This article presented projects and examples that have exemplified great progress in cultural heritage preservation. As these technologies continue to develop and experts in the field become more knowledgable and adept at using these technologies, there is a positive prospect that continually enhancing technologies will deliver further achievement in cultural heritage preservation and digitalization by human inventions and under human supervision.
In an increasingly virtual work environment, digital technology is becoming a standard tool for creative industries. Cultural heritage work is no different. A broad variety of tools are being used to safeguard cultural heritage sites and objects, from partnering 3D modeling, drones and artificial intelligence for a preservation project on the Great Wall of China, to virtual reality being used to replicate and recreate the Dunhuang Caves. With the growing attention for intangible cultural heritage (ICH), it is important to explore what digital tools are being used for fulfilling intangible cultural heritage safeguarding responsibilities and what opportunities exist for other projects and their practitioners.
Digitization efforts for cultural heritage are standard practice for institutions of all sizes, ranging from simple metadata records to elaborate 3D renderings of ancient sites. While the discussion of digitally preserving cultural heritage at large is prominent, the intersection of intangible cultural heritage and digitization practices requires specific recognition. This includes understanding intangible cultural heritage and its value for society. This article examines the emerging and evolving landscape of intangible cultural heritage, its global impact, and current efforts for safeguarding these intangible items in order to address how this field is being organized and used.
Digital technology is becoming a standard tool for the collection, preservation, and dissemination efforts of arts and cultural heritage worldwide. From 3D configuration of ancient artifacts to applying artificial intelligence to shed new light on how we perceive the lineage of humanities, cultural heritage is headed toward a digital future. This article will examine the ways in which digitization and artificial intelligence – two of the most widely used or relevant forms of technology in cultural heritage – are applied through global cases of innovative initiatives happening in the field in recent years.
Last week the world watched in shock as Notre Dame, a building that has stood as a sentinel over hundreds of years of French history, burned. While the physical and psychological devastation of these events is difficult to fathom and must not be trivialized, technological projects carried out at many of these historical locations and museums provide a ray of hope that what is gone may not truly be forever lost.
Last April, contributor Jana Fredricks attended the 2018 Museums and the Web conference in Vancouver. Amidst the chatter of digital collections, online audience engagement, and shiny new tech, she presented research on three technologies that have changed the way cultural heritage sites are understood and documented in the digital age. Her paper, Digital Tools and How We Use Them: The Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage in Syria, was presented in a panel entitled Post-Colonial Digital.
