Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, Surveys
Samantha Sonnet
What Are Museum Professionals Saying About ...

The use of generative AI (GenAI) tools is becoming increasingly prevalent in marketing, particularly for smaller organizations or nonprofits seeking innovative ways to engage audiences and improve workflow efficiency. This article dives into data collected through a survey that was sent out to museum professionals in Pittsburgh and Cleveland to better understand how and if they are utilizing generative AI tools in their marketing strategies.

What Are Museum Professionals Saying About Generative AI for Marketing?
entertainment, Artificial Intelligence
Hannah Brainard
April News: Entertainment Industry Divided on ...

This month, music and film are at the forefront as each battles with the future uses for burgeoning tech. While AI-generated film visuals seem to be coming up short, progress toward realistic AI-generated music is starting to send shockwaves. On the consumer side, music streaming tools are being released to allow more listening experience customization. Across the industry, artists are celebrating ways that some these new tools can enhance their work, while speaking out against potential impacts on jobs, compensation, and creative freedom.

April News: Entertainment Industry Divided on AI Tools
Artificial Intelligence, Marketing, Social Media
Samantha Sonnet
How Generative AI is Impacting Digital Marketing

Generative AI (GenAI) has become increasingly integrated into marketing and communication careers, and even our daily lives, with the rise of various text-to-image, text-to-video, & text-to-text tools. As digital marketers find new and innovative ways to keep up with the trends, and specifically GenZ in a quick-changing popular culture scene, how are they reacting to the rise of GenAI?

How Generative AI is Impacting Digital Marketing
Blockchain, Sustainability
Hannah Brainard
Blockchain Technology for Climate Action in the ...

Arts and cultural organizations are becoming increasingly aware of their climate impact, and many are taking action to reduce harm. Tracking, reporting, and offsetting emissions may seem like an overwhelming feat for small or mid-sized organizations, but emerging blockchain technology may help make the process more efficient and reliable. 

Blockchain Technology for Climate Action in the Arts
Advocacy, Arts & Technology, Laws & Legal, Social Media
AMT Lab Staff
TikTok — to Ban or Not to Ban

As previously foreshadowed by Samantha in an article written in July of 2023, TikTok: Opportunity and Risk, TikTok has been under a microscope from governments across the globe for quite awhile. The analysis provided in her article is still relevant today given the recent vote to ban TikTok, and the United States House moving forward to force Chinese state-owned TikTok company ByteDance to sell their ownership of the U.S. version of TikTok, or lose access to the United States TikTok market. To fully understand the situation, this article will recap TikTok’s controversial Privacy Policy and the 2023 testimonies, and also discuss the current governmental situation surrounding the ban. 

TikTok — to Ban or Not to Ban

Audience Engagement

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Interweaving Social: Managing and implementing social media in artistic programming

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Interweaving Social: Managing and implementing social media in artistic programming

In 2012, Dog & Pony DC, a small theatre company in Washington D.C., encouraged audiences to direct the plot of a show and influence characters using Twitter. In A Killing Game, audiences and actors stood side-by-side, immersing themselves in a collaborative artistic experience. In order to learn more about the company’s decision to utilize social media, and its approach to integrating the technology and management of its uses, AMT Lab’s Kristen Sorek West spoke to company director, Rachel Grossman. 

To Tweet Seat or Not To Tweet Seat: An Insider's Perspective

To Tweet Seat or Not To Tweet Seat: An Insider's Perspective

The year has come full circle for me and tweet seats. From my first conversation about them last summer at the Theatre Communications Group Annual Conference to the CMU School of Music’s tweet seat initiative this past spring, the last twelve months provided an opportunity to play with this still new (and at times, controversial) audience engagement tool.

Viewpoint of Billions

Viewpoint of Billions

Wearable technology is all anyone is interested in talking about these days, and certainly AMT Lab is no different (for example, see Performing Arts in the Wearable Age). I’d like to take a brief interlude from gossiping about when Apple’s smart watch is going to drop to refocus on an “older” wearable technology: Google Glass.

Let me preface this by saying I am not an Explorer (or a Glasshole–whichever floats your boat) but as a casual observer of technology, I’ll jump at the chance to try something new. Like Google Glass. So when the National Portrait Gallery offered me (and the rest of DC) the chance to do just that, you bet I went for it.

Brave New World: Symphony Orchestras & Online Experiences

Brave New World: Symphony Orchestras & Online Experiences

Just what is an online audience? How does it differ from an offline audience? How does participating in the arts through electronic media and online channels relate to the attendance of arts events? Moreover, exactly what (and how) are symphony orchestras using these digital technologies to engage with individuals around the world?

Technology and Social Media in Crowdsourced Exhibition

Technology and Social Media in Crowdsourced Exhibition

In recent years, crowdsourcing has become an increasingly familiar concept implemented by multiple arts organizations to develop and engage audiences. Examples include “Click! A Crowd sourced Exhibition” (Brooklyn Museum, 2008), “Soapbox!” (Museum of Photographic Art, 2013), “Boston Loves Impressionism” (Museum of Fine Art Boston, 2014), and “People Choice”(Gibbes Museum of Art).

CMU School of Music Tries Tweet Seats

CMU School of Music Tries Tweet Seats

On January 26, 2014, Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music offered a little something extra to its audience both in Pittsburgh and afar: tweet seats. Last summer I wrote an article about tweet seats that provides an overview of decisions that need to be made before implementing this heavily debated audience engagement technique. With this advice in mind, the School of Music set out to define how and why tweet seats might be a good idea for live concerts.

Research Update #3: Creating Online Audiences For Orchestras

Research Update #3: Creating Online Audiences For Orchestras

In my last research update, I illustrated some of the most important opportunities and benefits associated with the creation of online audiences. But as arts managers consider how to create these online audiences, they should also be aware of a variety of challenges and potential risks associated with doing so. Here are a few:

Attracting New Crowds

Attracting New Crowds

An ongoing concern of performing arts managers is the impact of arts participation and engagement programs on creating new audiences. Specifically, arts organizations are concerned as to whether or not their efforts elicit new patrons to attend  performances regularly. Concerns exist in particular about the overall impact of engagement programs like simulcasts, wondering if a new audience members are attending these events at all, or if the events are drawing the same group of people that come to staged performances. Furthermore, a growing discomfort exists that opera simulcasts might actually be “cannibalizing sales,” or in other words, reducing ticket sales at live opera performances.

A Virtual Orchestra

A Virtual Orchestra

The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) has teamed up with Sydney digital media company Mod Productions to produce a new interactive “virtual orchestra” that is breaking down audience barriers in the music world. The resulting audio-visual installation, “ACO Virtual,” has created the means to bring the Orchestra outside the concert hall and into spaces where the ACO may not perform.

Research Update #2: Creating Online Audiences for Orchestras

Research Update #2: Creating Online Audiences for Orchestras

Last month, I introduced the Berlin Philharmonics’ Digital Concert Hall as a best-practice example of creating online audiences by a symphony orchestra. Indeed, we can find orchestras worldwide reaching out for audiences beyond the walls of a traditional concert hall. So let us inspect three of these orchestras—the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra (UK)—and have a closer look at some of the tools they use, how these tools are being implemented, and the resulting opportunities they create.