Blockchain, Digital Futures, Emerging Technology
Staff Researcher
Blockchains or Pawprints? Furries as a ...

This article explores the intersection of digital art, NFTs, and community governance through the lens of the furry fandom, a decentralized community of artists and enthusiasts. With the rise of NFTs, the ability to authenticate digital art and protect creators' work has become a critical concern. The study examines the resistance within the furry community to adopt NFTs, highlighting their reliance on community-based trust and governance over "trustless" blockchain systems. While some see potential in NFTs to safeguard intellectual property, many furries are skeptical, valuing social trust and ethics over commercialization. By studying the furry subculture's approach to art ownership and the challenges they face, the article poses larger questions about the future of NFTs and blockchain technology in creative spaces.

Blockchains or Pawprints? Furries as a case-study for understanding digital art provenance through NFTs and community governance
Arts & Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Futures, Emerging Technology, Marketing, Research, Podcast
Brett Ashley Crawford, Ph.D.
The Future is Now: Our Most-Read Articles and ...

As technology continues to reshape the arts and entertainment landscape, our readers and listeners have shown a clear appetite for understanding these transformations. From AI's role in creative processes to the evolution of virtual reality and streaming, this year's most popular content reveals the questions on everyone's minds.

The Future is Now: Our Most-Read Articles and Most-Downloaded Podcasts of the Year
creative industries, Film, entertainment, Arts & Technology
Staff Researcher
Behind the LED Wall: Technology, Labor, and ...

This article explores the rise of virtual production (VP) and its impact on contemporary filmmaking through the use of large-scale LED volumes that merge physical sets with real-time digital environments. Using high-profile productions such as The Mandalorian and 1899 as case studies, it examines how VP reshapes creative workflows across departments, redistributes labor rather than eliminating it, and demands new hybrid skill sets from designers, location managers, and technicians. The piece also addresses the role of labor unions and training programs in adapting to emerging technologies, alongside the economic challenges of scalability, access, and high upfront costs. Ultimately, the article positions virtual production as a transformative - yet uneven - evolution in the entertainment industry, emphasizing the need for equitable training and infrastructure as VP becomes a lasting mode of production.

Behind the LED Wall: Technology, Labor, and Economics in Virtual Production
Extended Reality, Digital Futures, Arts & Technology
Staff Researcher
Extending Reality in Actor Training: Benefits, ...

This article explores how extended reality (XR) - including augmented, mixed, and virtual reality - is reshaping acting training by layering immersive technologies onto long-established methods like Stanislavski-based technique and the Method. Drawing on examples from Basrah to Juilliard and Odin Teatret, the piece shows how XR can deepen character work, expand dramaturgical research, and personalize feedback through data-driven simulations. At the same time, it raises urgent legal, ethical, and social questions around biometric data, FERPA and HIPAA protections, digital Blackface, and harassment in virtual spaces. Rather than treating XR as a magic solution, the article argues that thoughtful pedagogy, clear institutional policies, and equity-minded design are essential if these tools are to support - not replace - human-centered theatre education.

Extending Reality in Actor Training: Benefits, Repercussions, & Legal Implications
Public Policy, creative industries
Ian Hawthorne
Frameworks for Understanding Cultural Policy: ...

This article analyzes Ireland’s emerging position as a global cultural policy case study, focusing on the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) program and its place within the national framework Culture 2025. While Ireland’s consensus-driven political system, strong arts advocacy networks, and history of support for artist income have enabled an ambitious, research-oriented basic income pilot, the article highlights deeper tensions within cultural policymaking. Drawing on Stephen Hadley’s concept of “cultural policy realism,” it argues that Ireland’s policies—despite their novelty—remain rooted in traditional, instrumentalist views of culture as an economic engine and national branding tool. By contrasting democratization of culture with cultural democracy, the piece situates Ireland’s model between innovation and reversion, emphasizing the need for sustained experimentation, critical evaluation, and more genuinely democratic approaches to cultural support.

Frameworks for Understanding Cultural Policy: Lessons from the Irish Model

Take Our Quiz: The Best Project Management Tool For You and Your Team

Take Our Quiz: The Best Project Management Tool For You and Your Team

Project Management Software is the solution organizations, large and small in all industries, are turning to for organizing resources, people, deliverables, workflow, and projects. In 5 minutes, you just might have a new software-solution for your team. At the very least, you will have a better idea of what you are looking for.

Interactive - Map of the Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Palmyra

Interactive - Map of the Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Palmyra

This interactive map will take you on the journey of Palmyra's 2,000 year old Arch of Triumph, beginning in 2005, with Bassel al Safadi Khartabil's effort to virtually document the city, and ending in present day. Explore this excerpt of the arch's history, and begin to understand the ways in which digital technologies have impacted it's destruction and it's digital reconstruction. 

VOIP for Arts Organizations: Are you Virtual or Just Digital?

VOIP for Arts Organizations: Are you Virtual or Just Digital?

Telephone technology infrastructure isn't sexy but it is critical. The wrong decision can make or break an institution, especially an arts institution that sells admissions to its programs.  So what is VOIP and why should anyone pay attention? 

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day (Because They Didn't Have 3D Printers)

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day (Because They Didn't Have 3D Printers)

Is digital technology a useful tool or hazardous endeavor?  Jana answers this question and takes us into the world of protection, conservation, and rehabilitation of cultural heritage.

Digital Security & Infrastracture for Arts Organizations - Baseline Considerations

Digital Security & Infrastracture for Arts Organizations - Baseline Considerations

Over the past decade, digital security and infrastructure have arrived at the forefront of the minds of organizations both small and large. In an increasingly digital business world organizations must remain vigilant in protecting the volumes of data they collect. This article examines the baseline considerations for Arts Organizations in relation to managing and protecting both business and patron-side data. 

Go mobile or go home? Strategies for Success

Go mobile or go home? Strategies for Success

Arts Marketers -- you know the news: mobile is the future and the future is here.  Data is necessary to navigate that space, and a recent research report by Jack Loechner breaking down the recent white paper by MobileFirstWorld offers some excellent data on mobile behaviors and strategies to improve on the current national rate of cart abandonment:  78%. To start: here is some startling data that might convince you that mobile is here.  Over 30% of the human populations has a smartphone.  And once in a user's hand, he checks it over 150 times per day. (Is that you?)