Arts and culture for digital audiences: Experiment and make it personal
Keeren Flora
Digital content researcher, BBC Academy
As the BBC, Creative Skillset and other partners prepare to collaborate again through the Digital Cities 2016 initiative, this post highlights a key theme from the scheme’s recent Birmingham week. Arts in the digital space will be back on the agenda when Digital Cities moves to Bristol from 9-15 May:
More than a quarter of the British population say they’ve watched live theatre in the cinema, experienced a cultural event like an exhibition online, or otherwise engaged in ‘live-to-digital’ arts content.
For 7%, the internet is the only way they access the arts and interestingly, this group is predominantly young males, according to a study by The Space. Contrast this with the 8% of the population that forms the most culturally active segment: they are the wealthiest, most educated and least ethnically diverse group, suggests research by The Warwick Commission.
So how can the digital space be used more creatively to grow an audience who may not feel at home in the National Gallery or the Royal Opera House, but who have an appetite for arts and culture on their own terms?
How the internet is democratising the arts, and ways in which this might be expanded upon, was the focus of a fascinating day, backed by The Space, during the recent Digital Cities 2016 week in Birmingham.
Founded by the BBC and Arts Council England, The Space aims to help cultural organisations harness the power of digital to draw more people into the arts. Perhaps one of their best known projects has been the Ai Weiwei 360 exhibition, which was a collaboration between the Royal Academy of the Arts and BBC Taster.
Fiona Morris, CEO of The Space, explained how the internet has already proven itself to be a great leveller for arts and culture. To build on that, organisations need to really understand who their digital audiences are and what motivates them to engage in digital events, she said.
Evidence shows that people are first attracted to digital arts because it is much cheaper than the offline alternative, and secondly because it’s more convenient. It is this second motivation that keeps them coming back: they enjoy and prefer the experience in a cinema or in their own home.
Who are the audience?
The Space has conducted a digital culture study over the last three years to find out how arts organisations across the country use digital spaces. It’s a regular ‘health check’ on how well the sector is using online environments.
The study shows that most arts bodies have used digital spaces in some way, but many organisations have been disappointed in audience response and have started to retract their efforts. Interestingly though, the organisations that are most successful are those that continually experiment, listen to users and so gradually get better at serving their target audience.
Ed Corn is associate director at digital strategy and research agency MTM. In this clip from the Digital Cities event, he explains that these results are not restricted to a particular type of organisation.
Ai Weiwei 360: taking live to digital
For the Ai Weiwei 360 exhibition, the team considered user behaviour and how to make the most of this interactive medium. How can you enable your audience to view parts of the exhibition, rather than all of it? Can people view the exhibition on their device of choice – not just a 360 headset but also via desktop and mobile?
The producers felt there needed to be more to the experience than a literal translation of what was in the exhibition space. So they created interactive video and audio features, to explain and give extra context to the works. Claire Hutchinson, audience development director of The Space felt techniques like these gave a deeper, more meaningful experience and could possibly provide a more intimate experience than actually visiting an exhibition.
Learning how to reach your audience
One example of successfully tailoring content for the digital audience came from Owen Hopkin of Classic FM. He recognised that the station’s tone on social media could be intelligent and knowledgeable, but also funny and irreverent. Take for example this infographic on the heights of great composers through the ages. Their stature has nothing to do with their music, but it’s the kind of interesting, slightly useless, pub quiz-style info that Classic FM found chimed well with its audience, as Hopkin explains in this clip.
The internet might be a democratic place, but it is also very noisy. To summarise the advice from the digital arts experts in Birmingham on how to cut through:
- Focus on capturing your audience’s interest and refining their user experience rather than thinking numbers
- The way people use digital technologies is constantly changing, so plan to experiment, listen to your audience and be flexible in your approach
- There is more than one way to measure the success of online content, (as Ed Corn discusses in this final clip). The one that’s most relevant will depend on the individual project.
National Theatre Live: Taking theatre to the movies
Podcast: Producing arts in the digital world
Our other blogs from Digital Cities Birmingham:
How journalists can use bots and apps to increase productivity and engagement
Why news that’s live, social and platform-friendly is the kind that breaks through
