Otis Art History 02 - Stonehenge (by OtisCollege)
Over half of the online population (53%) have used the internet to engage with the arts and cultural sector in the last 12 months:
• The most common activities centre around discovery of information about a live event or artist/performer (33%) and ticketing (20%)
• Other key activities include watching or listening to a clip of an arts performance or exhibition (16%),
whilst a further 8% had watched or listened to a full arts performance
• 6% say they have used the internet to “create something artistic” in the past 12 months.
Music is the genre showing the highest level of online engagement – however, opportunities for other cultural genres remain strong:
• Of those who had viewed an online clip of an arts event, 81% had viewed a music clip. Dance (30%) and theatre (27%) were the next highest, followed by visual arts (19%)
• However, there appear to be clear opportunities for other genres: for example, 56% of museums fans and 47% of those interested in archives would like to take a virtual tour of the institution they were visiting online
• Similarly, five minute performance/exhibition clips appealed to nearly half of those with an interest in visual arts and 41% of dance fans, whilst 44% of dance fans said they would take a virtual tour backstage.
Equally, it is important not to relegate the internet to the role of marketing channel. Our respondents saw the internet first and foremost as augmenting the live experience rather than replacing it, but this did not just mean providing listings and e-ticketing. The Leading edge segment welcome and already use the (sadly few) genuinely immersive and participative arts and cultural experiences that are already available online. This report confirms that there is an appetite for the sector to innovate and create a new generation of experiences that take advantage of some of the internet’s unique characteristics…
Many members of the population are keen on learning about subjects that interest them:
• 76% ‘enjoy finding out about topics/subjects of interest (e.g. bird watching, WWII, fashion)’
• 51% ‘enjoy finding out about my family history’
• 51% ‘enjoy finding out about the things that I collect’.
The desire to find out about topics/subjects of interest is significantly more prevalent among those of higher
educational backgrounds (81%) and social grade ABC1 (79%).
Museums: Over two thirds of those who are interested in museums said that they would be interested in learning more online about an exhibition or object, whilst over half were interested in a virtual tour.
Visual arts: The audience for visual arts exhibits the highest levels of interest in the suggested online
functions. The most appealing new online feature within visual arts is ‘watching a five minute clip’ and very
high interest levels are also seen for ‘learning more about a performance or learning how to do something’
and ‘taking a virtual tour’.
Key findings from this section:
• People’s interaction with arts and cultural content in digital environments can be classified into five main
categories: access, learn, experience, share and create
• ‘Access’ covers a range of activities centred on the discovery of new information, filtering (i.e. making
decisions about what appeals) and planning which arts and cultural events or activities to engage in
• The other four categories of activity – learn, experience, share, create – tend to be less common but
reflect deeper (and therefore potentially more valuable) levels of engagement than the ‘access’ areas of
activity and require increasingly sophisticated online skills
• In general, people feel they need credible assistance from trusted cultural brands such as the National
Trust and British Museum to help them decide which experiences to look into. These trusted brands are
particularly important for older audience members who tend to be concerned about online security
• In addition, aggregator sites from trusted brands such as Guardian.co.uk, Time Out and View London
play a key role - around half (54%) agree that they ‘prefer to use websites that have information from a
range of sources and about a range of organisations’
6.2 A framework of the benefits that may be enjoyed from online engagement
People’s interaction with arts and cultural content in digital environments can be classified into five main
categories:39
1. Access covers a range of activities centred around discovering what’s on, filtering opportunities and
planning attendance or participation (for example, purchasing tickets, arranging to meet friends)
2. Learn refers to a range of activities with an educational purpose – for example, finding out more about
the life of an artist or improving creative skills (through an online dancing tutorial)
3. Experience refers to an activity where the user is experiencing the full creative or artistic work online.
This is distinct from viewing a clip as part of the ‘access’ process as the individual has chosen to take the
experience itself online
4. Share refers to the use of digital media to share content, experiences and opinions
5. Create involves the use of the internet to assist with the creative process itself.
6.4 Understanding learning activities
6.4.1 Increasing knowledge
Respondents report regularly using online content to increase their knowledge of their subjects of interest,
hence heightening their enjoyment and deepening their engagement. Learning is the area where the most
people can see the appeal in the online features that were suggested to them in the quantitative survey (see
exhibit 12).
Learning activities are often closely allied to attending a live experience of some kind, for example:
• Finding out about artists, performers, composers, authors:
‘Before I go to the Alan Ayckbourn theatre in Scarborough, I like to read up on the actors and what
they’ve done before and why they have been pulled into the project’ 45-64 year old
• Finding out about the historical or cultural context in which the artwork was created
• Investigating the story or reading the music
• Reading critiques, reviews and interpretations to understand informed opinion of the artwork
• Understanding the contents or layout of the exhibition or archive:
‘When you get a mailshot about an exhibition, you can go online to find out more about what it
includes’ 45-64 year old
‘I looked at the website for the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, before I went, because I knew I’d
only have a few hours there and so I got the best out of the trip’ 45-64 year old
More highly educated individuals were more likely to appreciate the value in further learning online.
6.4.2 Improving artistic and creative skills
Of the English online population, 15% have already used the internet to ‘improve creative skills’ in the past
12 months (see exhibit 8) and there is considerable audience interest in online features that help with
‘learning how to do something’ (exhibit 12).
The qualitative respondents assumed that online tutorials (usually by video) are the most effective tool for
improving skills. Examples of successful tutorials cited by respondents included how to take a good photo,
five tips on how to buy antiques, opera for beginners and five things to look for when viewing Renaissance
art.
Despite this, people say they are willing to pay for online content that:
• Offers something extra: tutorials, smartphone apps (e.g. virtual tour guides), sharing one’s own creative
work online, especially where there is a potential reward of some kind, such as Shootexperience.com:
‘Something good that you can’t get elsewhere’ 25-44 year old
• Is extremely high value or exclusive: live (versus recorded) video content, expensive or sold out
performances, events with a lot of ‘buzz’ or marketing around them:
– Interview with Rui Guerra about online strategies for cultural spaces - we make money not art
(via Interview with Rui Guerra about online strategies for cultural spaces - we make money not art)
Rui Guerra:I was often surprised how efficient institutions are in collecting information to print in catalogues and how clumsy they are with publishing similar content online. Most of the organizations we’ve worked with do not need to be convinced to publish their content online. It is well-known that via the internet you can reach an audience that would be unthinkable 10 years ago. The urge to publish online is already there, what is missing are online publication models fine-tuned to the specific needs of cultural organizations.
More than two-thirds of a large group of college students say that tablet computers will change the way students learn, according to survey results released today. The Pearson Foundation sponsored the survey of 1,214 college students, as well as 200 high-school seniors who are heading to college, and found overwhelming interest in the devices.
Most of the students were not speaking from experience: Only 7 percent of the college students and 4 percent of the high school seniors owned one. Still, 69 percent of the college students said that tablets will transform higher education, and 48 percent said tablets will replace textbooks—at least as we currently understand textbooks—within the next five years. The survey was conducted for the foundation this March by Harris Interactive, which weighted the sample so it was representative of the American college population in terms of income, ethnicity, geography, and other factors.
As for the actual tablet owners in the survey, 73 percent said they liked digital formats more than print for reading textbooks. Only 32 percent of nonowners felt the same way. But, over all, the survey group was excited about reading digital textbooks.
That attitude may change once they try to study with tablets for an exam. Several pilot projects with tablets have found that students are frustrated with the difficulties in adding notes to digital books. But they still liked the machines. In the Pearson survey, nearly 20 percent of college students said they intend to buy a tablet in the next six months.
