Accessibility, Artificial Intelligence, museums
Staff Researcher
Envisioning the Future of Museum Accessibility ...

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.

Envisioning the Future of Museum Accessibility Through Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence, Public Policy, News & Announcements
Ian Hawthorne
October News: New Policies and Possibilities ...

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.

October News: New Policies and Possibilities for AI
Data, Fundraising, Marketing
Ian Hawthorne
Data Cultures Part I: The Many Markets of Arts ...

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.

Data Cultures Part I: The Many Markets of Arts Organizations
Advocacy, Community Building, Public Policy
Ian Hawthorne
Democracy on Display: The Dynamic Role of Art ...

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.

Democracy on Display: The Dynamic Role of Art Museums in Elections
Artificial Intelligence, entertainment, Film
Staff Researcher
Part I: A New Era of AI in the Entertainment ...

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.

Part I: A New Era of AI in the Entertainment Industry

wearable technology

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Practical Uses of AR in Arts and Culture

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Practical Uses of AR in Arts and Culture

Since its first iteration, Augmented Reality (AR) has been disrupting education, health, entertainment, and many other fields. By enhancing the senses and abilities it has delighted but also aided in solving difficult problems. In arts and culture, AR has transformed static museum displays and provided special effects for stage productions. But the use of AR hasn’t gone much beyond support in storytelling, and the adoption of such a versatile technology as a tool in the production processes has been tentatively explored.

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Integrating Music Technology in the Classroom: Increasing Customization for Every Student

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Integrating Music Technology in the Classroom: Increasing Customization for Every Student

The following study investigates emerging technologies and their implications for music education, inside and outside the classroom. Learn how apps, digital instruments, practical aid technology, and wearable technology can be used to increase engagement and learning opportunities for music students in various settings.

White Paper Wednesday: Wearables and the Performing Arts

In 2014, Google Glass had emerged as the leader in wearable technology available on the market. Today, while Google Glass has receded to the fringe of conversations about Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, wearables have re-entered the mainstream consciousness, and wide-spread adoption feels inevitable.

These trends considered, today's featured white paper from 2014, Performing Arts in the Wearable Age by Thomas Rhodes and Samuel Allen, is a fascinating look back at predictions and projections from just two years ago. 

While many things have changed since 2014, this paper's focus on current uses of wearable technology, future implications, opportunities and concerns for performing arts organizations are as useful as ever. The authors' discussion of the hardware specs of wearable devices is particularly nuanced. Equally relevant are the various uses and exciting windows for wearable implementation in music, theatre, and beyond.

While many of the projections cited in this publication might not hold water today, today's current events indicate that widespread adoption of AR/VR is near. From Pokemon Go to continuing developments in Oculus, it is clear that arts organizations will soon have no choice but to confront this exciting and game-changing trend.

 

Banner image by Dan Leveille via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under Creative Commons

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.

Performing Arts in the Wearable Age

Performing Arts in the Wearable Age

Wearable computing devices--including smartwatches, fitness and health tracking devices, and smartglasses--are projected to quadruple between now and 2018. What does their increased use mean for the performing arts? In their follow-up paper to "Through The Looking Glass: How Google Glass Will Change the Performing Arts," guest correspondents Thomas Rhodes and Samuel Allen explain wearable technology, provide an overview of current experiments with these devices among performing arts professionals, and discuss potential implications and challenges for the field.