Happenstance: making arts orgs digital by default

Earlier this week I asked the LSO Pulse project and Punchdrunk to offer what they think other arts organisations can take from the projects they were part of. For Punchdrunk, it was about rethinking how audiences and companies digitally connect with eachother, and for the LSO project, the lessons were purely mobile.

For the Happenstance project it was instead about how organisations think about their digital offering and makeup, and how they go about embracing technology.

“Rather than trying to use technology to fix a specific problem or answer a particular need, the aim was to see how technology (and specifically, technologists) could transform the arts,” said Katy Beale when I caught up with her. “In a way, our aims were similar to those of the Government Digital Service: how could the arts become digital by default, rather than digital as an afterthought?”

Katy admitted that Happenstance has helped make the arts organisations involved more visible to the digital community, “both in the immediate vicinity and through national showcases such as Future Everything or TedX. Digital innovation is inherently social, and the residents instinctively drew on their existing networks and constructed some new ones, which the arts organisations will benefit from longer term. We can also see that Happenstance has application outside of the arts world, into the wider public sector and commercial organisations. And while the legacy will be different for each of our initial participants, the learning from the project has the potential to make a radical, longer-term change in the way that arts and cultural sector embraces technology.”

LSO Pulse and Punchdrunk: what lessons will other arts orgs take from our projects?

It’s been a short while since my last update (not least because I’ve been on holiday!) and it’s been great to come back to so many views and shares on the blog, so thanks very much!

The last few posts in the series have asked questions of some of the projects (for example, we’ve heard why clarity has been so key for the Happenstance project and how, for the Dero project, success is down to committed project partners) – it’s been interesting to see the different answers and compare and contrast, but there’s a wider question I think needs addressing:

What are the wider implications of these projects? What lessons will other arts orgs take from all the experimenting?

For Punchdrunk, and their digital project, it was about rethinking how audiences and companies need to rethink how they connect digitally, particularly pertinent in this fast-paced world of tech and social media. “The conventional model doesn’t fit and needs to be continually interrogated,” said Pete Higgin, enrichment director at the company. “I think as part of a body of projects in the pilot programme, this one is certainly part of a wave of work that will explore further the crossover between digital and the arts. On a company level, our eyes and ears are opened to new possibilities and we are exploring ways to integrate digital work into our company.”

For the LSO Pulse project, the lessons were in mobile

For Nico Koepke, CEO of KODIME, the tech company involved in the LSO Pulse app programme, the lesson was purely mobile: “Students and other young audiences can be very effectively reached and engaged on the mobile channel, and they appreciate the offer and reward with loyalty. We also feel the project showcased that marketing and selling tickets via mobile including the reasonable complex transaction mechanics does not have to cost a fortune or require a new boxoffice system.”

Jo Johnson, digital marketing manager for the London Symphony Orchestra (the organisation behind the Pulse programme) it was about looking at the bigger picture: “We have taken our prototype app and are in the process of widening its scope to include several other orchestras and venues, making one big student scheme for classical music concerts in London. While collaboration between arts organisations is nothing new, this will be the first time that London’s orchestras have worked together on such a large project, pooling resources – financial and people – to reach more of London’s student population to hopefully get them to classical music in greater numbers. For a group that is traditionally in competition with each other, it feels like something pretty revolutionary.”

… which is exactly what the Digital R&D Fund is all about: creating revolutionary ‘things’ and forming revolutionary ideas to filter down through the ranks so that all arts organisations can get in on the action.