Scratchr: taking Scratch online beyond Battersea

Scratchr

In yet another update (and video) from the Digital R&D Fund projects, I caught up with David Jubb, artistic director of the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) to see how the Scratchr project has been progressing, and what the future holds for the project.

“Scratchr has now been online for about 3 months,” he started. “Our original planned outcome remains unchanged: to create an online platform to enable creative dialogue between people who are interested in developing new ideas together. But as with any R&D process, there have been plenty of surprises along the way. Perhaps one of the most striking realisations is the way in which Scratchr, over time, could change the way BAC engages with artists and programmes new work in the future.”

Some of the stats from Scratchr make for exciting viewing: the site has 200+ active members; half of these have posted an “Itch” as an idea that they are interested to “Scratch”; the site has also had over 21,600 pageviews and 2,000 unique visitors; 55% of site visitors go to at least 20 pages, and about 62% of these visitors will stay for between 10 and 30 minutes on the site. Impressive stuff.

“We’re pleased with these early signs,” David added. “While the site membership is modest, the depth of engagement with the site is strong. It feels like it is mirroring the engagement with live Scratch back in 2000, with strong levels of interest by a committed community. That process led to Scratch being adopted and adapted by many arts organisations across the world.”

So what about Scratchr being adopted beyond BAC? “In terms of Scratchr, there are still lots of questions that we are still answering, and there is plenty of work to do to make the platform easier to use and more accessible to a general audience,” said David. “Perhaps the most interesting relationship – that we have yet to really scratch the surface with – is the relationship between live Scratch and the Scratchr online space.

“The potential to grow online engagement and a much wider audience feels massive. We think our next step is to find a way to embed a developer inside the organisation so that as ideas evolve we can flexibly test them, ensuring there’s a day-to-day playful relationship between the live and online experience.”