Past, present and future The insights I’d like to share with you today are not the gadgets or shiny ideas we’re developing. Having been here and witnessed the brilliant things people are doing in the Culture TECH festival. It’s made me want to talk about value, the responsibility of innovation and reaching the peak of our ignorance. Through a project we worked on last year called Midsummer Night’s Dreaming and the insights we’re drawn from our work at the RSC. So digital has a value, a meaning and is subject to interpretation - but technology has always played a significant role in changing the arts. At the Royal Shakespeare Company we have been innovating Shakespeare for over 50 years and with the context of Shakespeare’s canon through 400 years of performance history, we can chart and examine how technology played a key role in some of most exciting and enduring advances in performance. Our past can illuminate our future thinking and ignite a rigour that creates a responsibility around innovation that challenges and inspires us to make the work the best it can possibly be. Whether that’s an Elizabethan Masque or Victorian magic and illusion or a future where projection mapping, augmented reality and a new found connectedness between a performer and offsite audience become integral as these technology innovation have enhanced the live experience. Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Devices to tell stories The digital part of this title is very important as is the digital part of my role at the Royal Shakespeare Company. To me and to others because it’s a statement, a commitment and an acknowledgement of where we are today and where we want to be moving forward. We used to say digital television but we don’t anymore. I remember an old boss of mine saying that TVs weren’t just black boxes in the corner of a room but TV could happen anywhere. That to me was a radical statement made at the turn of this century and what he was doing was innovating. The digital label helped people to understand what we were moving from and to – and now our habits have changed and we no longer say digital TV. We don’t need to. We have devices to share and see stories that are with us all the time. They are new platforms for culture. Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Communities Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Online Content Live Hangouts Video Text Animated gifs Photos Soundcloud / audio Maps Animation Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Online character map Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Online character content Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Meeting points Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Creating There are constants in the world of culture which remain and this provide us with a framework and understanding for the digital to be explored with rigour, meaning and critical investigation. Emergence of the creative content creator. In our work, we have seen that this is not as you’d think but it’s what these new pathways symbolise and what this enables in our thinking and our consciousness. Empowering the live experience means empowering the audience – the audience may not creative, share or like but they know they can and the significant shift is to say that we can no longer say they can’t. Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Audiences Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Connecting the live and online Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

Stats There were 110, 000 unique visitors on dream40.org during the weekend of the project. #Dream40 appeared on 25 Million twitter feeds. The active online creative community included 1000 people from across the world. The two project films were watched by 435, 000 people. The Royal Shakespeare Company Google+ page increased in size by 742%. 3000 pieces of content were released during the weekend of the project; project participants created half of this content. Over the weekend a piece of content was released at least every five minutes. Sarah Ellis, Digital Producer

What are the new rituals for culture? So what does today bring? Digital innovation in theatre is about the possibilities that surround the live experience alongside the technology that can be found at the heart of performance.  We can no longer say that there is one definitive experience as we are now able to create so many derivatives.  New rituals and meeting points in culture that are emerging through digital technologies are impacting, empowering and engaging with the live experience. If the live experience is not the only experience we can have, that means that the live experience becomes more valuable and more threatened. Tradition can seem more traditional and the future feels more threatening. How artists, audiences and organisations navigate this best is by working together is being transformed. What we are experiencing in the arts sector is cultural change in our understanding of making work and who we are presenting it to. Author’s name, Department

What are the opportunities for digital? So what is the biggest impact? The biggest impact that digital technology is having on the arts is the culture sector is now a network!   I believe the Royal Shakespeare Company is at the heart of this through its work on stage and across the world exploring and providing pathways to connect and experience its work. Digital is not just technology – it is a manifesto and a sensibility that is challenging and pioneering culture change across communities. Digital technology in context and not in isolation is important – politics / social / economic. Some of the most innovative and exciting ideas can be misunderstood – innovation is as much about timing and conditions as it is about the idea. So where can digital thrive? Culture has a strength - unlocking the imagination. Embracing a value construct that extends beyond monetisation or return on investment. It can say the unsayable and get us to pause for a moment and walk in someone else’s shoes – to see a world that isn’t real but is made to feel real. What does cultural value look like now? Cultural value is navigating the quick iterative experience of changing alongside the slow pendulum swinging A democratisation of language enabled the printing press to become a mass producer of content, the innovation in exploration and travel created a gateway and distribution platform for the work to be shared. The technology alone wasn’t enough – it was our imaginations, our ambitions and collaboration that took us to a new point in innovation. What is different this time is that the internet was set up on democratic, free principles and What culture tech has reminded me is that the next generation, many of you sitting in the audience today are ensuring that coding and programming doesn’t become a Latin but a new English a new global language. To be able to communicate creates opportunity. Author’s name, Department

Thank you Sarah Ellis – Digital Producer @scarahnellis