Culture is future » Innovation and digital

Contribution: "Data at the core of cultural innovation" by Marion Rampini (3/3)

A lot of cultural projects demonstrate the ambition to leverage on data and now integrate data valorisation to their strategies in order to develop innovating approaches in partnership with other economic fields. Three strategies could be pointed out:

1. Playing collaborative
2. Creating technological hubs
3. Involving in Smart Cities

3. Getting involved in Smart Cities

Connected objects and new technologies are now integrated into territorial development strategies and contribute to the concept of “Smart City”. These cities of tomorrow, mutant and polymorphic in nature, are defined by the Atelier BNP Paribas as cities with "digital infrastructures allowing better leveraging of collective intelligence in order to improve the organization of cities and the well-being of their population". Impacting transverse projects and involving multidisciplinary actors, Smart Cities set forth a list of smart development factors in which culture, and partnerships with cultural organizations, can be included.

The National Museum of Singapore allows visitors to manipulate the data stream generated by the Smart City.

Singapore is considered as one of the most successful Smart Cities in the world. The city has developed several projects within this framework such as implementing smart uses of new technologies and data. In 2014, the National Museum of Singapore hosted the Data Drives project managed by the MIT Senseable City Lab. An interface, a touchscreen interactive table, was designed to enhance users’ experience of the culture of data. By allowing them to manipulate and visualize the flow of data generated by the city and its inhabitants, the device illustrates possible development opportunities for the Smart City. Presenting this initiative in a museum is an interesting way of exploiting an opportunity that we have previously introduced: turning museums into technological hubs where visitors can test and understand innovations and digital mutations.

The Smart City of Aarhus, Denmark, European Capital of Culture in 2017

In 2017, Aarhus will be the European Capital of Culture and position itself as a Smart City. In this context, the city is developing a cultural laboratory, on the subject "Rethink", supported by a network of creative clusters already boosting the region. Citizens will be invited to think or rethink the way they live in their territory. Digital art will also be featured, including projects such as The Media Architecture Biennale. Aarhus 2017 joins the Smart City movement, fostering debate and dynamic collaborative actions with citizens on urbanization, tourism, and city infrastructure.

Nice, a Smart City including culture as a development factor in its digital ecosystem

Like Singapore, the city of Nice is one of the top 5 Smart Cities worldwide, raking fourth behind Barcelona, ​​New York and London. In March 2015, the city opened its Smart City Innovation Centre and hosts the “Innovative City” conference. It was one of the first to be positioned in the segment of "smart cities" as an experimental testing ground. Initiated in 2010, the "Nice, City of Contactless technologies" was declined to adapt to everyday uses – e.g. contactless payment, transport tickets and tourism, inviting the user to interact with its environment through its smartphone. Among the programs developed in this context is an interactive guide developed for the the Museum of Modern Art and Contemporary Art, offering biographical information on the artists, descriptive content on their work, as well as further information on the various artistic movements represented there.

Including culture as a development factor for the Smart Cities of tomorrow brings about transverse projects in which cultural organizations are key players. By contributing to this movement, cultural and creative industries can develop new opportunities placing data at the core of collaborative innovation.

About Marion Rampini

Graduated from ESCP Europe / Ca' Foscari / Ecole du Louvre. A passionate enthusiast in the Big data Revolution, its economic and societal impact, and the innovation it spurs. Provides analysis of digital uses and practices. Publishes on the stakes of Big data in the field of culture, especially with regards to museums.

Read her thesis

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