A new £3.5 million project has been launched to bring the arts digitally into the hands and homes of ordinary people for the first time.
Shakespeare’s Globe, the Tate Gallery and the John Peel Centre for the Creative Arts are among organisations commissioned by Arts Council England for the interactive The Space project.
The six-month programme, starting on May 1, is designed to be a “shared public space in the digital world”, allowing people to view and engage with and get behind the scenes of various art forms through their PCs, smartphones, tablets and internet-connected televisions.
The Arts Council has commissioned 53 original works ranging from theatre productions to ballet to online games, and hundreds of archive art films from the BBC and British Film Institute will be made available free to people on demand.
Alan Davey, the Arts Council’s chief executive, said the arts as a whole were lagging behind in terms of reaching people through digital media – with only 4% of organisations it funds producing digital content.
“We hope it will transform the way people connect with the arts and culture,” he said. “We believe it is one of the most significant investments the Arts Council has made in its history. It is a big leap for the Arts Council and a big leap for the arts that will create a step change. It is a project that will have a huge impact on how (arts) organisations use technology.”
Tony Ageh, the BBC’s controller of archive development and one of the driving forces behind the inception of the iPlayer, is playing a key role in designing the website and the web apps that will allow content to be viewed on tablets and smartphones.
Mr Ageh said that each way of viewing the art would be tailored to its platform, with the web and tablet versions more interactive than TV and with mobile phone versions containing “geospecific” content depending on where the handset’s owner is.
“The whole point of The Space is to make the arts as accessible in our normal lives, in our living rooms, as currently everything else is,” he said.”I want the technology to get out of the way and make the arts front and centre.”
The service will also be available as a red button, video on demand service via Freeview HD.
Source : Orange News
