Ekaterina Schneider: How the pandemic affected the digitalization of the culture and art industry
It seems that the word “digitalization” is applicable only in conjunction with the economy. Recently, however, the art sphere has boldly stepped into digital. The transition to the digital space became especially noticeable with the outbreak of the pandemic, when the opportunity to get to an exhibition, go to a concert or watch a movie in a cinema disappeared. Ekaterina Schneider, an international art dealer and independent expert in art digital, spoke about the transition of museums to the online format, VR experiments of cultural institutions and the international reaction of the art industry to the pandemic at the conference “Digital Industry of Industrial Russia”
Today, the humanitarian sphere cannot be considered in isolation from technological progress. Six months ago, the division of the camp into supporters and opponents of digitalization in the field of education and culture was unequal. People of the conservative bloc urged people to leave their phones and go to museums, to concerts, meet with friends in person, and not chat, not use gadgets in schools and institutes, and generally live in the real world. And then came a pandemic, and with it widespread isolation.
World experience has shown that the humanitarian sector turned out to be poorly prepared for a full transition to the digital space due to a certain amount of conservatism and inertia. Conventionally, the cultural community can be divided into two camps: one stands for the classic consumption of content, and the second stands for the promotion and popularization of technological progress and innovation: the creation of new forms of interaction with works of art and its distribution. The pandemic has turned over the views that the humanitarian sphere does not need new technologies, and showed that it needs more than ever. The more information is now digitized, the more cultural heritage will be preserved for future generations.
But the digitalization of the humanitarian sphere cannot be perceived solely within the framework of digitization. More and more often we hear about the concept of soft skills, but not everyone fully understands what it is. Culture, art in the broadest sense of the word and all-round interaction with it of both the younger generation and society as a whole develops emotional intelligence – multifaceted sensitivity to the world, adaptability to unforeseen situations, the ability to self-learn and develop as a person in a rapidly changing world. Why don’t we learn to perceive beauty through the prism of various gadgets in the new realities? In other words, get out of the “soap bubble” and “two-dimensional flat state of life” and expand the horizons of consciousness.
