What is the role of culture facing the digital revolution challenge? Some reflections for a research agenda

ABSTRACT

The article aims to explore the dialectic relationship between digital transformation and societal changes through a cultural and creative approach. The debate between an algorithmic society representation (as a narrative of the past) and a new strategic role of culture (as a narrative of the future) is still largely unexplored. In order to achieve the purpose of the research, the article wants to respond to the following research questions: what is the role of culture facing in the digital revolution? What opportunities and threats are created for the enhancement and preservation of culture and creativity? An open conversation in formal and informal environments has been mobilized from September 2018 until February 2020 with scientists and humanists following a narrative approach. The reflections derived and a comprehensive analysis of the literature on AI and data science have led to a review of models of culture-driven economic development. We propose a new research agenda for the preservation and enhancement of culture able to frame the opportunities and face the threats of the digital revolution.

KEYWORDS:

• Digitalisation of culture
• digital transformation
• culture-driven economic development
• artificial intelligence
• algorithmic society

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Preliminary versions of this paper have been presented in many multidisciplinary conferences from 2019. The last one was the International Workshop ‘Rethinking Culture and Creativity in the Technological Era’, held in Florence, 20–21 February 2020. We thank participants for comments and suggestions.

2 https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/california-designing-freedom.

3 Harold Cohen: [email protected]; Lillian Schwartz: http://lillian.com.

4 https://www.christies.com/features/A-collaboration-between-two-artists-one-human-one-a-machine-9332-1.aspx.

5 https://shinichihoshi.com/whimsical_ai_project.html.

6 https://openai.com/blog/musenet/.

7 https://artsandculture.google.com/theme/%C2%A0how-ross-goodwin-uses-computers-to-generate-poetry/qgJi59vuG1tJKA.

8 https://medium.com/neuromation-blog/top5-ai-projects-in-creative-industries-7c45040265c7.

9 https://www.netflix.com/it/title/81115994.

10 www.fatherandsongame.com.

11 https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/getty-artworks-recreated-with-household-items-by-creative-geniuses-the-world-over/.