The creative industries in days of isolation – a fast pace shift to making, learning and living in a crisis

Presentation at "ARTiculate:

Communicating your research in the Fine Arts and Music", Hosted by the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne, 2020-11-26

We are witnessing a cultural and pedagogical evolution. The unprecedented societal shift triggered by the current health crisis has sparked rapid changes in to how we learn, teach, exhibit and engage. This shift is epitomised in the arts, creative industries, and education sectors. Almost overnight, these sectors have been compelled to creatively adapt their norms, pedagogies, and practices to navigate the new normal. These rapid changes have not gone undocumented. The mass shift to, and engagement with, online platforms has left digital footprints in the form of data. This data is both a source of information, and a limitless opportunity for asking questions and posing problems about shifts in practice and changes to use through identifying patterns of behaviours and engagement trends. This research traces these digital footprints to understand cultural evolution in a time of crisis. As a multi-faculty and interdisciplinary collaboration between FFAM, MGSE, MDAP, CSHE, and SCIP, we are placing data- driven, research led practice at the centre of our inquiry. In this presentation we will discuss data in two contexts. First, how data generated within UoM platforms, such as Canvas, can be used by tutors/teachers to feedback into their practice. Second, what data generated in the creative industry and GLAM sectors more broadly is telling us about the response, trends, and practices in times of crisis. This presentation will outline our research collaboration and introduce our curated, publicly available data.