Page 150 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

1504. CONCLUSIONSFestivals coexist with all today’s social and cultural changes, meaning that they also perceive technological transformations and their e ects in some way. As stated at the beginning, many festivals have already considered introducing digital technologies in some way or another, even if it is only through a website or blog.New technologies are not incompatible with more social approaches or with traditions. We have thus seen performing arts festivals devoted to Baroque theatre (such as the Almagro Classical Theatre Festival) that have adopted the most useful new tools, and we are also witnessing the emergence of festivals that rely more on geographical ubiquity and the new media, such as #TwitterFiction Festival.Embracing technology does not entail going in for all technologies so much as knowing what they have to o er and identifying which ones are most useful to each project, structure or mission. For example, festivals embrace technologies that adapt to their ephemeral nature. They cannotbuild major installations merely to enhance the audience’s involvement. But setting up an installation with innovative or technological interfaces as part of the festival content is a di erent matter.Some of the ideas we have examined requirea larger infrastructure, and others essential features such as a structured website, but we have also seen cases of more a ordable tools, as well as alliances with technological, digital or telecommunications rms to test, experiment and improve the audience’s experience.The audience has become the centrepiece and festivals are seeking to enhance or broadentheir experience emotionally, aesthetically or intellectually in digital and ubiquitous space,and in time. The design of apps, the festival’s architecture, and the installation of sophisticated devices such as beacons are centred on the user. Everything needs to be combined with studying the festival’s mission, philosophy, goals and cultural role, as well as the resources it already4. CONCLUSIONSFocus: Use of New Digital Technologies at Cultural Festivals