Page 85 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

lack of empathy, to their ‘seeing others’ pain without feeling it’. Though this is nothing new either: it had already been detected in certain types of videogames, and before that in lms.The new elds of technology are 3D movies, video mapping, 360-degree video and interactive audiovisual. They all spark fear and misgivings among professionals reluctant to lose control.Augmented reality (AR) in all its aspects is both a challenge and an irresistible attraction. The possibility of adding layers of reality to reality itself (that which we know with our ve senses) has amazing narrative possibilities.3. Audiovisual industry and businessAnother consequence of this digital acceleration is a drastic reduction in the commercial lifeof audiovisual products. Whereas before years could elapse between a lm’s premiere and other release windows, nowadays the whole process takes only a few months, and what used to be di erent stages now often overlap. (Today we can watch a lm at the cinema and go and buy the DVD after we come out).For a time it was attempted to maintain market shares by stressing the di erences o ered by each of the distribution channels – that is, by maintaining this distinction.Theatre viewing boasts the advantage of large- format viewing (though the size is progressively decreasing as multiplexes are catching on as a means of boosting turnover); DVD o ers the convenience of home viewing (which video already o ered), plus a number of ‘extras’ (which are not always necessary or signi cant); and Blu-ray provides higher resolution.Even so, sales are falling year after year, and the solution doesn’t lie in seducing and convincingpeople to consume more. We need to realise that things have changed and that ‘more of the same’ isn’t the answer.Markets don’t just uctuate: they change too, and everyone knows that in the ecosystem inhabited by audiovisual new species have appeared which have disrupted the cycles. And no, it’s no good blaming videogames for the stampede; though it should be recognised that, as a business, it’s gone from not existing to overtaking cinema in turnover, and that should also give us food for thought. (The world of videogames is closely related to audiovisual and it’s a eld that lends itself to very interesting partnerships).Apart from the presence of new actors, a determining factor is people’s changing consumption habits, especially the new generations. Television still has a large number of users, but their average age is steadily rising. In other words: audiences are getting older and not being renewed, because young people have stopped consuming television.But we can’t just say ‘it’s young people’s fault’ or ‘let’s do something to attract them and get them to behave like audiences of decades ago’. That– and we must be clear about this – is simply not going to happen, not so much because this group don’t consume cinema or television – they do, only online. Therefore we must changethe current audience measurement systems.A recent example is the successful Spanish TV series El Ministerio del Tiempo, which was a huge hit but nearly didn’t make it to a second season because online viewing gures had not been included in the audience ratings.16The case of television clearly shows that what is failing is both the funding system (intrusive advertisements nobody wants to see) and the very conception of the medium (the well-worn formula of the ‘single message at a particular moment’ characteristic of the mass media). The same cannot be said about certain content:AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 201685Smart Culture: Impact of the Internet on Artistic Creation