Page 94 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

94INTRODUCTIONIt is claimed that the digital revolution isnow worldwide, or even that it is no longer a revolution. Today digital is something ordinary and everyday. Because technology is part of many aspects of our daily lives, such as the workplace, leisure activities and, to a greater or lesser extent, our personal relations and weekly shop. But regardless of whether or not it is a revolution, the fact is that as many new tools are appearing as there are methods for speeding up processes or facilitating new ways of exploring communication, spreading ideas or being public, being a creator.We live in a highly technologised society– meaning that some of the processes and practices referred to often, though not exclusively, involve the use of these new technologies. Failure to embrace established changes is tantamount to being left outside the circle of many audiences.For we are no longer dealing with a single, mass audience; instead, over the past decades the audience has split into groups of followers orenthusiasts of increasingly speci c and concrete themes in a process that entails a degree of fragmentation, though some social media can group together people with the same tastes or particular cultural features. Therefore there is no one right way to use the following technologies; rather, it all depends on the nature of the audience – an audience that is furthermore demanding to take part to some extent and to be given the same degree of consideration as the art or creation on view.Transdisciplinarity is an increasingly everyday phenomenon in what we call the Knowledge Society or digital society. Transversality. Festivals that were once aimed at promoting a particular discipline or eld of the arts are undergoing changes and others are emerging in connection with the new media and the new disciplines in art and co-creation that cannot be labelled with a single hashtag or pigeonholed by a taxonomy.We are dealing with extensive festivals and cultural events that also cut across di erentINTRODUCTIONFocus: Use of New Digital Technologies at Cultural Festivals