They include:
· The Dark A ground-breaking project to allow tens of thousands of people to experience an innovative three-dimensional soundscape in pitch darkness, complemented by a website navigated only by sound
· Every Object Tells a Story A project that engages audiences in new ways with the meanings behind museum and personal objects and gives the user the opportunity to add their story and their own object to a growing national online collection.
· WebPlay An innovative on-line initiative for primary school children from inner city and rural schools, working together over the internet to direct a play which they've written themselves about each others' lives.
· Scoop An opportunity to create a multimedia newspaper covering important events in the past, using the best paper and film archives.
Culture Online, which has a £13 million budget to sponsor between 20 and 30 projects over the next year, aims to enliven the school curriculum and adult learning and delight new audiences with arts, culture and technology.
Working with a variety of cultural organisations, it will forge new connections between new digital technology and cultural resources, to create a powerful learning asset, offering children and adults new cultural experiences and insights into our heritage.
Announcing the commissions Estelle Morris said:
"We believe Culture Online has the potential to transform people's experience of the arts, dissolving barriers of distance, time or attitude. These new projects are just the beginning. We are committed to uniting the abilities of cultural organisations and the private sector - including broadcasters, education professionals and those on the cutting edge of digital technology - to create world class educational and recreational tools for adults and children."
Culture Online Director, Jonathan Drori, added:
"I'm really excited about these first projects. Each of them has something bold about it. Direct commissioning by a creative team that includes highly skilled development producers is a new way of working for the DCMS. They've been able to bring together cultural organisations with leading technical providers to create projects that will delight adults and children of all ages and backgrounds. Crucially, Culture Online is integrating the virtual and online world with real activities for real people. These are just the first of our commissions and we'll be announcing further projects over the next few months."
The Projects
The first seven projects (working titles) will be:
Backstage
Backstage will offer a unique insight into the creative experience of theatre and provide exciting materials for an under-resourced area of the National Curriculum.
Backstage will explore how theatre can reveal important issues in society and will translate the excitement of live theatre into a rich curriculum resource, such as for Citizenship or English and drama. A partnership between The National Theatre, leading regional theatres and the technology-focused production company Illumina Digital, Backstage will enable users to follow each step in the production process that turns page into stage. Among the productions featured will be Henry V and the forthcoming adaptation of the Philip Pullman novels, His Dark Materials. Backstage will deliver a compelling experience for theatre-goers, teachers and pupils, and those interested in a career in theatre.
Contact: Mike Greenwood
The Dark
The Dark is an interactive virtual world that challenges how we perceive the real world. Three-dimensional music and ghostly presences inhabit a haunted soundscape – all in pitch darkness. Explore and interact with virtual ghosts from our past, hear their stories and solve their mysteries – using only your ears and your imagination. The Dark is an original touring installation created by Braunarts and commissioned specially for Culture Online, with an innovative website which will be navigated solely using sound to convey information and location.
Contact: Claire Harcup
WebPlay
WebPlay is an internet-based project that will enable primary school children from rural and urban areas to collaborate with each other using a variety of new technologies and to work with a professional theatre company to create, produce and perform short plays.
The WebPlay experience will be an intense one, lasting over three terms and encouraging communication and understanding between children living in contrasting areas of Birmingham and Shropshire. For many of the children, this will be their first introduction to the Internet. They and their teachers will learn to build their own web pages, collect and edit digital photographs and recordings and write about their lives all within a safe and secure environment.
Contact: Claire Harcup
Technical note: In a time of concern about children's safe use of the internet, this project will use a safe and richly featured educational resource, think.com, created by Oracle to collaborate with each other and theatre professionals on their own productions.
Scoop
Scoop is a series of virtual newspapers from specific periods in history, from the Roman Gazette to the Victorian Times, to match areas of the National Curriculum. Key stage 2 and 3 pupils will become digital reporters, editors and picture editors. They will contribute stories and images to the newspapers, enhancing their reading, writing and comprehension skills while having fun and acquiring an understanding of an historical period and their own neighbourhood. Many of the newspapers will incorporate regional stories and images, so children will learn about their local as well as national heritage. Scoop will be produced by Northcliffe Electronic Publishing.
Contact: Claire Harcup
Technical note: In a novel use of Macromedia's new Flash MX Technology, this project will create a rich multimedia experience that is accessible to as wide an audience as possible.
ArtisanCam
Imagine being able to watch an artist at work, observing their creations and learning from their skills by asking them about what they're doing. ArtisanCam will pilot a series of virtual artists' residencies, linking artists and craftspeople in their studios with groups of school students, a high proportion of whom will be in disadvantaged areas. Video conferencing and broadband technology will link the two groups. Working closely with outreach groups, the project will be piloted in County Durham, Sunderland, Tees Valley, Cumbria, and Lancashire and will involve artists in visits to local museums and galleries to augment their virtual presence online.
Contact: Mike Greenwood
Technical note: Taking advantage of recent developments in videoconferencing technology and the interconnection of the UK's educational broadband networks this project will teleport children into artists' studios where they can create art with the artist.
Every Object Tells a Story
Everyone has a particular object to which they attach a special meaning or story. Every Object Tells A Story is a website that allows people from every walk of life to make connections between objects and their own lives. They will be able to explore the rich personal meanings behind collections of museum objects, as well as behind their own personal objects. Visitors will be encouraged to join a dynamic online community where they can contribute their own stories and objects to a growing collection. The project will involve a network of regional museums, including Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Ultralab (the learning technology research centre at Anglia Polytechnic University) and Channel 4, and will be led by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The partnership will build on the track record of all the partners in targeting a wide diversity of audiences and using a range of new technologies to reach beyond the mainstream. The project will encourage contributions from around the country through broadcasts, extensive outreach events, local websites and even a mobile video booth that will tour public spaces. Contact:
Mike Greenwood
Technical note: you will also be able to tell the world your story using picture or video messaging from mobile devices.
Plant Culture
This project uses the plants of South Asia as an entry point to many aspects of culture – food, superstition, religion, fashion, cosmetics, art as well as enhancing the public understanding of science.
The aim of this project will be to create a website which brings to life the different ways in which plants are used in different communities. The virtual collection will be curated by professionals at Kew Gardens, but the multimedia content will be gathered by children from their parents and grandparents, with the aid of outreach organisations using a range of digital techniques including digital photography, editing and web publishing from the field. The project will be led by Kew Gardens, in partnership with the Museum of London, Leicester City Museums and National Museums Liverpool. The project will be available via Kew's website, as well as via printed materials in gardens big and small around the country. The electronic collection could in future be the basis for guided tours using a variety of portable electronic devices.
Contact: Paul Bason
Notes to Editors
The projects will be accessible in a variety of ways including via individual organisations' websites and links to Curriculum Online (run by the Department for Education and Skills). We hope that the first projects will begin to go live and begin to be available to the public early next year.
The overall aim of Culture Online is to use new technologies to increase access to and participation in the arts and culture. We will bring together cultural organisations with cutting edge technical providers to create projects that will delight adults and children of all ages and backgrounds.
Culture Online is a DCMS programme. £13m has been allocated to Culture Online. This will fund 20-30 projects between now and 2004. Culture Online will be delivered through cross-sectoral collaborations between cultural and commercial organisations and will encourage people all over the country to interact with the arts and culture in new and more creative ways. Projects will use new technologies including Internet (broadband and narrowband), digital TV, mobile devices, CD/DVD, and touch-screen kiosks.
The objectives of Culture Online are to:
· enhance access to the arts for children and young people and give them the opportunity to develop their talents to the full
· open up our cultural institutions to the wider community, to promote lifelong learning and social cohesion
· extend the reach of new technologies and build IT skills and support wider and richer engagement and learning by all adults
The Director of Culture Online, Jonathan Drori, is responsible for setting the strategic direction for Culture Online. Jonathan is a former Head of Commissioning for BBC Online (1999-2001). He has considerable experience of establishing digital services for education, including websites and interactive programming, and was Head of Digital Media and Learning Channels for BBC Education (1996–1999). He is a Fellow of the RSA, a member of BAFTA, the Royal Television Society and the IEEE.
Further details are available on the Culture Online website:
http://www.cultureonline.gov.uk/
