Technology in the Arts: New information out from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicate that Americans are spending more for both technology and entertainment (a catagory that includes cultural expenditures). How can cultural organizations capitalize on this? What does this mean? Articles in both The Atlantic and NPR’s Planet Money look at these trends from a more general standpoint but don’t drill down on the idea for the arts. The facts presented from the Atlantic indicate that 2007 Recreation expenditures are up by 1.7% over those from the US in 1947.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Americans are paying more for culture, opportunity looms on the technology front
Technology in the Arts: New information out from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicate that Americans are spending more for both technology and entertainment (a catagory that includes cultural expenditures). How can cultural organizations capitalize on this? What does this mean? Articles in both The Atlantic and NPR’s Planet Money look at these trends from a more general standpoint but don’t drill down on the idea for the arts. The facts presented from the Atlantic indicate that 2007 Recreation expenditures are up by 1.7% over those from the US in 1947.
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6 comments:
The increases in spending on technology and the like don't surprise me, but don't the statistics on entertainment seem a bit low to be making such a big deal about? There's so much more to take into account, such as the rising accessibility of entertainment through services like netflix, the increased illegal sharing of media, the rising prices of tickets to shows, movies, amusement parks, etc. I'm honestly surprised there wasn't a larger gain in cultural expenditures overall. Overall, I'm skeptical of the article's prediction that entertainment on the whole is going to have money to burn. So much of what we do is expensive, and at the moment theatre at least seems to be struggling to stay above water. Perhaps big companies like disney or universal will see this surplus, but it's an unfair blanket statement in my opinion.
I'll turn my skepticism off for a second after this brief aside: how much of this really means people bought more i-pad and televisions and not theater tickets. But, skepticism aside, if this were true it means the consumer public has more expendable income which means more money they could be spending on theater whereas before they didn't money to spend at all.
What does this mean for us? Two things I think. We may start to see an answer in the NEA v. Kickstarter debate (see the Greenpage article from a few days ago) and as graduating students it may mean more jobs.
That's good. Then I can buy an i-pad.
Well I guess that this makes sense. Because people are buying more technology, they have more access to view art, culture, and what people from all around the world are doing. It would make sense that these two things would go hand in hand. Artists should not be scared of falling out of favor they should just be scared of changing so much that it becomes something different then it originally was. As people want more art (and technology), they will want it to be easy to access, so they will want it to be as commercial as possible, and while this is not necessarily bad it just changes how we look at the type of art that we do.
While the increase in technologies like the iPad seems to pose threats of the demise of some less technologically based art forms, I don't really believe that to be the case. All of these new platforms can easily be manipulated to compliment or promote art that doesn't translate directly to an iPad. And beyond that, there is so much room for innovation and expansion with these new technologies, that yes, inevitably art will adapt and expand, but art has been ever-changing since the beginning of time. It seems counter productive to worry instead of taking advantage of some potential opportunities. Art is becoming more and more accessible to people all over and there's no doubt that that is a great thing.
A 1.2 to 2% uptick in the CPI for cultural admissions in a month is actually pretty huge. In the natural cycle of economic ups and downs you will find these upticks. The points the author of this article was making (me) were as follows: 1) the arts and culture sector (in general) is behind the curve with regards to adoption and delivery of content using technology (digital delivery namely) and that 2) as the economy delivers us increasing returns as a result of recovery, we would be well served to use these increasing returns to invest in means of reaching audiences through technology. Additional evidence of the uptick in the arts and culture sector was recently published through AFTA at http://www.artsindexusa.org/national-arts-index
I like the fact that the average consumer is able to spend more money on products and entertainment. The article states that technical products are booming while increased sales in seeing the arts in up but not too impressive. I think that seeing this trend at all is a positive sign for things to come. I also choose to believe this because I want to have a job in the future, so thinking positive is good for my soul.
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