
Can we use enhanced digital connectivity to present artists’ work in new ways
to attract a larger and more diverse audience for contemporary art, whilst
being sensitive to our local ecological and cultural context?
Through this process of research and development we have tested a range of available digital technologies and services for creating digital content. We have focussed on using a blend of live streamed and pre-recorded video to create immersive audience experiences.

In the course of this research we have been able to try out a whole range of different formats to test their effectiveness. One of the most important areas of learning has been how to use other digital content to create context around the main video being presented. When this works well, it allows us to guide the audience through the digital experience just as we guide our audiences through the natural landscape to reach the works of art in their physical location.
Our experience of our research and development has confirmed our view that digital broadcast presents an opportunity to expand and diversify audiences beyond our immediate location. However, there are still many difficulties to sharing work digitally. Each of our live tests was a real creative and technical challenge for us and we still have much to learn.
Whilst we did not realise the powerful sense of the ‘live’ aspect of the work that we had hoped for, audiences and partners responded positively to the different event formats incorporating digital broadcast, complimentary online content, and the opportunity to experience rural contemporary art in locations they wouldn’t expect.
For us, this process of research and development has really helped inform the beginnings of a digital strategy to enable more people to experience art from our extraordinary rural location.